B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defence (1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.d5 Nce7 4.c4 Ng6 5.Nf3)

This is one of the many team match games I have played at Chess.com. The match was played between La Belle France and Вежливые люди on 11 boards. I played on board 4 for La Belle France and in addition to this loss, I managed to draw my other game against Dreadnought53. Luckily for the team, other members were able to play better than me and we ended up winning the match with a score of 16.5 - 5.5. It was my opponent, who first made a mistake in this game, which resulted in a position where I was clearly better. Dreadnought53 played 8...h4, which does give a bit more room for the rook on h8 to move, but nothing more.

My best option was to develop my bishop to e2 and castle on the kingside after that. The way my opponent played the game up to that point, I did not like the idea of castling kingside, so I moved my queen to d2, which prepared castling on the queenside. Actually it was not that easy for my opponent to attack on the kingside, so I should not have been that worried about the possible attack. The next mistake was played by my opponent on move 18. In the game my opponent played 18...Nxd3+ and Dreadnought53's position started to fall apart.

Everything went my way until I played 25.Qf5. With that move I went from having a winning advantage to being only slightly better. I probably did not like to play Rf5, because allowing the queen exchange on g4 did not look like a good idea to me. Admittedly it still looks something I would not dare to attempt of playing, but according to the engine I should have a winning advantage in that continuation.

The game continued to be played in a roughly even manner until my opponent played 41...Re7, which was a huge blunder that could have lost Dreadnought53 the game. I found the strongest move according to Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT at depth 41, 42.Rxe7+. I thought at the time that this should be a rather straightforward win and up to the move 45...d5 I was indeed going towards a win.

After my opponent's 46th move the situation at the board had become difficult for me to play and finding the right move was not as easy as it was a couple of moves earlier. I played 46.exd5+ because I thought that I can't allow my opponent to have a protected passed pawn on the center of the board. It was not a good idea because after 46...Kxd5, the Black king seems to be much better placed at the center when compared to its counterpart, which aimlessly attacks the pawn on h4. That being said, I should still have a good position, but not as promising as it would have been after 46.Bd2.

It was only after 46...Kxd5 that I completely threw my advantage away by moving my king to f5. The move 47.b6 seems to be much better alternative. The last blunder of the game was played by me on move 52, I took on h4 with my bishop, not realizing that it is easily refuted with the move 52...Bd6 and I am hopelessly lost.

I had very good chances to win this game, I was given the chance to win multiple times, but Dreadnought53 was able to complicate things enough that I made awful moves, which resulted in my loss.

[Event "La Belle France vs ???????? ???? - Board"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.03.20"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Dreadnought53"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B00"] [WhiteElo "1809"] [BlackElo "1905"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "106"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation, Linksspringer Variation} (3. dxe5 Nxe5 (3... Qh4 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation, Herford Gambit}) (3... Bc5 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation, Bielefelder Gambit}) 4. Nf3 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation, Paulsen Attack}) 3... Nce7 4. c4 Ng6 5. Nf3 {B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defence} Be7 $146 {Black's piece can't move: c8} (5... Nf6 6. Qc2 ( 6. Bd3 Bc5 7. Nc3 O-O 8. h3 a5 9. g3 d6 10. Qe2 Bd7 11. Be3 b6 12. Kf1 Bxe3 13. Qxe3 h6 14. Bc2 Nh7 15. Kg2 Ne7 16. Nd2 f5 17. exf5 Bxf5 18. Nde4 Rf7 19. f3 Qf8 20. h4 Nf6 {Neat,K (2315)-Watson,I (2210) Brighton 1980 1/2-1/2}) 6... Bc5 (6... Bb4+ 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. a3 Bxd2+ 9. Bxd2 d6 10. g3 Bg4 11. Bg2 Qc8 12. h3 Bd7 13. h4 Nh5 14. c5 f5 15. c6 bxc6 16. dxc6 Be6 17. Ng5 f4 18. Nxe6 Qxe6 19. g4 f3 20. Bf1 Nhf4 21. Bc4 {Wang,Z (2515)-Lin,W (2545) Beijing 1993 0-1 (40)}) 7. h3 d6 8. a3 a5 9. Nc3 Bd7 10. Na4 Nxe4 11. Nxc5 Nxc5 12. b3 Qf6 13. Be3 b6 14. Rc1 Nf4 15. Bxf4 Qxf4 16. Rd1 Bf5 17. Qc3 Qe4+ 18. Be2 Qc2 19. Qe3 Qxb3 20. Qg5 {Garcia,H-Figueroa,E Buenos Aires 1965 0-1 (39)}) (5... Bc5 6. Bd3 (6. Nc3 a6 7. Be2 d6 8. O-O h6 9. Bd2 N8e7 10. a3 O-O 11. b4 Ba7 12. Rc1 Nf4 13. Bxf4 exf4 14. Na4 Ng6 15. c5 Re8 16. cxd6 cxd6 17. Nd2 Qg5 18. Kh1 Nh4 19. Bf3 Qd8 20. Nb2 g5 {Lilley,G-Pokorny,J Kuortane 1976 1-0 (66)}) 6... N8e7 7. O-O d6 8. a3 a5 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Na4 Ba7 11. b4 Bd7 12. b5 h6 13. Nc3 f5 14. exf5 Bxf5 15. Bxf5 Nxf5 16. Qe2 Qd7 17. Ne4 Rf7 18. a4 Bd4 19. Ra2 Raf8 20. Rc2 {Ernst, K-Kaulfuss,H (2190) Darmstadt 1994 0-1 (34)}) (5... Nf6 6. Qe2 $11) 6. Nc3 d6 7. h3 {Prevents intrusion on g4} h5 (7... Nf6 8. Be2 $14) 8. Be3 h4 9. Qd2 (9. Be2 Nf6 $16) 9... Nf6 $14 10. Bd3 Nh5 11. O-O-O {Black has a cramped position} Ngf4 {Black threatens to win material: Nf4xg2} 12. Bf1 (12. Rdg1 Nxd3+ 13. Qxd3 c5 $11) 12... Bd7 13. Ne2 g5 14. Ne1 f5 {Nimzovich: attack the chain at its base} 15. f3 (15. Bxf4 $5 {is worth looking at} Nxf4 16. Nxf4 gxf4 17. Bd3 $11) 15... fxe4 (15... Nxe2+ 16. Bxe2 Ng3 17. Rg1 fxe4 18. c5 $17) 16. fxe4 $15 g4 ( 16... c5 17. Nf3 $15) 17. Nxf4 Nxf4 (17... exf4 18. Bd4 Bf6 19. Rg1 $11) 18. Nd3 (18. Bxf4 exf4 19. hxg4 Bxg4 $14) 18... Nxd3+ (18... Nh5 $5 {should be examined more closely} 19. Nf2 g3 $11) 19. Bxd3 $16 g3 (19... Rg8 20. Rdf1 $16) 20. Be2 (20. Rhf1 $142 c5 21. dxc6 Bxc6 22. c5 $18) 20... b6 $4 {another step towards the grave} (20... O-O $142 $16) 21. Rdf1 $18 Bf6 22. Qd1 (22. Rf3 { makes it even easier for White} O-O 23. Rhf1 Qe7 $18) 22... Ke7 $2 (22... O-O $142 23. Bg4 Qe7 $18) 23. Bg4 Bxg4 24. Qxg4 (24. hxg4 $142 {seems even better} Qg8 25. Rf5 $18) 24... Qg8 25. Qf5 {White threatens to win material: Qf5xf6} ( 25. Rf5 $142 {White missed this excellent chance} Qxg4 26. hxg4 $18) 25... Rf8 $14 26. Rf3 Kd8 {Black king safety improved} 27. Rhf1 (27. Qg4 Qxg4 28. hxg4 Be7 29. Rxf8+ Rxf8 $11) 27... Be7 28. Qe6 Qxe6 29. dxe6 Rxf3 {Black forks: e3+f1} 30. Rxf3 {White has a new passed pawn: e6} Rg8 31. Rf5 Rg6 {Black threatens to win material: Rg6xe6} 32. Rh5 Rxe6 33. Rh8+ Kd7 34. Rh7 Kc6 35. Kd2 a5 36. b3 Bd8 37. Rh8 {White threatens to win material: Rh8xd8} Be7 38. Rh7 Bf6 39. Rh6 Kd7 40. Ke2 Bd8 41. Rh7+ Re7 $4 {letting the wind out of his own sails} (41... Kc8 $142 $11 {was possible}) 42. Rxe7+ $18 Bxe7 43. Kf3 Ke6 $4 { a blunder in a bad position} (43... Kc6 $18) 44. Kg4 b5 45. cxb5 d5 46. exd5+ ( 46. Bd2 $142 {secures the point} dxe4 47. Bxa5 Bd8 $18) 46... Kxd5 47. Kf5 $4 { spoils everything} (47. b6 $142 {secures victory} cxb6 48. Bxb6 $16) 47... Bd8 (47... Bc5 48. Bg5 e4 49. Bxh4 $11) 48. Bg1 (48. Bd2 $5 Kd4 49. Bxa5 $11) 48... Be7 $11 49. Be3 {Twofold repetition} Bc5 {Black threatens to win material: Bc5xe3} 50. Bg5 e4 51. Kg4 {White threatens to win material: Kg4xh4} Kd4 52. Bxh4 $4 {allows the opponent back into the game} (52. Kxh4 $142 {would save the game} e3 53. Kxg3 $11) 52... Bd6 $19 53. Bf6+ (53. b6 {cannot change destiny} cxb6 54. Bd8 b5 $19) 53... Kd3 (53... Kd3 54. Bd8 e3 $19) 0-1