B85 Sicilian Scheveningen: 6.Be2 a6, lines with early Be3 (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 e6 7.O-O a6 8.Be3 Be7 9.f4 Qc7 10.Bf3 O-O 11.Qe1 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 e5 13.Be3 b5)

This one was played in a team match called LullabyVisca vs !♔NM Aww-Rats Free Video Lessons!♔ at Chess.com. The match was played on 90 boards and I played on board 20 for LullabyVisca, out of the two games I was only able to win this game, the other game I lost. The match ended with a score of 99 - 81 in our favor, according to Chess.com. The comment section of the match is full of accusations between two players and about the real score of the match, but I am not going to go into that rabbit hole here. The first blunder of the game was seen when my opponent played 17...f6. Up to that point both players were able to play good moves.

Cratercat played 17...f6, which gave me a chance for a clear advantage, had I replied with 18.Bg4. Instead of trying to get advantage of the weakened light squares around the king, I moved my pawn to f5 in an attempt to open a diagonal for my dark-squared bishop and focus on the square g7. The second blunder by my opponent came quickly after this when Cratercat played 19...Qc6.

Moving the queen to c6 was horrible because I could have replied with 20.b4 and my opponent would have needed to loss some material. If the knight would go to d7, then a line like 21.Bh6 Bf8 22.Rxd6 might occur and it would be clear that Cratercat's position is lost. The same idea can be seen in the following continuation 20...Na4 21.Nxa4 bxa4 22.Bh6 Bf8 23.Rxd6. Actually the engine thinks that it is better to just give up the knight on c5 after b4 and move the queen to e8 instead at depth 28. I played 20.Nd5 in the game, which was enough for a winning advantage. It was answered with 20...Bd8, making the position of my opponent even worse. Now that the bishop could no longer come in the defense of g7, I decided to threaten mate with 21.Bh6. It was easily dealt with the reply 21...Qd7. Again pushing my pawn to b4 was my strongest alternative on move 21. Had I done that I would have been on my way to win the game. After the queen had moved to d7, I finally played b4, but at that time the reason why it would have been a strong move earlier had already disappeared.

Cratercat moved the threatened knight to a4, since it was the only safe square for the piece, but it was a better idea to take on d5 first. The move 22...Na4 gave me an opportunity to play 23.Nxf6+, which would have probably ended the game quicker due to the continuation 23...Bxf6 24.Rxd6 Qf7 25.Rd7. I was not paying enough attention to the position and played the horrible move 23.Kh1 for some incomprehensible reason. At that moment I was actually slightly worse, luckily for me, my opponent made the game losing move next. Cratercat played 23...Nc3, which lost material by force.

I finally found the refutation to one of my opponent's blunders and the game continued with the moves 24.Nxc3 Rxc3 25.Rxd6 Qf7. At that time I was not only up a pawn in material, but I also could have started a forced mate in three sequence with 26.Rxd8+. I obviously was not thinking my reply to 25...Qf7 all that much, because I chose the move 26.Rd7 instead of the forced mate... The line I chose easily wins the game as well, but I could have avoided some unnecessary moves, had I gone with the strongest continuation.

[Event "LullabyVisca vs !?NM Aww-Rats Free Vid"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.08.19"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Cratercat"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B85"] [WhiteElo "1874"] [BlackElo "1743"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "69"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 {Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian. Normal} 5. Nc3 d6 (5... e5 6. Nxc6 {Sicilian Defense: Lasker-Pelikan Variation, Exchange Variation} (6. Nb3 {Sicilian Defense: Lasker-Pelikan Variation, Schlechter Variation}) (6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 Bg7 {Sicilian Defense: Lasker-Pelikan Variation, Sveshnikov Variation, Novosibirsk Variation})) 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O a6 8. Be3 Be7 9. f4 Qc7 10. Bf3 O-O 11. Qe1 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 e5 13. Be3 b5 {B85 Sicilian Scheveningen: 6.Be2 a6, lines with early Be3} 14. a3 Bb7 15. Qg3 (15. Rd1 Bc6 16. f5 a5 17. g4 Qb7 18. Nd5 Bxd5 19. exd5 e4 20. g5 exf3 21. gxf6 Bxf6 22. Bd4 Rfe8 23. Qg3 Bxd4+ 24. Rxd4 Qb6 25. c3 Re4 26. f6 g6 27. Rfd1 Rae8 28. Qxf3 R4e5 29. Qf2 Rf5 {Paoli,E (2270)-Ornstein,A (2430) Eksjo 1975 0-1 (49)}) 15... Rfc8 $146 (15... Nd7 16. f5 Bf6 17. Qg4 Nb6 18. Be2 Nc4 19. Bxc4 Qxc4 20. Qh5 Bxe4 21. g4 g6 22. Qh3 Bh8 23. f6 Bb7 24. Qh4 Qc6 25. Qg3 d5 26. Bg5 d4 27. Nd1 Qxc2 28. Rc1 Qe4 29. Re1 Qd5 30. Rxe5 { Potievskaya,A (1884) -Gudkov,G (1865) Petrozavodsk 2012 1/2-1/2 (38)}) (15... Kh8 16. Rad1 Bc6 (16... Rac8 17. Kh1 Rfe8 18. fxe5 dxe5 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 Bd6 21. Qh3 e4 22. Bg4 Nxg4 23. Qxg4 f6 24. h4 Qe7 25. c3 a5 26. h5 Rf8 27. Rf5 h6 28. Bf4 Rc4 29. Re1 Re8 30. Qg6 Bxf4 31. Rxf4 {Jacek,K (2126) -Kowalski,M (1756) Koszalin 2012 1-0 (57)}) 17. Rd3 a5 18. Rfd1 b4 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 e4 21. R3d2 exf3 22. Qxf3 bxa3 23. bxa3 Nd7 24. Bf2 Bf6 25. Qd3 Rac8 26. Rb1 Rb8 27. Rdd1 Rxb1 28. Rxb1 Rb8 29. Qd1 Rxb1 30. Qxb1 {Cwiek,P (1730) -Choisy,M (2094) La Roche sur Yon 2008 0-1 (42)}) 16. Rad1 Nd7 17. Rd2 f6 $2 (17... exf4 18. Bxf4 Ne5 19. Bh5 $11) 18. f5 $4 {Black has a cramped position. White loses the upper hand} (18. Bg4 $5 $16) 18... Nc5 (18... Nb6 19. Rd3 $11) 19. Rfd1 ( 19. Qh4 $142 $14) 19... Qc6 $4 (19... Na4 $142 {and Black can hope to live} 20. Nxa4 bxa4 $11) 20. Nd5 (20. b4 $142 {seems even better} Qe8 21. bxc5 Rxc5 22. Bxc5 dxc5 $18) 20... Bd8 $4 {sad, but how else could Black save the game?} ( 20... Qd7 $142 21. Nxe7+ Qxe7 22. Rxd6 Qf8 23. Bxc5 Rxc5 $18) 21. Bh6 {White has a mate threat} (21. b4 $142 {secures the win} Qe8 22. bxc5 $18) 21... Qd7 $14 {Black has a cramped position} 22. b4 {White threatens to win material: b4xc5} Na4 $4 (22... Bxd5 $142 23. bxc5 Bc6 $14) 23. Kh1 (23. Nxf6+ $142 { ends the debate} Bxf6 24. Rxd6 $18) 23... Nc3 $4 {stumbles just before the finish line} (23... Qf7 $142 {was a good chance to save the game} 24. Rc1 Kh8 $15) 24. Nxc3 $18 Rxc3 (24... Bc7 $18 {otherwise it's curtains at once}) 25. Rxd6 Qf7 (25... g5 {is not the saving move} 26. Rxd7 Bd5 27. Bxg5 Rxf3 28. gxf3 fxg5 29. Qxe5 Bf7 30. Rxd8+ Rxd8 31. Rxd8+ Be8 32. Rxe8+ Kf7 33. Qe7#) 26. Rd7 (26. Rxd8+ Rxd8 27. Rxd8+ Qe8 28. Qxg7#) 26... Be7 $18 27. Rxb7 Rxc2 28. h3 ( 28. Bh5 Qf8 29. Rdd7 Rac8 30. Qb3+ Kh8 31. Rxe7 Rc1+ 32. Bd1 Qxe7 33. Rxe7 gxh6 34. h3 Rg8 35. Qf7 Rxd1+ 36. Kh2 Rxg2+ 37. Kxg2 Rd2+ 38. Kf3 Rd3+ 39. Ke2 Rd2+ 40. Kxd2 a5 41. Qxh7#) 28... Kh8 29. Be3 (29. Rdd7 gxh6 30. Rxe7 Rc1+ 31. Kh2 Qg8 32. Rg7 h5 33. Bxh5 Rd8 34. Rxg8+ Rxg8 35. Bg6 Rg7 36. Rb8+ Rg8 37. Qh4 Rc7 38. Qxf6+ Rcg7 39. Rxg8+ Kxg8 40. Qd8#) 29... Qf8 30. Rdd7 Re8 31. Ra7 (31. Bh5 Rb8 32. Rxb8 Qxb8 33. Rxe7 Qf8 34. Rf7 Qg8 35. Bg6 a5 36. Qh4 Rc8 37. Re7 a4 38. Bh6 Rd8 39. Bxg7+ Qxg7 40. Rxg7 Rd1+ 41. Kh2 h5 42. Qxh5+ Kxg7 43. Qh7+ Kf8 44. Qf7#) 31... Ra2 32. Bc5 (32. Bh5 Ra8 33. Rxa8 Qxa8 34. Rxe7 Ra1+ 35. Kh2 Qf8 36. Re8 Qxe8 37. Bxe8 Rxa3 38. Qf2 a5 39. Qd2 Rd3 40. Qxd3 g5 41. Qd8 a4 42. Qxf6+ Kg8 43. Bf7+ Kf8 44. Bc5#) 32... Ra1+ (32... Rd2 {doesn't do any good } 33. Rxd2 Bxc5 34. bxc5 Re7 35. Rxe7 Qxe7 36. c6 b4 37. Rd7 Qf8 38. c7 g5 39. fxg6 Qc5 40. gxh7 Qc1+ 41. Kh2 Qg1+ 42. Kxg1 b3 43. c8=Q#) 33. Kh2 Bxc5 (33... Ra8 {doesn't get the cat off the tree} 34. Rxa8 Qxa8 35. Bh5 a5 36. Bxe7 Qc8 37. Rd8+ Qxd8 38. Bxd8 Rc1 39. Qd3 Kg8 40. Qd5+ Kh8 41. Qxb5 Rh1+ 42. Kxh1 g6 43. Bxf6+ Kg8 44. Qe8#) 34. bxc5 Rxa3 (34... g5 {hardly improves anything} 35. fxg6 Kg8 36. Rg7+ Kh8 37. Rxh7+ Kg8 38. Rh8+ Kxh8 39. Qh4+ Qh6 40. Qxh6+ Kg8 41. Qg7#) 35. Rxg7 (35. Rxg7 Qg8 36. Rxg8+ Rxg8 37. Qh4 Rxg2+ 38. Bxg2 Rxh3+ 39. Bxh3 h6 40. Qxf6+ Kg8 41. Qg7#) 1-0