B90 Sicilian Najdorf: Unusual White 6th moves, 6.Be3 Ng4 and 6.Be3 e5 (1.e4 c5 Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be3 Be6 9.f3 O-O 10.Qd2 Qc7 11.O-O-O Nbd7)

My adventures in the variations of the Sicilian continue with this post, but the game I will share tomorrow will feature a variation of the French. This game was played in the atadros's mini-tournament V. The mini-tournament was played between December 10th, 2015 and October 3rd, 2016 at GameKnot. 11 players took part in it and I was 9th in the final standings, having only managed to get 2 wins and 7 draws out of 20 games. My opponent in the game below, towa, was 3rd in the final standings with 15.5 points.

My 23rd move, Bd3, was the first really horrible move that was seen in the game. Giving up the bishop pair is not a good decision in that position, the engine even thinks it to be lost for me after 23.Bd3 on depth 30. My move allowed my opponent not only get one of my bishops, but also it freed the square e5, so that when I later on played g6, towa was able to place his or hers bishop to f6 where become a strong piece eyeing all the way to b2. The game continued 23...Nxd3 24.Rxd3 a4 25.g6 Bf6 and towa should be on the path to victory. I have to note though that 24...a4 was a bit sloppy and I might have had a better chance to hold on for a draw than if towa had played 24...f6. In the game I should have then played maybe 25.Kb1, but even then I would have been in some serious trouble.

The move 25.g6 was appealing to me since it seems to be a good way to open lines in front of the enemy king, but unfortunately it also improves the scope of the dark-squared bishop that my opponent has. It was something I could not afford and it was my opponent that had much better placed pieces and more ready to attack than I was. Up to the move 31.Qxc3 I was completely lost, but then towa decided to capture the queen with the rook and because of that mistake my opponent lost some of the advantage and was not winning anymore. I found the strongest reply 32.Kb1 and I was only clearly worse at the time.

Slowly but surely my opponent let the advantage slip away completely and after towa's 37th move f3, the position was roughly equal again. I even had an extra pawn, but the pawn on f2 was a very strong distraction for me. I tried my best to blockade the pawn while at the same time advance with my own pawn at the queenside. Up to the move 42...Ke4 I was able to prevent my opponent from doing anything dangerous, but then I collapsed and played 43.Bb6. The reason why I placed my bishop to b6 was that I thought that I can't leave it to the square where it was because of the move 43...Rxe3 and I would lose my knight and a bishop for the rook and I also thought that I had to keep my bishop on the a7-g1 diagonal. The latter part was probably true in order to prevent Rg1, but I was wrong to think that I can't leave my bishop to e3.

After my terrible bishop move I had no counterplay and the remainder of the game could have gone easily in towa's favor, had my opponent just played 43...Nc5, which would have blocked the bishop and made sure that I lose some material. An example line is shown in the game notation on how the game could have continued after 43...Nc5. In the game towa played 43...Kxd5, which allowed me to get a drawish position on the board. I played 44.a4, which is good enough, but also 44.Ne3+ would have given me a draw with precise play. To 44.a4 towa played the obvious try 44...Kc4, which prevents the advance of the pawns for the time being. I then made two catastrophic moves in a row 45.Be3 and 46.b6. Both moves are so bad that they could have lost me the game, but because towa replied the first move with d5, I survived the first, but not the second blunder. Towa played 46...d4 and the game was easy to win for my opponent at that point. I prolonged the game a few more moves, but when I faced a forced mate, I resigned after 51...Kb3.

[Event "atadros's mini-tournament V"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2016.10.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "towa"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "1789"] [BlackElo "1935"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "102"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 {Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Opocensky Variation} e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Be3 (8. O-O Be6 { Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, Opocensky Variation, Modern Line} (8... O-O {Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, Opocensky Variation, Traditional Line })) 8... Be6 9. f3 O-O 10. Qd2 Qc7 11. O-O-O Nbd7 {B90 Sicilian Najdorf: Unusual White 6th moves, 6.Be3 Ng4 and 6.Be3 e5} 12. g4 Nb6 13. g5 Nfd7 14. f4 exf4 15. Bxf4 Ne5 16. h4 Rac8 $146 (16... Nbc4 17. Qd4 Rac8 18. Rh2 b5 19. a3 Nxa3 20. bxa3 Qxc3 21. Qxc3 Rxc3 22. Kb2 Rfc8 23. Nd4 R3c7 24. a4 bxa4 25. Bxa6 Rb8+ 26. Ka1 Rc3 27. Bb5 Nf3 28. Kb2 Rc5 29. Nxf3 Rbxb5+ 30. Ka1 Rc3 31. Rd3 { Assmann,R (1950)-Gelzenleichter,S (2160) Wingst 2003 0-1 (42)}) 17. h5 { White has an active position} Nbc4 {Black threatens to win material: Nc4xd2} 18. Qe1 {White has a very active position} b5 {White has an active position} 19. Na1 (19. Bxc4 Qxc4 20. Kb1 a5 $11) 19... Rfe8 (19... f5 20. Nd5 Bxd5 21. exd5 $17) 20. Qg3 b4 (20... Nb6 21. Rd4 $11) 21. Nd5 $11 Bxd5 22. exd5 a5 23. Bd3 $4 {throwing away the advantage} (23. Kb1 $142 $11 {and White can hope to survive}) 23... Nxd3+ $19 24. Rxd3 a4 25. g6 $4 {strolling merrily down the path to disaster} (25. Kb1 $142 $17) 25... Bf6 $19 26. gxh7+ (26. Kb1 {doesn't get the cat off the tree} Bxb2 27. Bc1 Be5 $19) 26... Kxh7 (26... Kh8 $142 { keeps an even firmer grip} 27. Kb1 Bxb2 $19) 27. c3 (27. Qf3 {a fruitless try to alter the course of the game} Bxb2+ 28. Kb1 Qb7 $19) 27... a3 (27... Qb7 28. Rh2 bxc3 29. Rxc3 Qxd5 30. Qd3+ Qxd3 31. Rxd3 Re1+ 32. Kc2 Nxb2+ 33. Kd2 Rd1+ 34. Ke2 Rxd3 $19) 28. b3 Nb2 29. Re3 (29. Kb1 {doesn't change anything anymore} Bxc3 30. Rxc3 Qxc3 31. Qxc3 Rxc3 $19) 29... Rxe3 (29... Bxc3 30. Rxe8 Be1+ 31. Kb1 Bxg3 32. Rc1 Qxc1+ 33. Bxc1 Rxe8 34. Nc2 Nd3 35. h6 gxh6 36. Be3 Re4 37. Bd2 Bf4 38. Nxa3 bxa3 39. Kc2 Re2 40. b4 Rxd2+ 41. Kb3 Rf2 42. Kc3 Rxa2 43. Kxd3 Rd2+ 44. Kc4 a2 45. Kb5 a1=Q 46. Kc6 Rc2+ 47. Kb5 Qa8 48. Kb6 Qb8+ 49. Ka5 Ra2#) 30. Qxe3 Qxc3+ 31. Qxc3 Rxc3+ (31... Nd3+ 32. Kb1 Bxc3 (32... Rxc3 $6 33. Bxd6 Nf2 34. Re1 $17) (32... bxc3 $6 33. Bxd6 Rd8 34. Bxa3 $15) 33. Bxd6 Nf2 $19) 32. Kb1 $17 Be5 33. Bd2 Rg3 34. Bxb4 f5 35. Nc2 (35. Bxa3 Nd3 36. Rf1 f4 $17) 35... Nd3 $15 36. Bxa3 f4 37. Bc1 f3 (37... g5 $5 38. hxg6+ Kxg6 $17) 38. Rf1 $11 f2 39. Be3 g5 40. hxg6+ Kxg6 ({Worse is} 40... Rxg6 41. a4 Rg3 42. Ka2 $16) 41. b4 Kf5 42. b5 Ke4 {Black threatens to win material: Ke4xd5} 43. Bb6 $4 {overlooking an easy win} (43. b6 Rg8 (43... Rxe3 $2 {looks tantalising, but} 44. Nxe3 Bd4 45. b7 $18) 44. a4 Kxd5 45. Bxf2 Nxf2 46. Rxf2 Kc6 $11) 43... Kxd5 (43... Nc5 $142 {and Black wins} 44. Rxf2 Rg1+ 45. Ne1 Rxe1+ 46. Kc2 Ra1 $19) 44. a4 Kc4 45. Be3 $4 (45. Bxf2 Nxf2 46. Rxf2 Kb3 $11) 45... d5 (45... Nb4 $142 {and Black can already relax} 46. Rxf2 Rg1+ 47. Bc1 Nd5 $19) 46. b6 $4 { Pushes the passed pawn} (46. Bxf2 $142 {would hold out} Nxf2 47. Rxf2 $11) 46... d4 $19 47. Bxf2 Rf3 48. Rg1 (48. Ne1 Rxf2 49. Rxf2 Nxf2 50. a5 $19) 48... Nxf2 49. Rg8 (49. Rc1 {doesn't improve anything} Ne4 50. Ne1+ Nc3+ 51. Kb2 Re3 52. Ng2 Re4 53. Re1 Rg4 54. Rg1 Ne2 55. b7 Nxg1 56. Ne1 d3+ 57. Ka3 d2 58. b8=R Bxb8 59. Nc2 Rg3+ 60. Ka2 d1=Q 61. Ne3+ Rxe3 62. a5 Qc2+ 63. Ka1 Be5#) 49... Ne4 50. Ra8 (50. Rc8+ {hardly improves anything} Nc5 51. Kc1 Rf1+ 52. Ne1 Rxe1+ 53. Kd2 Rb1 54. a5 Rb2+ 55. Ke1 d3 56. b7 Rxb7 57. Rf8 Rb1+ 58. Kf2 d2 59. Rd8 Nd3+ 60. Kg2 d1=Q 61. Rc8+ Kb3 62. Rb8+ Bxb8 63. Kh3 Qh5+ 64. Kg2 Qh1#) 50... d3 51. Na3+ (51. Rf8 {cannot undo what has already been done} Rxf8 52. Ne3+ Kb3 53. Kc1 Bf4 54. Kd1 Bxe3 55. Ke1 Bd2+ 56. Kd1 Rf1#) 51... Kb3 (51... Kb3 52. Rf8 Bb2 53. a5 Nd2#) 0-1