C18 French: 3.Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qc7)

This was played in the atadros's mini-tournament V, which was the first and so far the only high-stakes tournament I have taken part in. It has an increased cost to join, but also the points you can get from this mini-tournament are increased. I was on 9th place in the final standings with 5.5 points. My opponent, willy_13, was on 7th place and he gathered 6.5 points in 20 games. A player called desaparicidos (2033) won the tournament, he gathered 17.5 points. The first blunder of the game was seen on move 12, when my opponent went one O too far and castled on the queenside.

In order to take advantage of the blunder, I needed to play 13.Ba3 and I would have had a winning advantage. Blunders were seen from both sides for a couple of moves unfortunately, my first blunder being the reply 13.Qb1. My 13th move was not bad enough to tip the balance in my opponent's favor, but I lost all my advantage with that move. Willy_13 then played the horrible 13...g5 and I was given another chance to move my bishop to a3 and get the winning advantage again. I messed up my second chance as well with another queen move. This time I moved my queen to a2. Both times the result of my queen moves were the same, I lost all of my advantage, but I did not end up on the worse side of the board either. When I did play Ba3 finally on move 17, at that point it was a bad move. A few more mistakes were seen in the last part of the game, but neither side was able to keep the advantage and eventually draw was agreed upon after the move 24...Ng5.

Game number two. The game below was played on the third round of the French 2014 tournament at Chess.com. I was on fourth place in group 2 in the final standings, which was also the last place unfortunately. I gathered only half a point in six games. I faced rather tough players on all rounds, but on this round my luck ended. My opponent in this game, National Master Ejarov, won the group with one and a half a point difference to amir88 (2157), who finished second.

This game started to go a bit wrong for me already on move 14. I moved the bishop back to c1, and tried to get the bishop to a better diagonal. Ejarov replied by moving the rook to c8, which threatened the continuation 15...cxd4 16.cxd4 Qxc2, which is why I moved my rook to a2 to protect the pawn on c2. It was the starting point for the troubles that I could not recover from because my opponent played well enough to not let the position get even again. Maybe my opponent did not play the most accurate moves, but the advantage still stayed on the side of Ejarov. The position in which the game deciding mistake was played can be seen below.

In the game I moved my bishop to d2, thinking that I can somehow hold on and maybe get a draw, but Ejarov was able to show decisively why I was losing the game. When my opponent won a pawn and it seemed that I can't prevent the loss of more material, I resigned after 36...Rxc3+.

[Event "atadros's mini-tournament V"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2016.03.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "willy_13"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C18"] [WhiteElo "1778"] [BlackElo "1877"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "48"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 {C18 French: 3. Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4} (6... Ne7 7. a4 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation} (7. Nf3 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation}) (7. Qg4 Qc7 8. Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Kd1 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation, Paoli Variation})) 7. Bb2 f5 (7... Ne7 8. Bd3 (8. Nf3 Nbc6 9. Bd3 Bd7 10. O-O c4 11. Be2 f6 12. Re1 O-O-O 13. a4 Ng6 14. Ba3 fxe5 15. dxe5 Ngxe5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Qd4 Nc6 18. Qc5 b6 19. Qb5 Kb7 20. Qb2 Ka8 21. Rab1 h5 22. Qc1 Na5 {Civi,A (1582)-Korkmaz, T (1948) Antalya 2013 0-1 (45)}) 8... b6 9. Qg4 g6 10. Qf3 Ba6 11. Qf6 Rf8 12. Nf3 Bxd3 13. cxd3 Nec6 14. Ng5 h6 15. Nh7 Rg8 16. Qh4 Nd7 17. Qxh6 O-O-O 18. Qf4 f6 19. Nxf6 Ndxe5 20. dxe5 Nxe5 21. O-O Rgf8 22. Rfe1 {Reuss,A (2301) -Scheeff,V (2132) Schwaebisch Gmuend 2012 1-0 (34)}) 8. Nf3 $146 (8. Nh3 Ne7 9. Qh5+ Ng6 10. Nf4 Qf7 11. Nxg6 Qxg6 12. Qxg6+ hxg6 13. c4 cxd4 14. cxd5 exd5 15. Bxd4 Nc6 16. Bb5 Bd7 17. Bxc6 Bxc6 18. O-O-O b6 19. e6 Rh7 20. Rde1 Ke7 21. h3 Rc8 22. Re2 Bb5 {Ulusoy,N (1711)-Faruq,A Iasi 2012 1-0 (44)}) 8... Ne7 9. Be2 Nbc6 10. O-O Bd7 (10... b6 11. a4 $11) 11. a4 $14 Na5 {Black intends c4} 12. Nd2 O-O-O $2 (12... b6 13. Bh5+ Ng6 14. Ba3 $14) 13. Qb1 $4 {with this move White loses his initiative} (13. Ba3 Kb8 $18) 13... g5 $4 (13... c4 14. Ba3 Be8 15. Bd6 Rxd6 16. exd6 Qxd6 17. Qd1 $11) 14. Qa2 $4 {instead of simply winning the game} (14. Ba3 $142 {White had this great chance} Kb8 15. Bxc5 $18) 14... c4 $15 { Black wins space} 15. Qa3 Bc6 16. Qb4 h5 (16... b6 17. Nb1 $15) 17. Ba3 (17. Nf3 Rdg8 18. h4 gxh4 19. Kh1 $11 (19. Nxh4 $143 Ng6 20. Nxg6 Rxg6 $17)) 17... Ng6 $15 18. Nf3 {White threatens to win material: Nf3xg5} Nf4 {Black threatens to win material: Nf4xe2} (18... Nb3 19. cxb3 a5 20. Qc5 $15) 19. Bd1 $11 Rhg8 ( 19... g4 20. Nh4 Rdg8 21. Bc1 $11) 20. g3 (20. Bc1 $5 $14 {has some apparent merit}) 20... Nh3+ $11 21. Kg2 {White threatens to win material: Kg2xh3} g4 { Black threatens to win material: g4xf3} 22. Ng1 (22. Qc5 $142 $5 $11 {looks like a viable alternative}) 22... Ng5 $17 23. Ne2 (23. Bc1 $142 h4 24. Bxg5 Rxg5 25. Ne2 $17) 23... Nh3 (23... b6 $142 $17) 24. Ng1 $11 Ng5 1/2-1/2 [Event "French 2014 - Round 3"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.01.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Ejarov"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C18"] [WhiteElo "1846"] [BlackElo "2343"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/4p3/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2"] [PlyCount "70"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 {C18 French: 3.Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4} (6... Ne7 7. Qg4 (7. a4 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation}) 7... Qc7 8. Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Kd1 { French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation, Paoli Variation} ( 10. Ne2 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation, Main Line} )) 7. Bb2 Ne7 8. Nf3 (8. Bd3 b6 9. Qg4 g6 10. Qf3 Ba6 11. Qf6 Rf8 12. Nf3 Bxd3 13. cxd3 Nec6 14. Ng5 h6 15. Nh7 Rg8 16. Qh4 Nd7 17. Qxh6 O-O-O 18. Qf4 f6 19. Nxf6 Ndxe5 20. dxe5 Nxe5 21. O-O Rgf8 22. Rfe1 Nxd3 {Reuss,A (2301)-Scheeff,V (2132) Schwaebisch Gmuend 2012 1-0 (34)}) 8... b6 9. Be2 Ba6 $146 (9... Ng6 10. Qd3 Ba6 11. Qe3 cxd4 12. Nxd4 Nxe5 13. Bxa6 Nxa6 14. f4 Nc4 15. Qc1 Nc5 16. O-O Ne4 17. f5 exf5 18. Rxf5 Nxb2 19. Qxb2 Nxc3 20. Re1+ Kd8 21. Nb5 Qc5+ 22. Kh1 Nxb5 23. Rd1 Nc3 24. Qb3 {Kali,R (1092)-Craciun,C (1192) Calimanesti 2013 0-1 (61)}) 10. O-O Bxe2 {Black forks: d1+f1} 11. Qxe2 Nd7 12. Nh4 Ng6 (12... Rc8 13. Qb5 $15) 13. Nxg6 $11 hxg6 14. Bc1 (14. c4 $5 dxc4 15. Qxc4 $11) 14... Rc8 15. Ra2 (15. Bd2 Nb8 $15) 15... cxd4 $17 16. cxd4 Qc4 17. Qxc4 Rxc4 (17... dxc4 $6 18. c3 $11) 18. Be3 O-O 19. Rc1 Nb8 (19... Rfc8 20. Kf1 $17) 20. c3 Rfc8 21. Bd2 Nc6 22. Rb1 f6 {Secures g5} 23. f4 Kf7 24. Kf2 Rh8 25. Rh1 Na5 26. a4 Nb3 27. Be1 Nc1 {Black threatens to win material: Nc1xa2} 28. Ra3 Nd3+ {Black forks: f4} 29. Kg3 (29. Kf3 $5 a5 30. exf6 gxf6 31. Rb3 Nxe1+ 32. Rxe1 Rxh2 33. Kg3 $15) 29... g5 $17 (29... Nxe1 $6 30. Rxe1 Rh5 31. exf6 Kxf6 32. Rf1 $11) 30. Bd2 (30. fxg5 $5 fxe5 31. Bd2 $17) 30... gxf4+ $19 31. Bxf4 fxe5 32. Bxe5 Rhc8 33. Rf1+ Kg6 34. Rf3 (34. Bd6 Rxc3 35. Rxc3 Rxc3 $19) 34... Ne1 35. Rf1 ( 35. Rf2 Rxc3+ 36. Rxc3 Rxc3+ 37. Kh4 $19) 35... Rxc3+ 36. Rxc3 Rxc3+ (36... Rxc3+ 37. Kg4 Nd3 $19) 0-1