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 7.Qg4 f5 8.Qh5+ Qf7 9.Qxf7+ Kxf7)

The game below was played on the second round of the 2014 October Split II tournament at Red Hot Pawn. The winner of the second round also won the tournament. Four players fought for the win and my opponent in this game, NN Cheap, ended up winning the tournament, having gathered 15 points. I was on 3rd place in the final standings with 4 points. On the first round I was able to play a bit better against NN Cheap because I was able to get a win, but now on the second round I was not able to play well enough to offer much of a resistance to the winner of the tournament.

I was actually able to play decent moves up to the move 21.Bb4, before that I had only made some inaccurate moves, but after my 21st move I was for the first time on the worse side of the position. To make matters worse for me, I continued my downhill on my next move when I played 22.Bd6. I think both of my moves 21.Bb4 and 22.Bd6 are part of the same kind of problem, I did not understand the positional requirements, which meant that I put my bishop on squares where it actually does not do anything even if it looks good on d6, for example.

On d6 it eyes on some dark squares on NN Cheap's side of the board, which are not relevant for the position, at the moment anyway. Maybe if I had thought about that move a bit longer, I would have understood that playing moves like Bb4 and Bd6 do not really help me in any way. The move 22.Bd6, I consider to be the losing move, even though it was not completely lost like it was after 23.Rfe1.

[Event "Split"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2016.01.25"] [Round "2"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "NN Cheap"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C18"] [WhiteElo "1929"] [BlackElo "2149"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "56"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Classical Variation} (6... Ne7 7. a4 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation} (7. Qg4 Qc7 8. Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Ne2 {French Defense: Winawer Variation. Poisoned Pawn Variation Main Line}) (7. Nf3 {French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation})) 7. Qg4 f5 8. Qh5+ Qf7 9. Qxf7+ Kxf7 {C18 French: 3.Nc3 Bb4: Main Line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4} 10. Rb1 (10. Nf3 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Bd7 12. f4 Ne7 13. Rb1 b6 14. c4 Rc8 15. cxd5 Nxd5 16. Bd2 Nc7 17. Bc4 Ke8 18. O-O Nc6 19. Nf3 Ne7 20. Nd4 Nc6 21. Nf3 Ne7 22. Nd4 {1/2-1/2 (22) Kindermann,S (2560)-Jussupow,A (2615) Munich 1990}) 10... cxd4 11. cxd4 Ne7 12. Bd3 $146 (12. Bd2 b6 13. Nf3 h6 14. h4 Ba6 15. Bc3 Bxf1 16. Rxf1 Nd7 17. Kd2 a5 18. Kd3 Rhc8 19. Bd2 Rc4 20. c3 Rac8 21. Ne1 Nc6 22. Nc2 Ra4 23. f4 h5 24. Rb3 Na7 25. Ne3 b5 26. Ke2 Nb6 {Jakic,I (2246)-Haba,P (2461) Bibinje 2001 1/2-1/2 (88)}) 12... Nd7 {Black's piece can't move: c8} (12... b6 13. Ne2 $11) 13. Nf3 h6 {Consolidates g5} 14. h4 Nb6 15. Bd2 {Black has a cramped position} Bd7 16. Ba5 {White threatens to win material: Ba5xb6} (16. Rg1 g6 $14) 16... Nec8 (16... Nc4 $5 {is an interesting alternative} 17. Bxc4 dxc4 18. Rxb7 Bc6 $11) 17. h5 Bc6 {Black has a cramped position} 18. Nh4 (18. Bd2 Nc4 $14) 18... Nc4 19. Bxc4 (19. Bd2 $5 $16) 19... dxc4 $11 {Opposite coloured bishops appeared} 20. O-O Ne7 21. Bb4 (21. f3 b6 22. Bb4 Nd5 $11) 21... Nd5 $15 22. Bd6 (22. f3 $5 $15) 22... Nf4 $17 23. Rfe1 $2 (23. f3 $142 $5 Nxh5 24. g4 $17) 23... Nxh5 $19 24. g3 g5 {Black plans f4} 25. Ng2 f4 26. gxf4 $2 (26. Kh2 Kg6 $19) 26... gxf4 27. Kh2 (27. f3 Bxf3 28. Rf1 Bxg2 29. Kxg2 Rhg8+ 30. Kf3 Rg3+ 31. Kf2 $19) 27... Rhg8 28. Rg1 Rg4 (28... Rg4 29. f3 Bxf3 $19) 0-1