A07 Réti Opening: New York and Capablanca Systems (1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 e5 3.d3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.O-O Be7)

This was played in a team match called Open Challenge The Ultimate Chess Alliance (T.U.C.A.). It was played between The Ultimate Chess Alliance (T.U.C.A.) and Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy on 13 boards. I was playing on board 1 for Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy and unfortunately lost both of my games. The match ended with a score of 16,5 - 9,5 in favor of The Ultimate Chess Alliance (T.U.C.A.). Only two timeouts in this match and as both teams suffered one timeout loss, those did not decide the match, which was nice. I may have lost this game, but I was the one who first was able to get a clear advantage. The first clear mistake was played by my opponent on move 10, when Jorge3000 played b4.

Moving the pawn to b4 might have been good, had my opponent made sure that he does not lose the pawn when the pawn lands on that square. In the game Jorge3000 gave the pawn for free, which I happily captured. The second huge blunder was made by me, when on move 17 I moved my bishop to c8. If I were to end up in this position again, I think I would not even consider that horrible bishop move. At the moment I can't come up with the reason why I played it, it does not seem to make any sense. Before the move I had a winning advantage, but after it the position was roughly even. A couple of moves later the third and final mistake of the game was seen, it came in the form of 19...Bd7.

It is interesting to me that both my blunders came when I moved the light-squared bishop. I usually do not leave a pawn hanging intentionally, but I guess I was too worried about the move Ra8 in response to Nd8 or perhaps I thought that the pawn was lost anyway in the continuation 19...Nd8 20.Nxb7 Nxb7 21.Bxb7 Bxb7 22.Qxb7. I did try to hang on for a few more moves, but at long last I resigned when Jorge3000 played 29.Bh3, which would have won more material.

[Event "Open Challenge The Ultimate Chess Allia"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.11.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Jorge3000"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "1707"] [BlackElo "1924"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] {[%evp 14,57,-26,-45,-44,-31,-31,-144,-143,-147,-144,-160,-163,-164,-156,-158, -159,-169,-156,-175,-139,-195,16,29,37,47,497,509,511,468,512,489,993,714,950, 557,569,555,950,950,1000,987,967,977,967,958]} 1. g3 {A00 Hungarian Opening} d5 2. Bg2 e5 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. O-O Be7 {A07 Réti Opening: New York and Capablanca Systems} 6. c4 O-O (6... h6 7. b3 O-O 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Bb2 Bf6 10. Nbd2 g6 11. Nc4 Re8 12. Qd2 Bg7 13. Rac1 Nb6 14. Rfd1 Kh7 15. Ba3 Nd4 16. Bb2 Bg4 17. Re1 c6 18. Nh4 Qd7 19. e3 Nb5 20. Qc2 Rad8 21. f3 {Valcarcel,V (1660) -Feliciano Ebert,V (2207) Brasilia 2017 0-1 (34)}) 7. Nc3 d4 8. Na4 {LiveBook: 3 Games. Black has an edge.} Bf5 $146 (8... a6 9. Bg5 Nd7 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 11. Nd2 f5 12. a3 Nf6 13. b4 Kh8 14. Nb3 Rd8 15. Nac5 e4 16. Qc2 b6 17. Nxa6 Bxa6 18. b5 Bb7 19. bxc6 Bxc6 20. Qb2 Ba4 21. Kh1 c5 22. Nc1 Rd6 23. f3 {Maiwald,J (2462)-Gegenfurtner,J (2257) Germany 2012 1/2-1/2 (62)}) (8... Bg4 9. a3 a5 10. Qc2 Nd7 11. Bd2 Re8 12. Rfb1 f5 13. b4 axb4 14. axb4 Bf6 15. b5 Ncb8 16. Kf1 e4 17. Ng1 Qe7 18. Bb4 Qe5 19. f3 Bh5 20. fxe4 f4 21. Be1 Rf8 22. Bf3 Qg5 23. gxf4 {Keschitz,G (2257) -Tournier,P (2164) Budapest 2005 1-0}) 9. a3 a5 10. b4 { -1.44/27} (10. Bd2 $15 {-0.31/27}) 10... axb4 $17 11. axb4 Bxb4 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bd2 Qd6 14. Qb3 Bxd2 15. Nxd2 Ra7 16. Rfb1 Re8 17. Qb5 {-1.95/26} (17. c5 $17 { -1.39/29} Qd7 18. Nb2) 17... Bc8 $2 {0.16/29 [#]} (17... Rea8 $19 {-1.95/26 Threatens to win with ...Bd7.} 18. Ra2 Bg4) 18. Nc5 $11 Rxa1 19. Rxa1 Bd7 $2 { 4.97/27 [%mdl 8192]} (19... Nd8 $14 {0.47/29}) 20. Nxb7 $18 {White is clearly winning.} Qb4 21. Bxc6 Qxd2 22. Bxd7 {[%mdl 32]} Re7 {9.93/27} (22... Rf8 $142 {4.89/28} 23. Nc5 Qxe2) 23. Bh3 Qxe2 24. Bf1 Qf3 25. Nc5 Ng4 26. Ne4 Kh7 27. Qc5 Rd7 28. Qc6 Qf5 29. Bh3 {Accuracy: White = 54%, Black = 32%.} 1-0