15 Jan 2018

A00 Irregular Openings (1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nxe4 e5 4.Bc4 Nf6)

A00 Irregular Openings (1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nxe4 e5 4.Bc4 Nf6)

This game was played in a team match at Chess.com between La Belle France and Вежливые люди on 11 boards. I played on board 4 for La Belle France and in addition to this draw I lost my other game. Luckily other members of the team were more alert and we won the match with a score of 16.5 - 5.5!

This line is playable up to 4.Bc4, but my 4th move is so bad that very large amount of chess players could take advantage of it. It was easy enough for my opponent to see that the reply 5.Ng5 will put me in serious trouble. I should not really play this badly anymore and if I had thought a bit longer about my move, I would have not played 4...Nf6. Alas, I these days I play the first few moves quite quickly even in daily chess, so sometimes these kind of blunders may appear on the board.

4...Nc6 and 4...f5 were better alternatives to 4...Nf6. I prefer 4...Nc6 of the two alternatives.

My 4th move seems to lose a pawn no matter how the game is continued, for instance, had I played 5...Nd5, the game might have continued with the moves 6.d4 Be7 and then the move 7.Nxf7 is possible. If king takes the knight, then Qf3+ wins the piece back and White is up a pawn while also preventing Black's right to castle. Other moves do not seem to prevent a loss of a pawn either, you can try them out on your own if you like, but I am not going to get further in the different possibilities. I chose to lose the pawn by continuing my development with 5...Be6. It may have been my best practical chance to get back into the game, because my opponent has only one strong move in the position, 6.Nxe6, the move that Dreadnought53 chose to play in the game, while other moves gave me a chance to fight on. Had my opponent taken on e6 with the bishop, then the game might have continued 6...fxe6 7.Nxe6 Qd6 8.Nxf8 Rxf8 and I would have had some compensation for the pawn due to the lead in development. Up to the move 8...Nc6 I was in serious trouble, but then my opponent played 9.a4, which was a rather premature pawn push, since my opponent only had a bishop developed and it did not even support the attack on the queenside because it was aimed at the kingside.

Dreadnought53 should have just continued by developing the knight to f3 and prepare for castling.

The next time that my position went down the drain was when I played 12...Qc5. It was an attractive move for me because of the threat to the a-pawn. However, the dream of getting material equality was shattered when my opponent replied with the move 13.d3. I could not take the pawn because of the continuation 13...Nxa5 14.Be3 Qb5 15.Bc4 Qb4 16.c3, for example and it becomes clear that the queen can't protect the knight on a5. Because the plan was obviously flawed, the queen is badly placed at c5 and only gave Dreadnought53 time to finish development. I continued the game by moving my knight to d5, which made things even worse for me and I was in a losing position again.

The move that Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT suggests here is 12...Kb8 at depth 37. The reason behind it is probably to get the king out of the c8-h3 diagonal, in order to avoid some annoying checks by the queen later on.

I had played very badly up to this point, but my 15th move Bh4 was by far the biggest blunder of the game up to that point. Because my king was still at c8, Dreadnought53 could have simply played 16.Qg4+ and won the bishop on h4 for free. It would have likely ended the game, because I would have resigned rather disgusted of my play. Dreadnought53 played 16.Ne4 instead, which was also good enough for a winning advantage, but enabled me to resist the inevitable a lot longer.

My best move in this very bad position was 15...Nd4, according to the engine at depth 35.

Up to the move 45...Kc6 I was in a losing position, but I still tried my best to hang on. My opponent then went for the move 46.R7a6+, which allowed me to fight for the draw. My stubborn resistance had finally paid off and luckily I found the most accurate move 46...Rb6. The idea was that if I can exchange one pair of rooks on my terms, the position would be much easier to hold.

Dreadnought53 should have played 46.Rxe7 in order to keep the winning advantage. The bishop on d6 had to protect both the rook on e7 and the pawn on e5, so after the exchange of rooks Dreadnought53 could have taken on e5 safely and be up a pawn once again.

Dreadnought53 did end up trading rooks and the position started to look like a draw. That being said, a few moves later my opponent was able to get a position where maintaining equality was not that simple to me and I made a mistake that created problems for me. The move 53...Kc6 I played in the game was bad because it walked into a pin and restricted my options. 53...Bc5 would have lost the game in view of Re6+, king goes either to b7 or c7 and bishop takes its undefended counterpart on c5 and the game would be practically over.

The only good square for the king is c7, other moves fail for one reason or the other.

After the game continuation 54.Re6 Kc7 55.Bxf6 gxf6 56.Rxf6 fxg3 57.hxg3, it seemed obvious that I will lose a second pawn and also the game, but instead of the move 58.Rf5 that would have won the h-pawn with ease, Dreadnought53 played 58.Rh6, which allowed me to hold on to the pawn with 58.Ra5. Even though I was a pawn down, the fact that there were opposite colored bishops on board, made my job of drawing the game relatively easy.

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1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nxe4 e5 4.Bc4 Nf6 A00 Irregular Openings 5.Ng5 Be6 6.Nxe6 fxe6 7.Bxe6 7.Nf3 7...Qd6 7...Bc5 8.Bb3 White is better. Nc6 9.a4N 9.Nf3± 9.Ne2 0-0-0 10.Nc3 Qd7 11.d3 Bc5 12.Bg5 Rhf8 13.0-0 Qf5 14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.a3 Nd4 16.Ba2 Rd7 17.Ne4 Bb6 18.Ng3 Qg6 19.c3 Nc6 20.Be6 f5 21.Bxd7+ Kxd7 22.Qh5 Qxh5 23.Nxh5 f4 Krause, F-Brzezinski,T Stettin 1988 1-0 (37) 9...0-0-0= 10.Ne2 Be7 Black should play 10...e4= 11.a5 11.0-0 11...a6 Black should try 11...e4= 12.0-0 Qc5 12...h5 13.d3± Nd5 13...Kb8± 14.Be3 Qd6 14.Bd2 Rhf8 15.Ng3 Bh4?       15...Nd4± 16.Ne4? 16.Qg4+ Kb8 17.Qxh4 16...Qe7+- 17.Qg4+ Kb8 18.g3 Bf6 19.c3 Qd7 20.Qxd7 Rxd7 21.Bc2 Be7 22.b4 Na7 23.Ba4 Rdd8 24.Rfd1 Nf6 25.Be1 h6 26.Kg2 Nc8 27.Bb3 Nd6 27...g5± 28.h3 Na7 28.Nxd6 cxd6 28...Rxd6 29.Ra2 Rfd8 29.Ra2 d5 30.f3 Bd6 31.c4       Bc7 32.b5 axb5 33.cxb5 Rfe8 34.b6 Bd6 35.Bf2 Rc8 36.a6 bxa6 37.Rxa6 Rc3 37...Bc5 was necessary. 38.Ba4 Bxf2 38.Ba4 Re7? 38...Re6 was called for. 39.b7 Kxb7 40.Ra7+ Kc8 41.Rxg7 Be7 39.Ra1
Threatening mate with Bc6! 39...d4 Black hopes to continue with ...Kb7.
Find the correct move
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBRes
Dreadnought531918Vierjoki,T1829½–½

When I started the search in my reference database for the position after 4...Nf6, I honestly thought that I would need to go games of rather low rated people, but to my surprise, reasonably strong players have also played the awful move 4...Nf6.

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Position not in LiveBook
1.e4 d5 2.Nc3 dxe4 3.Nxe4 e5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Ng5 Nd5 6.Qf3 Qxg5 7.Bxd5 f5 8.d3 Qg4 9.Qxg4 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBRes
Bodrogi,M2245Plesec,D23751–0
Spice,A2161Robinson,D20451–0

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