C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O Nf6 5.Re1 O-O 6.Nc3)

Well, this does not happen often, during the 24 moves that this game lasted, no clear mistakes were made by either player. This was played in a team match between Limitless Chess and Команда ЦФО (Russia Central Federal District) on 80 boards. I played on board 28 for Limitless Chess and in addition to this draw, I won my other game against Andrey-25. This was very tightly fought match, the final score was 79.5 - 80.5 in favor of Команда ЦФО (Russia Central Federal District). Maybe the only real opportunity during the game for one of the players to get some kind of advantage was after my 22nd move h6.

The game quickly ended in a draw after that with the moves 23.Qe2 Rc8 24.Qc2 Qb7. The final position is not really a dead draw in the sense that the players can still try to fight for the advantage, but neither side wanted to take risks, so draw was a natural outcome.

[Event "Limitless Chess vs ??????? ??? (Russia C"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.05.28"] [Round "?"] [White "Andrey-25"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C55"] [WhiteElo "1748"] [BlackElo "1841"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s)"] [PlyCount "48"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. Re1 O-O 6. Nc3 {C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack} a6 $146 {Secures b5} (6... d6 7. h3 Be6 (7... Bd7 8. a3 a5 9. Nd5 Rb8 10. c3 b5 11. Ba2 Nxd5 12. exd5 Ne7 13. d4 exd4 14. Nxd4 Ng6 15. Nc6 Bxc6 16. dxc6 Qh4 17. Be3 Bxe3 18. Rxe3 Ne5 19. Qd5 Nc4 20. Re4 Qf6 21. Bxc4 bxc4 22. Re2 {Jost,D-Fragin,B Rheinhessen 2000 0-1 (47)}) 8. b3 (8. Bf1 h6 9. d3 Re8 10. Bd2 a6 11. a3 Ba7 12. Be2 Qd7 13. Nh2 Rad8 14. Bf3 d5 15. exd5 Nxd5 16. Nxd5 Bxd5 17. Bxd5 Qxd5 18. Nf3 Rd6 19. Be3 Bxe3 20. Rxe3 Rde6 21. c3 Qd8 22. Kf1 Rd6 {Da Luz,M-De Silva,A Manila 1992 0-1 (39)}) 8... Qd7 9. d3 h6 10. Bd2 Nh7 11. Bd5 a6 12. Ne2 f5 13. g3 fxe4 14. Bxe4 Bxh3 15. Qc1 d5 16. Bxh7+ Kxh7 {0-1 (16) Can,B-Zoubida Rachedi,F Warsaw 1991}) (6... Re8 7. Nb1 d6 8. c3 Bg4 9. Qb3 Be6 10. Qxb7 Rb8 11. Qxc6 Qd7 12. Qa6 Rb6 13. Qxa7 c6 14. Qa5 Rb5 15. Qa4 Rb7 16. a3 Ra7 17. Qc2 Bxc4 18. a4 Ng4 19. Na3 Bxf2+ 20. Kh1 Bxe1 21. Nxe1 {Shelton,J-Bassett,B Australia 1995 0-1}) 7. d3 d6 8. Be3 (8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 $11) 8... Nd4 9. Bxd4 Bxd4 10. Nxd4 exd4 11. Nd5 Re8 12. h3 {Covers g4} c5 13. Qf3 Nxd5 14. Bxd5 {Menacing} Qc7 15. a4 Be6 16. c4 (16. Bxe6 fxe6 17. Qg4 e5 $11) 16... Rab8 (16... dxc3 17. bxc3 Bxd5 18. exd5 Rxe1+ 19. Rxe1 $11) 17. b3 b5 18. axb5 axb5 (18... Bxd5 19. exd5 Rxe1+ 20. Rxe1 axb5 21. g3 $11) 19. Ra2 Bxd5 20. cxd5 Ra8 {Black threatens to win material: Ra8xa2} 21. Rea1 Rxa2 22. Rxa2 h6 (22... c4 23. bxc4 bxc4 24. dxc4 Qxc4 25. Ra7 $11) 23. Qe2 (23. Ra6 $5 $14) 23... Rc8 24. Qc2 Qb7 1/2-1/2

When I searched for reference games that reached the position after 6.Nc3, I only got one game when I searched games where both players were rated 2200 or above.

[Event "Warsaw Najdorf Memorial op-A 14th"] [Site "Warsaw"] [Date "2016.07.08"] [Round "1"] [White "Lewicki, Miroslaw"] [Black "Krasenkow, Michal"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "2329"] [BlackElo "2614"] [PlyCount "38"] [EventDate "2016.07.08"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "POL"] [SourceTitle "Mega2016 Update 42"] [Source "Chessbase"] [SourceDate "2016.07.22"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. Re1 O-O 6. Nc3 Ng4 7. Rf1 d6 8. Na4 Bb6 9. Nxb6 axb6 10. d4 Nxd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. Qxd4 Qh4 13. h3 Nf6 14. f4 Re8 15. Bd3 Bxh3 16. gxh3 Qg3+ 17. Kh1 Qxh3+ 18. Kg1 Qg3+ 19. Kh1 Ng4 0-1