D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Bf4)

This one was played on the 5th and final round of a weekend tournament that was played at Kurikka over eight years ago. This win secured the shared first place for me in group B with a score of 4.5 points out of the possible 5. Due to tie-break I was second in the final standings. My only draw was against the only other player who reached 4.5 points. Due to this nice success, my rating went from 1704 to 1768.

I made a judgement error on my 12th move and went for the passive Be7 move. Up to that point no clear mistakes were made by either player. My opponent played correctly 13.Qe2 in reply and ended up clearly in the driver's seat. I made things even worse for me with the move 13...b6 and according to Stockfish, I should be in a losing position after my 13th move. Actually after I looked the lines after 14.Ne5, it does seem quite clear that I should have been lost after my 13th move. Luckily for me, my opponent was not able to find the strongest move, but instead played the move that made things easier for me.

I was still worse after 14.Nxf6+, but at least I was not losing. The inaccurate pawn grab on move 17 brought the game back into balance. White may be up a pawn, but only for a moment since I could get that pawn back. In the game continuation I did just that a few moves later.

My opponent, Vesa Leskinen, tried the move 22.O-O-O, which has the threat of Bxg6 attached to it, but this was not a good idea and it would have been better to play 22.h5, for example. However, castling was not as bad as the move he played next. My opponent played 23.g4, which sacrificed the h-pawn. Because I did not see anything horrible happening to me if I take the pawn, I played the move 23...Bxh4. The downside of the pawn grab is that it opens a line in front of my king.

I played 24...Kg7 in reply to 24.Rh3, because I thought that I need to bring my rook to h8 to protect h7, in preparation for the doubling of the rooks. It was a bit sloppy because Qe4 as a reply to Kg7 would have been enough to equalize the position. Vesa was not able to find that move and played the move I had anticipated instead. The problem with the move Rdh1 is that it is a bit slow and I have time to play Bg5+ and I have just enough time organize my kingside against the h-file aggression. 25...Bg5+ was the starting point for my road to victory. After the move 43.Qc4, I was already in a winning position, but after the even bigger blunder 44.Ba4, I could ended this game much quicker than in the game continuation. It is a shame I did not see the move 44...Rd1+, which would have either given me a lot of material or I could have delivered mate in a couple of moves.

[Event "KurVi 20v."] [Site "?"] [Date "2008.06.29"] [Round "5"] [White "Leskinen, Vesa"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "1641"] [BlackElo "1704"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "140"] [EventDate "2008.06.27"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 {Queen Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation} 3. Nc3 (3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Qb6 5. Nc3 {London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation}) (3. Bg5 e6 (3... g6 4. e3 Bg7 5. Nbd2 O-O {Queen's Pawn Game: Torre Attack, Gruenfeld Variation, Main Line}) 4. e3 c5 5. c3 Qb6 {Queen's Pawn Game: Torre Attack, Breyer Variation}) 3... e6 4. Bf4 {D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines} Be7 5. Nb5 (5. e3 O-O 6. Ne5 c5 7. Qf3 Qb6 8. O-O-O cxd4 9. exd4 Nc6 10. Qh3 Ne4 11. Nxe4 dxe4 12. Qe3 f5 13. a3 Bf6 14. Bc4 Ne7 15. Bg5 Nd5 16. Qg3 Qd8 17. h4 a6 18. f3 b5 19. Bb3 e3 {Gunawan,R (2440)-Fernandez,E (2240) Sharjah 1985 1-0 (44)}) 5... Na6 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 c6 $146 {Black threatens to win material: c6xb5} (7... b6 8. Nc3 c5 9. e4 c4 10. e5 Nh5 11. Qd2 cxd3 12. Bg5 Bxg5 13. Nxg5 Nb4 14. f4 Nxc2+ 15. Kd1 Nxa1 16. Qxd3 g6 17. Kd2 Nxf4 18. Qf3 Qxg5 19. Rxa1 Qxg2+ 20. Ke3 Qxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Nd3 22. Na4 {Rodrigues dos Reis,D-Duarte,A (1800) Guaira 2015 0-1}) 8. Nc3 Bd6 (8... c5 9. Bxa6 bxa6 10. Ne5 $11) 9. Bg5 (9. Bxa6 bxa6 10. Na4 a5 $14) 9... Nb8 (9... h6 10. Bh4 $11) 10. h4 Nbd7 11. e4 dxe4 {Black forks: d3+f3} 12. Nxe4 Be7 (12... Qa5+ $5 13. Bd2 Qc7 $14) 13. Qe2 $16 b6 (13... b5 14. O-O-O $16 ) 14. Nxf6+ (14. Ne5 Bb7 15. Nxd7 Nxd7 $18) 14... Nxf6 15. Bxf6 Bxf6 16. Qe4 g6 17. Qxc6 (17. h5 $142 $5 Qc7 18. O-O-O $16) 17... Rb8 $11 18. Qe4 {Black has a cramped position} Bb7 {Black threatens to win material: Bb7xe4} 19. Qe3 Bxf3 20. Qxf3 Qxd4 (20... Bxh4 $2 {doesn't work} 21. Qh3 Bxf2+ 22. Kxf2 Qxd4+ 23. Ke2 $18) 21. c3 {White threatens to win material: c3xd4.} Qd8 {White king safety improved} 22. O-O-O (22. a4 Qe7 $11) 22... Qe7 (22... Bxh4 $2 {is inferior since it leads to} 23. Kc2 h5 24. Bxg6 $18) 23. g4 (23. Kb1 b5 $11 ( 23... Bxh4 $4 {Taking that pawn is naive} 24. Qh3 $18)) 23... Bxh4 $15 24. Rh3 Kg7 {Black king safety dropped} (24... Bg5+ 25. Kb1 $17) 25. Rdh1 (25. Qe3 $142 $5 $11 {and White could well hope to play on}) 25... Bg5+ $17 26. Kb1 h6 27. Qe4 Qd6 28. Rf3 Rbd8 29. a3 Qd5 (29... Qc7 30. Rf1 $17) 30. Qe2 (30. Re1 Rd6 $17) 30... Rd6 31. Rd1 Rfd8 32. Bc2 Qc5 33. Rxd6 (33. Rfd3 Rxd3 34. Bxd3 Rd5 $17) 33... Rxd6 34. b4 (34. Rd3 Rxd3 35. Bxd3 Qd6 $17) 34... Qc7 35. Qe5+ Kg8 36. Rd3 Be7 37. f4 Qd8 38. Rh3 {White plans f5} (38. Qe4 Kg7 $17) 38... Bf6 39. Qe4 Bg7 40. f5 (40. Kb2 $5 $17) 40... exf5 $19 41. gxf5 g5 42. Re3 $2 (42. Qe1 Qf6 $19) 42... Kf8 (42... Bf6 {and Black can already relax} 43. Rh3 Kg7 44. Qc4 $19) 43. Qc4 $2 (43. Qh1 $142 $19) 43... Bf6 44. Ba4 (44. Rh3 Kg7 $19) 44... Be7 (44... Rd1+ 45. Kb2 Qd2+ 46. Bc2 Rc1 47. Qd3 Rxc2+ 48. Kb3 Rxc3+ 49. Qxc3 Bxc3 50. Rxc3 Qd5+ 51. Kb2 Qxf5 52. a4 g4 53. Rc1 g3 54. a5 g2 55. b5 Qf2+ 56. Kc3 g1=Q 57. Rxg1 Qxg1 58. axb6 axb6 59. Kc2 h5 60. Kd3 h4 61. Kc2 h3 62. Kd3 h2 63. Kc2 h1=Q 64. Kd3 Qf3+ 65. Kc2 Qgd1+ 66. Kb2 Qfb3#) 45. Re1 Kg7 46. Bb3 Rf6 47. Qe4 (47. Re5 Bd6 48. Qd4 Qf8 $19) 47... Bd6 48. Rd1 (48. Bc2 Bf4 $19) 48... Qc7 49. Kc2 (49. Rd3 h5 $19) 49... Be5 50. c4 Bf4 51. Ba4 Rd6 52. Re1 ( 52. Rd5 Rxd5 53. Qxd5 h5 $19) 52... Rd2+ 53. Kb1 (53. Kb3 Qd6 $19) 53... Qd6 54. Bc2 Kf6 (54... h5 {makes it even easier for Black} 55. f6+ Qxf6 56. Ka2 $19 ) 55. Rh1 Rh2 (55... g4 56. Rf1 Bg5 57. Qa8 $19 (57. Qxg4 $4 {the pawn of course cannot be captured} Rxc2 58. Kxc2 Qd2+ 59. Kb3 Qd3+ 60. Ka4 Qxf1 $19)) 56. Qa8 (56. Rd1 Qe5 57. Qc6+ Kg7 $19) 56... Rxh1+ 57. Qxh1 Kg7 58. Qe4 (58. Qf3 {cannot undo what has already been done} Qd4 59. f6+ Kxf6 $19) 58... Qe5 59. Qd3 (59. Qxe5+ {hardly improves anything} Bxe5 60. Bd1 Kf6 $19) 59... g4 60. Qd1 (60. Ka2 $19 {is one last hope}) 60... h5 61. Qh1 (61. Ka2 Bg5 62. Bd3 g3 $19) 61... Kh6 (61... Bg5 $142 {seems even better} 62. Qe4 Qc3 63. Qe2 $19) 62. Qc6+ (62. c5 {desperation} Kg5 63. f6 $19) 62... Kg5 63. Qa8 Qe1+ 64. Kb2 Be5+ 65. Kb3 Qc3+ 66. Ka4 Qxc2+ 67. Kb5 Qxf5 68. Qg8+ Kf4 69. Qa8 g3 70. Qxa7 Bb8+ (70... Bb8+ 71. Kxb6 Bxa7+ 72. Kc7 g2 73. Kc6 g1=Q 74. c5 Qe6+ 75. Kb7 Qd7+ 76. Ka6 Qf1+ 77. Ka5 Qdb5#) 0-1

It is quite interesting to me that quite a lot of the reference games that I have been able to find have been blitz games, like the one you will see below. So, in my long games I am able to follow the path that strong players play for a few moves mostly in blitz... Not sure what I should think about that. Then again I probably should not make any big decisions based on these very limited statistics anyway.

[Event "Oslo BNbank Gp-B"] [Site "Oslo"] [Date "2010.11.27"] [Round "2"] [White "Agdestein, Simen"] [Black "Johannessen, Leif Erlend"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "2570"] [BlackElo "2514"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2010.11.27"] [EventType "k.o. (blitz)"] [EventRounds "10"] [EventCountry "NOR"] [SourceTitle "CBM 139 Extra"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2011.01.05"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 c5 5. e3 Bd6 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. Nb5 Na6 8. a3 O-O 9. Be2 Bd7 10. Nbd4 Be7 11. O-O Nc5 12. Ne5 Be8 13. c4 Rc8 14. Rc1 a6 15. b4 Ba4 16. Qe1 Ncd7 17. c5 Nxe5 18. Bxe5 Nd7 19. Bg3 Nb8 20. Bd3 Nc6 21. Qd2 Bf6 22. Bb1 Ne5 23. Ba2 g6 24. Rfe1 Bg7 25. h3 Nc6 26. Bd6 Re8 27. f4 Qd7 28. Nf3 Ne7 29. Be5 f6 30. Ba1 Bc6 31. Nd4 e5 32. fxe5 fxe5 33. Nf3 Qc7 34. e4 Rcd8 35. Qc2 Kh8 36. Ng5 Ng8 37. Rcd1 h6 38. exd5 Bxd5 39. Bxd5 hxg5 40. Qxg6 1-0