D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines (1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6)

Nearly seven years ago I played a game at GameKnot, which I am sharing today. The deciding mistake of the game was seen as early as move 6, when adamscheeks played Ne5. Up to that move both players had made reasonable moves, though 4.h3 might be a bit of a mistake. Moving the knight to e5 lost a pawn for no compensation in the game continuation 6...Nxe5 7.dxe5 Qxe5.

I was able to maintain the advantage firmly in my grasp and I was able to prevent my opponent from castling, which restricted my opponent's possibilities quite a lot. The game was continued up to the move 22...Rd8#.

Game number two. The time control was 7 days per move, but the game ended in less than a month. It started on December 5th, 2010 and finished on January 4th, 2011. The statistics from the LiveBook have been taken on April 4th, 2018.

[Event "Challenge from adamscheeks"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2011.02.13"] [Round "?"] [White "adamscheeks"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "1395"] [BlackElo "1674"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "44"] [EventDate "2011.??.??"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 {Queen Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation} 3. Nc3 (3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Qb6 5. Nc3 {London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation}) (3. Bg5 e6 4. e3 c5 5. c3 Qb6 {Queen Pawn Game: Torre Attack. Breyer Variation}) 3... c6 {D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines} 4. h3 Nbd7 (4... h6 5. e3 (5. Ne5 Bf5 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Nxd7 Qxd7 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. cxd3 Qd8 10. O-O e6 11. a3 Be7 12. Kh1 O-O 13. Qe2 Re8 14. Bd2 Qb6 15. f4 Bf8 16. b4 a6 17. g4 Nh7 18. Rac1 Qd8 19. Qf2 Be7 {Minshull,G (115)-Saravanan,A (100) London 2015 1/2-1/2 (64)}) 5... Nbd7 6. Be2 Qc7 7. O-O e5 8. dxe5 Nxe5 9. Nxe5 Qxe5 10. f4 Qc7 11. Bf3 Bc5 12. Kh1 Bf5 13. Na4 Bd6 14. Bg4 Bxg4 15. hxg4 Ne4 16. Qf3 O-O-O 17. Nc3 Nxc3 18. bxc3 Rde8 19. Bd2 { Skoblar,M-Blazeka,M (2318) Sveti Filip i Jakov 2014 0-1 (52)}) 5. Bg5 $146 (5. e3 e6 6. a3 c5 7. Bb5 a6 8. Be2 Be7 9. Bd2 O-O 10. g4 cxd4 11. exd4 Qc7 12. g5 Nh5 13. Rg1 Nf4 14. Bxf4 Qxf4 15. Rg4 Qc7 16. Bd3 f5 17. Rh4 b5 18. Qc1 Bb7 19. Ne2 e5 {Sengbusch,G-Gebel,R Pinneberg 2001 1/2-1/2 (60)}) 5... Qc7 6. Ne5 (6. e3 $142 $5 $11 {would keep White in the game}) 6... Nxe5 $17 7. dxe5 Qxe5 8. f4 (8. Qd2 Qd6 9. O-O-O h6 10. Bxf6 Qxf6 $17) 8... Qe3 9. Bxf6 $4 {White crumbles in face of a dire situation} (9. Qd3 $142 Qxd3 10. exd3 $19) 9... exf6 (9... Qg3+ {seems even better} 10. Kd2 gxf6 11. e3 $19) 10. Qd2 (10. Qd3 {a fruitless try to alter the course of the game} Qxf4 11. g3 Qe5 $19) 10... Qg3+ 11. Kd1 Bc5 12. a3 (12. e4 {the last chance for counterplay} Be3 13. Qe1 Qxf4 14. Bd3 $19) 12... Be3 13. Qd3 Qxf4 14. Nb1 (14. g3 {cannot change destiny} Qe5 15. Bg2 Bf5 $19) 14... Bf5 {Black prepares the advance d4} 15. Qc3 Qg3 (15... a5 $142 $5 {might be the shorter path} 16. h4 $19) 16. Nd2 O-O 17. Nf3 d4 $1 { Decoy: d4} 18. Nxd4 (18. Nxd4 Rad8 {Decoy Discovered attack}) (18. Z0 $140 dxc3 {Mate threat}) 18... Rad8 19. Rc1 (19. a4 {doesn't change anything anymore} Rxd4+ 20. Qxd4 Bxd4 21. Ra3 Qxa3 22. e4 Qb4 23. c3 Bxc3 24. bxc3 Qxe4 25. Bc4 Rd8+ 26. Bd3 Qxd3+ 27. Ke1 Qe3+ 28. Kf1 Bd3#) 19... Rxd4+ 20. Qxd4 (20. Qd3 { is no salvation} Rfd8 21. b3 Qf2 22. g3 Rxd3+ 23. cxd3 Bxd3 24. Rc3 Be4+ 25. Rd3 Bxd3 26. a4 Be4#) 20... Bxd4 21. c3 (21. e4 {hardly improves anything} Be3 22. c3 Qf2 23. Be2 Bxe4 24. Rc2 Rd8+ 25. Rd2 Rxd2+ 26. Kc1 Rd5#) 21... Be3 22. Ra1 (22. Rc2 {is not the saving move} Rd8+ 23. Rd2 Rxd2+ 24. Kc1 Rd5#) 22... Rd8# 0-1 [Event "Let's Play!"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2010.12.05"] [Round "?"] [White "kirez"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "1677"] [BlackElo "1893"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "56"] [EventDate "2010.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 c6 {D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines} 4. Bf4 e6 5. e3 (5. a3 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. O-O Re8 9. Qd2 c5 10. h3 a6 11. Be5 Rf8 12. Bh2 c4 13. Be2 Ne8 14. e4 Ndf6 15. e5 Nd7 16. Ne1 f6 17. f4 fxe5 18. fxe5 g6 19. Nf3 Ng7 {Zlatanovic,S (1482)-Papler,P (1613) Nova Gorica 2015 0-1 (42)}) 5... Bd6 {LiveBook: 4 Games} 6. Bxd6 $146 (6. Bg3 O-O 7. Bd3 Qc7 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qd2 e5 10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 Bxe5 12. Bxe5 Qxe5 13. f4 Qh5 14. e4 dxe4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 Qc5+ 17. Kh1 f5 18. Bd3 Be6 19. Rf3 Bd5 20. Rg3 Qd4 {Bikady, L-Witt,H (1668) Maastricht 2013 1/2-1/2}) (6. Bd3 O-O 7. O-O Bxf4 8. exf4 b6 9. Ne5 c5 10. Qf3 Ba6 11. Rfe1 Qc8 12. Rac1 Bxd3 13. cxd3 Qa6 14. a3 Nbd7 15. g4 cxd4 16. Ne2 Nxe5 17. fxe5 Nd7 18. Nxd4 Qa4 19. Qf4 Nc5 20. Rcd1 Rac8 {Emodi,G (2311)-Dragomirescu,R (2342) Timisoara 2009 0-1 (39)}) (6. Be5 Bxe5 7. Nxe5 Nbd7 8. Nf3 O-O 9. Bd3 a6 10. Ne2 b5 11. a3 c5 12. c3 Re8 13. Ne5 Nxe5 14. dxe5 Ng4 15. Qc2 g6 16. Nf4 Nxe5 17. Be2 Qf6 18. h4 Bb7 19. g4 d4 20. Rh3 dxe3 { Rufo Yebra,B (1572)-Osorio Ramos,F (1786) Madrid 2014 0-1 (53)}) 6... Qxd6 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. O-O {The position is equal.} e5 {[#] Threatens to win with ...e4.} 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Qxe5 11. h3 O-O 12. Re1 Qg5 13. Qf3 Be6 14. e4 dxe4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 Rad8 17. Rad1 Qa5 18. a3 Qb5 19. b4 Bc4 {0.53/27} (19... Rxd1 $11 {0.00/33} 20. Qxd1 a5) 20. Re3 a5 21. c3 $40 {White mounts an attack.} axb4 22. axb4 Qa4 {0.86/31} (22... Rxd1+ $11 {0.11/28} 23. Qxd1 Be6) 23. Ree1 { 0.07/29} (23. Rxd8 $16 {0.86/31 White threatens Bxh7+! and mate.} Rxd8 24. Bxh7+ $1 Kxh7 25. Qe4+ Kg8 26. Qxc4) 23... Bb3 24. Rc1 Rd6 {0.57/28} ({Black should play} 24... g6 $11 {0.00/28}) 25. Bd3 {0.11/30} (25. Qg3 $14 {0.57/28 feels stronger.} Rd7 26. Bf5) 25... Be6 26. Qh5 $2 {-5.00/28 [#]} (26. Ra1 $11 {0.22/29} Qb3 27. Ra7) 26... Rxd3 $19 27. Re4 Qa3 28. Qc5 Qxc1+ {Accuracy: White = 28%, Black = 18%.} 0-1

This time only one reference game as there was only two games played by players who were rated over 2500. I left out the other game because it was a short draw.

[Event "Nancy Meurthe KO 11th"] [Site "Nancy"] [Date "2013.03.10"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Hamdouchi, Hicham"] [Black "Tkachiev, Vladislav"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "2602"] [BlackElo "2644"] [PlyCount "29"] [EventDate "2013.03.10"] [EventType "k.o. (rapid)"] [EventRounds "4"] [EventCountry "FRA"] [SourceTitle "CBM 153 Extra"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2013.04.22"] 1. Nc3 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. d4 c6 4. Bf4 Qb6 5. Na4 Qa5+ 6. c3 g6 7. Nc5 Nbd7 8. Nb3 Qb6 9. h3 Bg7 10. e3 c5 11. dxc5 Nxc5 12. Be5 Na4 13. Bd4 Qc7 14. Nbd2 Nxc3 15. bxc3 0-1