64 square madness that some of us call chess...: D35 Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 O-O 7.Bd3 b6)

D35 Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 O-O 7.Bd3 b6)

This line is playable up to the move 7.Bd3. Even though I did not get punished from my 7th move, b6, I should remember in the future why the move is so bad. The reason why my move was so bad can be seen in the variation 8.Bxf6 (removing the defender of both d5 and h7) Bxf6 9.Qh5 (threatens both mate on h7 and the pawn on d5). It is interesting that this rather simple idea was missed by my opponent even though he or she is quite strong. I guess it is possible that my opponent did not want to win so easily and gave me a chance to fight on. Skw123 played 8.Rc1 in the game and the position was roughly even again.

I should have played, for instance, 7...c6, 7...Nbd7 or 7...Re8, according to Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT at depth 36.

The next turn for the worse from my point of view happened when I played 11...c5. Skw123 could have then played 12.Qf5 in order to target the pawn on d5, but I could have just replied with 12...g6 and kick the queen maybe to h3. While the engine thinks that after 11...c5 the position is clearly favorable to White, it is not so clear to me why that is. One reason for that may be that is the fact that the material is even and there is no clear attack for White in my opinion. White does have better placed pieces and it may be enough for the advantage, but converting that advantage to a win seems quite difficult.

The best three moves according to the engine are 11...h6, 11...Re8 and 11...c6 at depth 37.

The game continued with the moves 12.Rfd1 c4 and then skw123 played the passive 13.Qb1, after which the position does not seem so good for my opponent again. A much better try was to play 13.Qf5, because at least in that case skw123 would have had the initiative. I then moved my pawn to a6, in order to control the square b5 and maybe prepare the eventual move b5, followed by b4. It was perhaps not the best move, but even with that move the game continued in only slightly favorable way to skw123. During the rest of the game I managed to avoid serious mistakes and we agreed to a draw after 42.Nxh7. Probably the best chance for my opponent to win the game then was after my 7th move because after the continuation mentioned above, I would have likely resigned soon after 9.Qh5.

This game was played on the first round of the 1800+ 7 Days tournament at Chess.com. I was 6th in the final standings of group 5, I managed to get only 5.5 points in 14 games. It meant that I was eliminated from the tournament and could not advance to round two. My opponent in this game, skw123, was able to get 11 points in 14 games and was 2nd in the final standings of the group.

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Move	N	Result	Elo

Replay and check the LiveBook here

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd3 b6 D35 Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation 8.Rc1 Ba6N 8...c5 9.dxc5 bxc5 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Nxd5 Bb7 11...Bxb2 12.Rc2 Ba3 13.Qh5 g6 14.Qe5 f6 15.Qc3 Be6 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.Qxa3 Nd7 18.Nf3 Bg4 19.Be4 Rae8 20.Bd5+ Kh8 21.0-0 Nb6 22.e4 Nd7 23.Rc3 h5 24.Qc1 Kg7 25.h3 Bxf3 26.Rxf3 Martic,Z (2316)-Radulovic,B (2302) Vinkovci 2008 0-1 (40) 12.Be4 Qa5+ 13.b4 Qa6 14.Qf3 Bxd5 15.Bxd5 Nd7 16.Bxa8 Ne5 17.Qe2 Nd3+ 18.Kf1 Rxa8 19.bxc5 Qa3 20.Rb1 Nxc5 21.Qc4 Rd8 22.Nf3 h6 23.g3 Vetrov,G (2043)-Radulescu,V (1830) Prague 2012 1-0 (50) 8...Be6 9.Nge2 Nbd7 10.0-0 h6 11.Bh4 c5 12.Bb1 Re8 13.Qc2 Rc8 14.dxc5 bxc5 15.Rfd1 Nf8 16.Qd2 Qb6 17.b3 Red8 18.Na4 Qa6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.Ng3 Ng6 21.h3 Bd7 22.Nc3 Bc6 23.Nh5 Chashchev,S (2310) -Volokushin,D Soukhumi 2007 0-1 (49) 8...h6 9.Bf4 9.Nf3 9.Bxa6 Nxa6 10.Qa4 Nb8 9...Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Nbd7 11.0-0 c5 11...c6 12.Bf4 12.Rfd1 c4 Black gets more space 13.Qb1 13.Qf5 g6 14.Qh3 Qc7± 13...a6 Controls b5 13...h6 14.Bh4 g5 15.Bg3 14.Ne5 14.Qf5 h6 15.Bf4 Nb8 14...Qc7 15.Qf5 Rad8 16.Qf3 16.a4 Qb7 16...Nxe5 16...b5!? has some apparent merit 17.dxe5 Qxe5 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.Rxd5 19.Nxd5 b5 20.b3 cxb3 21.axb3 Rd6= 19...Rxd5 20.Qxd5 b5 21.Qxe5 Bxe5 22.Rd1 Ra8 23.f4 White threatens to win material: f4xe5 Bc7 24.Kf2 Rd8 25.Rxd8+ Bxd8 A minor pieces endgame occured 26.Nd5 Kf8 27.e4 Ke8 28.Ke3 Kd7 29.Kd4 Kc6 30.a4 Ba5 31.axb5+ axb5 32.Ne7+ Kb6 33.e5 White gains space Bd2 34.g3 Secures f4 Bc1 Black threatens to win material: Bc1xb2 35.Kc3 Kc5 36.b4+ cxb3 37.Kxb3 Bd2 38.Nf5 White threatens to win material: Nf5xg7 g6 Black threatens to win material: g6xf5 39.Nh6 White threatens to win material: Nh6xf7 Be3 40.Nxf7 White has a new protected passed pawn: e5 Bg1 Black threatens to win material: Bg1xh2 41.Ng5 White threatens to win material: Ng5xh7 Bxh2 42.Nxh7 ½–½

White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res

skw123

2226

Vierjoki,T

1849

½–½

Well, it does make me feel a bit better about my 7th move when I searched my reference database and found players who are much stronger than me and also made the mistake 7...b6.