64 square madness that some of us call chess...: E17 Queen's Indian: 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3 d5 8.b3 Nbd7 9.Bb2)

E17 Queen's Indian: 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3 d5 8.b3 Nbd7 9.Bb2)

The game I am sharing today was played in a team match called Carpe Diem 4th Birthday Celebration Match and it was played between Carpe Diem and Battle For Victory on 99 boards. I played on board 29 for Battle For Victory and unfortunately lost both my games against kamabarus. However, even if I had won both my games, the winner of the match would have still been Carpe Diem as they won the match with a score of 105 - 93. The first move that may be criticized is 17.Ne5. The move seems, at first, like a good one, it blocks the rooks path, so that it does not protect the pawn on e4 anymore and it also attacks the pawn on c6. However, the pawn on e4 can't actually be taken with the bishop in view of the move f6 and my opponent would pay a heavy price for the pawn. The pawn on c6 is not really under a serious attack either, due to the continuation 18.Nxc6 Bxc6 19.Rxc6 Nb4 and my opponent would need to give back the pawn or lose the rook.

Better options for kamabarus were, for instance, 17.Qc2 and 17.Ba3, according to Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT at depth 37.

In the game I should have played 17...f6, but for some reason I thought that 17...e3 had more potential, so I chose that one instead. Obviously 18.fxe3 is unplayable because of the reply 18...Nxe3, forking the queen and the rook. While these are some improvements to the game continuation, neither 17.Ne5 or 17...e3 were horrible enough moves that the game should have been decided because of those two moves. The first move that could have been responsible for my loss was 19...c5.

My best chance to keep the position equal was to play 19...f6, according to the engine at depth 32.

It seemed logical to me to open the bishop's path, so that it would not seem like a tall pawn anymore, but because the bishop was not defended at b7, it meant that the knight on d5 could not safely move anywhere. This fact kamarabus tried to use to his or hers advantage. My opponent correctly played 20.dxc5, but then quickly lost the right path and I managed to equalize couple of moves later. The game continued 20...Bxc5 21.Qf5 Qe7 22.Qg4 Nf6 and I had successfully been able to get away from the pin on the long diagonal. Bad moves continued from both sides, but the game losing blunder came from me, when I played the horrible 24...Rxe7. On the previous move I had self pinned my knight again...

The only playable move was 24...Bxe7, all other moves seem to be losing.

The reason why 24...Rxe7 was so bad is that it lost a piece by force, due to my badly placed pieces. Kamarabus was able to take advantage of my horrible position and played 25.b4. The position was quite resignable at that moment, but for some reason I liked to torture myself a few moves longer and only resigned after 29.Nc6 in a position where I would lose either a bishop or the exchange. Either way I would have been completely lost, since I was already down a knight for a pawn.

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Move	N	Result	Elo

Replay and check the LiveBook here

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 d5 8.b3 Nbd7 9.Bb2 E17 Queen's Indian: 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 Re8 10.Rc1 10.e3 c5 11.Ne5 cxd4 12.exd4 Rc8 13.Rc1 Bd6 14.Qe2 a6 15.f4 Rc7 16.g4 Bb4 17.g5 Bxc3 18.Rxc3 Ne4 19.Rh3 Nf8 20.Bxe4 dxe4 21.Qh5 b5 22.Rc1 bxc4 23.bxc4 e3 24.Rxe3 Ree7 Hebert,J (2422)-Nogueiras Santiago,J (2521) Montreal 2003 1/2-1/2 (58) 10...Bf8N 10...c5 11.cxd5 exd5 11...Nxd5 12.Qd2 Nxc3 13.Bxc3 Bf6 14.Rfd1 cxd4 15.Bxd4 Bxd4 16.Qxd4 Nc5 17.Qf4 Qf6 18.Qxf6 gxf6 19.Nd4 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Rad8 21.Nc6 Rxd1 22.Rxd1 a5 23.f3 Kf8 24.Kf2 Rc8 25.Na7 Rc7 26.Nb5 Ferrara,A (2155)-Castelli,R (2200) Buenos Aires 1997 1/2-1/2 12.e3 Rc8 13.Qd3 c4 14.bxc4 Ba6 15.Nd2 dxc4 16.Qb1 b5 17.a3 Qb6 18.Rfd1 Bb7 19.Bxb7 Qxb7 20.Qf5 g6 21.Qxb5 Qxb5 22.Nxb5 Rb8 23.Nxa7 Rxb2 24.Nxc4 Rb3 25.a4 Molvig,J (1964)-Skjoldager,P (2160) Helsingor 2016 1/2-1/2 (43) 10...Rc8 11.Ne5 Nf8 12.e3 c5 13.Ne2 Rc7 14.Rc2 Bd6 15.Nf4 Bxe5 16.dxe5 N6d7 17.cxd5 exd5 18.Nxd5 Bxd5 19.Qxd5 Ng6 20.Rd1 Qe7 21.f4 Nb8 22.Bh3 Nc6 23.Bc3 h5 24.Rcd2 h4 25.Bd7 Molteni,C (1950)-Cattaneo,D (1508) Bergamo 2006 1-0 (39) 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Nb5 White threatens to win material: Nb5xc7 c6 Black threatens to win material: c6xb5 13.Nc3 Ne4 14.Nxe4 dxe4 Inferior is 14...Rxe4 15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.dxe5± 15.Nd2 Nf6 16.Nc4 Nd5 Black intends e3. The knight is not easily driven from d5 17.Ne5 White threatens to win material: Ne5xc6 17.f3 e3 18.f4= 17...e3?? gives the opponent counterplay 17...f6 18.Nc4 18.f4 18.Qd3 Qe7± 18...Rc8 18...f6 19.Nd3 ≤19.Nxc6 Qd7 20.Ne5 fxe5 21.dxe5 Rad8 19.Qd3 19.Qc2 19...c5?? a transit from better to worse 19...f6 was a good chance to save the game 20.Nc4 b5= 20.dxc5+- Bxc5 21.Qf5 21.Rfd1 and White can celebrate victory Nxf4 22.Qc4+- 21...Qe7± 22.Qg4 22.Ng4 Qe6 23.Qxe6 fxe6 24.f5± 22...Nf6= Black threatens to win material: Nf6xg4 23.Qg5 23.Qh3= 23...Ne4?? Black is ruining his position 23...h6 24.Qf5 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Rcd8 24.Qxe7 White has a mate threat Rxe7?? 24...Bxe7 this is the best bet to save the position 25.Bd4 f6 26.Rxc8 Rxc8 25.b4!+- Decoy: b4 Bxb4 25...f6 26.Bxe4 Bxe4 27.Nf3+- 27.bxc5?! is the less attractive alternative fxe5 28.cxb6 Rxc1 29.Rxc1 axb6± 26.Rxc8+ Bxc8 27.Bxe4 f6 27...Rc7 doesn't get the bull off the ice 28.Rd1 Bd2 29.Nf3+- 28.Bd5+ 28.Rd1!? might be the shorter path Kf8 29.Rd8+ Re8 30.Rxe8+ Kxe8+- 28...Kf8 28...Be6 is the last straw 29.Bxe6+ Rxe6+- 29.Nc6 29.Nc6 Bc5 30.Nxe7 Kxe7 31.Kg2+- 1–0

White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res

kamabarus

1853

Vierjoki,T

1824

1–0

It is quite interesting to see that there have been strong Grand Masters who have also ended up in the position I had in the game above after 9.Bb2.