The move 1...c6 in reply to 1.d4 is the 8th most common move in the position and it had been played in 7943 games in my reference database. It has a score of 60.2%. More commonly are seen the moves 1...Nf6 (1078610 games, score 53.1%), 1...d5 (597278 games, score 57.1%), 1...e6 (95147 games, score 55.1%), 1...f5 (70983 games, score 54.4%), 1...g6 (58680 games, score 52.3%), 1...d6 (53266 games, 52.8%) and 1...c5 (32518 games, score 52.2%). With my next move 2.e4 the game transposed to Caro-Kann. Had I played 2.c4, the game could go towards a Slav Defence in case that the next move would be 2...d5. My move was the 3rd most often played move in the position with 1193 games featuring the move (score 57.6%). More often were played 2.c4 (4936 games, score 61.8%) and 2.Nf3 (1819 games, 59.8%). The move 2.e4 has been played by Anatoly Karpov (2674) in the game against Harald Pingitzer (2343) in Vienna Lugner City sim, April 16th, 2005, for example. That game ended in a draw.
The next move 2...d5 is not surprisingly the most often played move in the position, it appeared in 194092 games with a score of 53.7%. The following move, 3.Nc3 (60326 games, score 53.5%), was also the choice of most players. The game continued to be played with the move 3...dxe4 (57752 games, score 53.3%), which follows the most popular line, chosen by such very strong players like Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, Wesley So and Vladimir Kramnik. The game kept continuing on the main preference of the players with the move 4.Nxe4 (56912 games, score 53.3%). While the moves followed the most played ones, the amount of reference games decreases with every move. My opponent then went for the move 4...Bf5 (42585 games, score 53.5%). I then played the natural looking move 5.Ng3 (39927 games, score 54.1%), which was again the most popular approach to the position. It was replied with 5...Bg6 (39741 games, score 54.1%).
The next move, 6.h4 (20371 games, score 55.4%), continued the familiar pattern of being the most often played move. Other popular moves here were 6.Nf3 (12972 games, score 51.1%) and 6.Bc4 (2400 games, score 54.9%), for instance. Kojjootti then played 6...h6 (20138 games, 55.2%), which is clearly the most popular move, since the next most played move is 6...h6, which has appeared only in 203 games. The score in the games where the player controlling the black pieces chose the move 6...h5 is 70.2%. On the next move I played 7.Nf3 (15371 games, score 55.3%). My 7th move has also been played by Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand, for example. The 7th move by my opponent, 7...e6, was the first one after 2...d5 that was not the most often played move. It had been played in 1195 games with a score 49.1%. Players were more likely to encounter the moves 7...Nd7 (12877 games, score 55.9%) and 7...Nf6 (1327 games, score 55.4%.). The move 7...e6 had also played by Magnus Carlsen, for instance, in the game against Viswanathan Anand at the World Championship on November 10th, 2013.
The 8th move, h5 (825 games, score 52.1%), was once again the most popular move and in all of them Black played 8...Bh7, which is the most logical move in the position, since it is the only safe square for the bishop. Next move I played was 9.Bd3 (1122 games, score 51.6%). The reply 9...Bxd3 (1065 games, score 50.8%) was also the most popular move and so was my 10th move Qxd3 (1064 games, score 50.8%). Then my opponent played 10...Nf6 (803 games, score 45.7%), which is a move that has been played by strong players such as Hikaru Nakamura, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk and David Navara. The last move of the opening line 11.Bd2 (1129 games, 48.7%) was again the most played move. The following move 11...Bd6 was the 4th most often occurred move and it had been seen in 135 games with a score of 63%. More popular moves have been 11...Nbd7 (343 games, score 53.5%), 11...c5 (312 games, 40.1%) and 11...Be7 (276 games, score 43.5%). I then castled long, which was the 2nd most tried move in the position and it was seen in 46 games with a score of 73.9% in the games that appear in my reference database. Only the move 12.Ne4 had seen more play, it was played in 88 games with a score of 60.8%.
The next move 12...Bxg3 had been played in 5 games before with a score of 80%. It was the 4th most often played move, behind the moves 12...Nbd7 (21 games, score 78.6%), 12...Qc7 (11 games, score 77.3%) and 12...O-O (6 games, score 33.3%). Not that surprisingly in all of those 5 games the reply was 13.fxg3. The last move that had been played previously was 13...Nbd7, which had appeared in one game before this one. The game in which that move was played can be seen in the notation of the game.
Below you can see the latest highest rated games that have reached the position after 11.Bd2.
