A36 Symmetrical English vs ...g6: 4.Bg2 Bg7 (1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.e3 e5 6.Nge2 Nge7 7.O-O O-O 8.b3 d6 9.Bb2 Be6 10.Nd5 Qd7)

While I prioritise the posting of my latest correspondence games, I need to go through games also from other sources from time to time. This is one of those times and the rest of the week I will go through some of my over the board games as well. Next week I should have a decent amount of correspondence games to go through, but I am not sure if all of the week is spent on those. The game below was played in a team match between EkSK and SalSK 3. This was a third round match in 3rd division, group 4. I played on board 4 for SalSK 3. The final score in this match that was played on five boards was 3 - 0 in favor of EkSK. There were two draws played in the match, but draws are not counted in these team matches. The game below ended my horrible year of 2006 and after this game I did not play in any over the board tournaments with long time controls until about a year later. I spend that time mostly recovering from the disaster of a year and did other things than chess for awhile. The interest towards chess never really dies for me, but it can sometimes get very frustrating if I can't win constantly and mostly lose games, like I did in 2006.

The first inaccuracy of the game is played by my opponent on move 12. Had I played 12...Bxd5 and followed that up with accurate moves, I could have been slightly better. I did not play the best move and after 12...Rad8, the position is about even again. Now that I look at this game with the knowledge I have gained since this game was played, I would not play 13...e4 anymore. Then again I would play something different earlier also, but definitely not e4 in this position, because it seems to close things up a bit too much to my liking. It is only a small inaccuracy though and does not decide the game. The biggest shift in the advantage comes with the huge blunder 17...h5, which is also the losing move. I can't believe I was so tactically blind that I did not see that my opponent can play 18.Nxe4 in reply to 17...h5. I played a few more moves, but there was nothing I could do to avoid losing the game.

[Event "EkSK - SalSK 3"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.11.18"] [Round "3"] [White "Wendelin, Alf"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A36"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2006.11.18"] 1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. e3 e5 {English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Botvinnik System Reversed} 6. Nge2 Nge7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 d6 9. Bb2 Be6 10. Nd5 Qd7 {A36 Symmetrical English vs ...g6: 4.Bg2 Bg7} 11. f4 (11. Re1 Bxd5 12. cxd5 Nb4 13. d4 Nexd5 14. dxc5 dxc5 15. Rc1 Rad8 16. Rxc5 Qe6 17. Qa1 f6 18. Ba3 Rd7 19. Qc1 Rfd8 20. Bf3 Bf8 21. Nc3 Nxc3 22. Rxc3 Kg7 23. Rc7 e4 24. Be2 Nc6 25. Bxf8+ Kxf8 {Savchenko,B (2655) -Dominguez Perez,L (2721) Havana 2009 1/2-1/2 (48)}) (11. Nec3 Bh3 12. Ne4 Nxd5 13. Bxh3 Qxh3 14. cxd5 Ne7 15. Nxd6 Qd7 16. Nc4 Qxd5 17. Qe2 Rad8 18. e4 Qe6 19. a4 b6 20. Bc3 Nc6 21. Rfe1 Rd7 22. Rab1 Rfd8 23. Ne3 Bh6 24. Qc4 Bxe3 25. fxe3 Qxc4 {Martinez Alcantara,J (2458)-Cori Quispe,K (2381) Lima 2015 1/2-1/2 (31)}) 11... f5 12. Rb1 {N} (12. a3 Kh8 13. Nec3 Bg8 14. Rb1 Rae8 15. b4 e4 16. Qa4 b6 17. d3 Nxd5 18. cxd5 Nb8 19. Qxd7 Nxd7 20. dxe4 fxe4 21. Rfd1 Nf6 22. Bh3 h5 23. Rd2 Kh7 24. Rbd1 a6 25. b5 a5 26. Na4 Rb8 {Chadaev,N (2218) -Matveev,M Moscow 2002 1-0 (73)}) (12. Nec3 Rae8 13. d3 Bf7 14. Qd2 b6 15. Rab1 Nxd5 16. Nxd5 Ne7 17. e4 Nxd5 18. cxd5 fxe4 19. dxe4 Re7 20. f5 gxf5 21. exf5 Be8 22. g4 Ref7 23. Be4 Bf6 24. Bc1 Qe7 25. Rf3 Kh8 26. Rg3 Rg8 {Rantanen, A-Kononen,K Finland 2002 1-0 (56)}) (12. d3 Rab8 {=}) 12... Rad8 (12... Bxd5 13. cxd5 Nb4 14. fxe5 dxe5 15. e4 {=}) 13. d4 e4 {Black gets more space} (13... exd4 $5 14. exd4 Bxd5 15. cxd5 Nb4 {=}) 14. Nxe7+ {+/=} Nxe7 15. d5 {White threatens to win material: d5xe6} Bf7 16. Nc3 (16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. a4 h5 {+/=}) 16... a6 {Controls b5} 17. Bh3 h5 $4 (17... Qc7 {+/= was necessary}) 18. Nxe4 {! +- Deflection: f5} Bxb2 ( 18... fxe4 19. Bxd7 {Deflection Pinning}) 19. Rxb2 Kg7 (19... Nxd5 {does not solve anything} 20. cxd5 Qe7 21. Ng5 Qxe3+ 22. Rbf2 {+-}) 20. Re2 Qc7 (20... Nc8 {doesn't improve anything} 21. Ng5 Qe7 22. Qa1+ Qf6 23. Qxf6+ Kxf6 24. Nh7+ Kg7 25. Nxf8 Kxf8 26. e4 fxe4 27. Rxe4 {+-}) 21. Qa1+ Kh6 22. Ng5 Nc8 (22... Rde8 {cannot change what is in store for White} 23. Rd1 {+-}) 23. e4 Rde8 ( 23... Bg8 {there is nothing better in the position} 24. Qh8+ Bh7 {+-}) 24. Rfe1 fxe4 (24... Bxd5 {doesn't change anything anymore} 25. cxd5 Qg7 26. Qxg7+ Kxg7 27. exf5 Rxe2 28. Rxe2 Rxf5 29. Bxf5 gxf5 30. Re8 {+-}) 25. Be6 (25. Be6 Bxe6 26. Nxe6 (26. dxe6 $6 Qg7 {+-}) 26... Rxe6 27. dxe6 {+-}) 1-0