B01 Scandinavian Defence (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb6 5.Nc3 Nc6)

The game below is my most recently finished game from Chess.com. This was played in a team match called Limitless Chess vs Команда ЦФО (Russia Central Federal District). I am playing on board 28 for Limitless Chess and the current score in this match that consists of 80 boards is 47.5 - 48.5 in favor of Команда ЦФО (Russia Central Federal District). Every game counts in this evenly fought match and I am happy to have helped our team with a win. My other game against Andrey-25 is still in progress and depending on the result of that game, I may be either satisfied with my efforts or slightly disappointed with the way I have played in the match. At least complete disaster has been already avoided with this win.

I was very happy to see that my opponent did not go for the Portuguese Variation of the Scandinavian Defense (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4), but played something that I had not faced before instead. 4.c4 seemed to me like the most natural reply to the move 3...Nxd5. Andrey-25 retreated to b6 with the knight, which is a good square for the knight to go to. Other option would be to play the knight back to f6. Going for the move 4...Nb4 is not something that should be considered, even though that variation has a name in opening theory, B01 Scandinavian Defense: Kiel Variation. White should be clearly better after the ill-advised knight advance. After the knight had gone to b6, I played 5.Nc3. I did also think about 5.Nf3, but I did not like my position after 5...Bg4. I thought that if I had continued with 6.Be2, then Bxf3 would make me take back on f3 with the pawn because if I take back with my bishop, then Nxc4 wins a pawn. However, I missed the fact that Nxc4 would have been a big blunder due to Qa4+ that wins the knight from c4. Andrey-25 blundered and played 5...Nc6, which allowed me to gain some advantage. With his 6th move, Andrey-25's position went more down the drain. His best option was to play 6...e5, it would have been the only move that could have kept my opponent in the game. The move played in the game closes the bishop behind the pawn chain and makes it more difficult for my opponent to activate his pieces, the bishop on c8 and the rook on a8, for instance. My advantage grew even bigger when my opponent decided to play 12...f5, after that I should have a winning advantage, at least according to Stockfish that is. While I did not find the best moves, I was able to keep the advantage on my side for the rest of the game. I renamed one of my posts today and added one game to that post. I did that in order not to make a mistake like I was typing about in the post yesterday. The post that has been renamed and has one more game is called C50 Four Knights Game: Italian Variation. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, two mate in three and one mate in five puzzle today.

[Event "Limitless Chess vs ??????? ??? (Russia C"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.05.28"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Andrey-25"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B01"] [WhiteElo "1849"] [BlackElo "1757"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Nxd5 {Scandinavian Defense: Marshall Variation} 4. c4 (4. Nf3 Bg4 {Scandinavian Defense: Modern Variation, Gipslis Variation} ( 4... g6 {Scandinavian Defense: Richter Variation})) 4... Nb6 (4... Nb4 { Scandinavian Defense: Kiel Variation}) 5. Nc3 Nc6 {B01 Scandinavian Defence} 6. Be3 e6 (6... Bf5 7. Nf3 e6 8. Be2 (8. a3 h6 9. h3 g5 10. g4 Bg6 11. h4 f6 12. hxg5 fxg5 13. Bxg5 hxg5 14. Rxh8 Qf6 15. Rh3 O-O-O 16. Qe2 Rxd4 17. Nxd4 Nxd4 18. Qd1 Nc2+ 19. Ke2 Bc5 20. Re3 Qf4 21. Qc1 Nxc4 22. Rf3 Nd4+ {Yenice,Y-Celik, E (1765) Manavgat 2015 0-1}) 8... Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. h3 Bf6 11. Qd2 e5 12. d5 e4 13. Nd4 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 Nd7 15. Rfe1 Re8 16. Bf1 c5 17. Bxf6 Nxf6 18. Qf4 Bg6 19. Rad1 a6 20. g4 Qb8 21. Qxb8 {Smith,R (2240)-Cruden,N New Zeeland 1991 1-0 (65)}) 7. Nf3 Bb4 8. Qc2 {N} (8. Bd3 Na5 9. a3 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Qc2 g6 12. Bg5 Qe8 13. Bh6 Bd7 14. O-O Naxc4 15. Ng5 Ba4 16. Qe2 e5 17. Bxc4 exd4 18. Qf3 Nxc4 19. Qf6 {1-0 (19) Gail, E (1524)-Behr,L (1236) Cologne 2011}) 8... O-O 9. Bd3 h6 10. O-O Bxc3 11. Qxc3 Ne7 12. Bc2 Nf5 13. Qd3 g6 14. Rad1 Nxe3 15. fxe3 Re8 {?? leading to a quick end} (15... Qe7 {+/-}) 16. Ne5 {+-} f5 17. Nxg6 Kg7 (17... Qf6 {doesn't change the outcome of the game} 18. Nf4 c5 19. Rf3 {+-} ) 18. Ne5 (18. Nf4 {might be the shorter path} e5 19. Nh5+ Kh8 20. Rxf5 Bxf5 21. Qxf5 e4 22. Bxe4 Rxe4 23. Qxe4 Qe8 {+-}) 18... Rg8 (18... Nd7 {desperation} 19. Nf3 Nf6 {+-}) 19. Rf3 (19. e4 {makes it even easier for White} Qf6 20. Qh3 {+-}) 19... Kf6 (19... Kh7 {the last chance for counterplay} 20. e4 Qf6 {+-}) 20. e4 Qe7 21. exf5 Qg7 (21... c6 {is no salvation} 22. fxe6+ Kxe6 23. d5+ Nxd5 24. cxd5+ Kd6 25. dxc6+ Kc7 26. Rf7 Bd7 27. Rxe7 Rxg2+ 28. Kxg2 Rg8+ 29. Kh1 Rg1+ 30. Rxg1 h5 31. Rxd7+ Kb6 32. Rxb7+ Ka5 33. b4#) 22. fxe6+ Kxe6 (22... Ke7 {doesn't get the bull off the ice} 23. Rf7+ Ke8 24. Rxg7 Rxg7 25. Qf5 c6 26. Rf1 Kd8 27. Qf8+ Kc7 28. c5 Nc4 29. Qxg7+ Kb8 30. Nd7+ Kc7 31. Nb8+ Bd7 32. Qxd7+ Kxb8 33. Rf8#) 23. Qf5+ (23. Rg3 c6 24. Rg6+ Ke7 25. Qa3+ c5 26. Rxg7+ Rxg7 27. Qxc5+ Kd8 28. Rf1 Bf5 29. Bxf5 h5 30. Qd6+ Nd7 31. Nxd7 h4 32. Nf6+ Rd7 33. Qxd7#) 23... Ke7 {+-} 24. Ng6+ Qxg6 25. Qxg6 (25. Re1+ {and White wins} Kd8 26. Qf8+ Rxf8 27. Rxf8+ Kd7 28. Bxg6 Nxc4 29. Be8+ Kd6 30. Rf6+ Kd5 31. Bf7+ Kxd4 32. Rf4+ Kc5 33. Rxc4+ Kb5 34. Re5+ Kb6 {+-}) 25... Rxg6 26. Bxg6 Bg4 (26... Be6 {does not improve anything} 27. Re1 Rf8 28. Rxf8 Kxf8 29. Rxe6 Nxc4 30. Be4 {+-}) 27. Re1+ Kd6 28. Rf6+ Kd7 29. h3 (29. h3 Nxc4 30. hxg4 {+-}) 1-0