1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 e6 5. d4 d6 6. Bc4 Nb6 7. Bd3 Bd7 8. O-O
Bc6 9. dxc5 dxc5 10. Qe2 N8d7 11. Re1 Be7 12. Bf4 g5 13. Bg3 h5 14. h4 gxh4 15.
Bf4 h3 16. gxh3 Rg8+ 17. Kh2 Bh4 18. Nbd2 Nd5 19. Bg3 Bxg3+ 20. fxg3 h4 21.
Nxh4 Nf4 22. Qf1 Rxg3 23. Qxf4 Rxd3 24. Ndf3 Qb6 25. Ng5 Qxb2+ 26. Kg1 O-O-O
27. Rab1 Qxa2 28. Rbd1 Nxe5 29. Rxd3 Nxd3 0-1

Oh how I love playing against the Alapin.

Really proud of 17. .. Bh4! in that game with the idea of fighting for the f4 square. Apparently 22. .. Nxe5 was more accurate than Rxg3, but somehow when I see a chance to sac a rook for an unclear attack I just can't resist. White was WIM or something.

I love playing 2. c3 and I have never seen your line. It seems a bit weird not to take on d4. You are just giving White options to play c4 or dxc5. I just looked in CB for a few minutes but did not find anything convincing for White but I guess there has to be a reason this is a side line. I will look at this when I have more time; after all someone might play this against me one time...

Nice game, though. Loved Rxg3.

Thanks!

Let me know if you find out something. I was always curious about why this is a very uncommon idea as well. It always seemed illogical to me for black to solve white's awkward queenside position for him by playing cxd in these positions.

if you have the same handle on fics as here, you just owned me

haha i do, whats your handle?

edit: its probably sixfour, in which case that was a strange game

pgn or it didn't happen

two sub-1200 players slugging it out

Event: FICS rated blitz game
White: sixfour (1079)
Black: hoyasaxa (1180)
Result: 0-1
Time Control: 300+0
Date: 2009-10-06
White Clock:
2:57
BlackClock:
3:13

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. O-O Bd7 5. Re1 a6 6. Ba4 b5 7. Bb3 Nf6 8. d3 Be7 9. c3 O-O 10. Be3 Bg4 11. h3 Bh5 12. Nbd2 d5 13. g4 dxe4 14. gxh5 exf3 15. Nxf3 Nxh5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Qxh5 Nxd3 18. Red1 c5 19. Bc2 c4 20. b3 Bf6 21. Bd4 Bxd4 22. cxd4 Qxd4 23. bxc4 Qxf2 24. Kh1 Qxc2 25. cxb5 Nf2 26. Kg1 Nxd1 27. Rxd1 axb5 0-1 {White resigns}

^^ i love a good slugfest like that one.

I just love games like this:

[Event "ICC"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2009.10.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Farinata"]
[Black "StepByStep"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2563"]
[BlackElo "2418"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2009.??.??"]
[TimeControl "300"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Be2 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 g6 8.
e5 dxe5 9. Qxe5 Bg7 10. Be3 O-O 11. Rd1 Bd7 12. Bd4 Qe8 13. O-O Bc6 14. Rfe1 a6
15. Bf1 e6 16. Qg5 h6 17. Qf4 g5 18. Qe3 Qc8 19. h4 gxh4 20. Bxf6 Bxf6 21. Qxh6
Bg7 22. Qxh4 Rd8 23. Bd3 Qc7 24. Re3 Kf8 25. Rg3 Rd4 26. Qh7 Qe5 27. Ne2 Rd7
28. Nf4 Rad8 29. Nh5 Bf6 30. Kf1 Qxb2 31. Re1 Bb5 32. Rxe6 Bxd3+ 33. cxd3 1-0

As much as I enjoy wild attacks and crazy sacrifices it's somehow even more satisfying watching a strong GM destroy a strong IM with nothing more than simple logical moves that all somehow combine into the IM just completely falling apart.

why didnt he play 9.Qxd8+?

The general reason you don't want to bring out your queen early is because she can be subject to attack making you lose time, etc. In that position with his queen on e5 is very centralized, dangerous and fairly safe. Obviously the discovery becomes a theme throughout most of the rest of the game, but it's not like white has major problems with it.

On the other hand, if he trades queens then he gets rid of his well centralized queen for black's passive queen that hasn't even moved yet. And not to mention, black's queen on d8 becomes a target to help white gain time. And last, but not least, black is up a pawn after Qxd8.

All in all Qxd8 is probably okay, but just weaker than keeping them on board.

Just found a forced mate in 7 (or less) in one of my games.

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.twoplustwo.com"]
[Date "2009.08.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "White Player"]
[Black "anfernee"]
[WhiteRating "1666"]
[BlackRating "1646"]
[WhiteELO "1666"]
[BlackELO "1646"]
[Result "*"]
[GameId "zyxwvut"]

1. e4 c5 2. Ng1f3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nf3xd4 a6 5. Bc1e3 Ng8f6 6. f3 d5
7. e5 Nf6d7 8. f4 Nb8c6 9. Nb1c3 Bf8c5 10. a3 Qd8c7 11. Qd1d3 Nc6xd4
12. Be3xd4 Nd7b6 13. b3 Bc8d7 14. Bf1e2 Ra8c8 15. Ke1d2 O-O 16. Rh1f1 Bc5xd4
17. Qd3xd4 Qc7c5 18. Qd4xc5 Rc8xc5 19. g4 Rf8c8 20. Rf1f3 d4 21. Nc3e4 Rc5xc2
22. Kd2d3 Bd7b5 23. Kd3xd4 Bb5xe2 24. Rf3g3 f6 25. f5 exf5 26. gxf5 fxe5
27. Kd4xe5 Rc8e8 28. Ke5f4 Nb6d5 29. Kf4g5 h6 *

Actually, it's not forced mate in 7...he could choose not to play a move and lose a rook for a knight going down a full minor + major. either way, i'm pwning.

More slower games against random strong players:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 O-O 5. e3 c5 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. exd4 d5 8. O-O
dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 10. Bg5 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Ba6 12. Bd3 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 Nbd7 14. c4 Rc8
15. Rfd1 Rc6 16. Rac1 Qc7 17. Bh4 Qf4 18. Bg3 Qe4 19. Qa3 a5 20. Re1 Qg6 21.
Be5 Rfc8 22. Qe7 Re8 23. Qa3 Rec8 24. Qe7 Nf8 25. Bxf6 Qxf6 26. Qb7 R8c7 27.
Qa6 Nd7 28. Nd2 Qxd4 29. Red1 Nc5 30. Nf3 Qf6 31. Qa8+ Rc8 32. Qa7 h6 33. Nd4
Rd6 34. Nb5 Rxd1+ 35. Rxd1 e5 36. Rd6 Qf4 37. g3 Qc1+ 38. Kg2 Qxc4 39. Qxb6 Ne6
40. Rd7 Qe4+ 41. f3 Rc2+ 42. Kh3 Qf5+ 43. g4 Nf4+ 44. Kg3 Rg2+ 45. Kh4 Qg5# 0-1

beat: I played terribly, 11. .. Ba6???? was especially tragic. Still not sure what I think of my 17. .. Qf4.

brag: I won very easily

variance: the lower quality of moves towards the later middle of the game was largely due to some mutual time trouble

I might try out the 45 45 league if there are some decent players in it. Slow chess against good players is quite fun.

Nice game, Dire! What was the time control?

The nimzo and sicilian are the two openings where I love to play either side.

Swingdoc with the nimzo and sicilian...




and yeah nice game Dire.

It was another 15-min game. Working my way down the time controls slowly!

Thanks for posting this game, I am a n00b but even felt like I could understand some of the things going on most of the time here after reading it and really enjoyed that Really solid game.

Awesome. Girlfriend gave me the swine flu or some **** and now my game and rating is taking a massive shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiit. Fun fun fun.

Yay, random GM apparently felt pity for my illness and decided to gift me alot of my points back.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 c5 8.
Rb1 O-O 9. Be2 Nc6 10. d5 Ne5 11. Nxe5 Bxe5 12. Qd2 e6 13. c4 f5 14. exf5 exd5
15. fxg6 d4 16. Qh6 hxg6 17. Qxg6+ Bg7 18. Bh6 Qa5+ 19. Kf1 Qc7 20. Bd3 Rf5 21.
Bxg7 Rxf2+ 22. Kxf2 Qf4+ 23. Ke1 Qe3+ 24. Kd1 Bg4+ 25. Kc2 Qf2+ 26. Kb3 Bh5 27.
Qh7+ 1-0

I showed him by employing my secret novelty of randomly shuffling wood after 12. Qd2.

Any reason black captured at 14....exd5 and not 14....exf5?

Also, as somewhat of a chess n00b myself, is it generally a bad idea to fianchetto on the side you plan on castling/castle on a side you already fianchetto'd, because of the weakened defense in front of your king?

14. .. exf5 is not good since it gives white a good position while taking away all of black's counterplay. White has pressure on b7, a nice cramp on black's light c8 bishop, a very strong and dangerous protected passed pawn on d5 and even the ability to easily make a kingside attack with h4/etc. While black can't really do anything. He doesn't have any meaningful pawn breaks and white's king is oddly safe in the center. The game is probably +- after 14. .. exf.

As for fianchetto, it's definitely not a bad idea by default to castle on the side you've fianchettoed. This happens in a million different solid reputable openings. Of course if your opponent is able to get rid of your fianchettoed bishop then bad things can happen because now there will be alot of weak squares around your king.

Any chance you (Dire) or other 2+2ers want to make a team for this? I'll go ahead and put up a thread about this. It could be a lot of fun and we could post games and analysis here?

Lost my first standard game. Dunno what to say. Playing while sick I miss basic tactics.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Bc4 a6 6. O-O Ne7 7. Nxc3 b5 8. Bb3
Bb7 9. Re1 b4 10. Na4 d5 11. e5 Ng6 12. Qd4 Nd7 13. Bg5 Qa5 14. Rac1 Rc8 15.
Rxc8+ Bxc8 16. Rc1 Bb7 17. Qa7 f6 18. exf6 gxf6 19. Qxb7 fxg5 20. Rc7 Qb5 21.
Qc8+ Ke7 22. Nc5 1-0

I simply missed 17. .. Qa7 when I played 14. .. Rc8??

Not to mention a zillion other huge mistakes I made in those 22 moves. Like 12. .. Nd7?? simply missing the obvious Nc6. I couldn't see the forest through the trees as I focus on dark squares and restricting his knight with some long distant plan of Bc6/Qa5 shipping the knight when: gee, attack his queen - win a tempo, -+. Blegh.

Well, I tilt insta-rematched him and crushed him like an insect and that made me feel better.

Hey at least you posted the game.

That takes guts.