Welcome to my Sicilian Defense (ECO B40) game with touchthis page!

On this page I have posted one my chess games in the Sicilian Defense. I played the Black side of the Sicilian Defense, closed variation. This game is one of my standard games played at ICC. The ratings listed below are from before the game started. This is my first game against touchthis. I don't know his real name of where he is from. In this game I made some positional errors that allowed White to eventually win a piece.

[Event "ICC 60 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.07.10"]
[Round "-"]
[White "touchthis"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1787"]
[BlackElo "1550"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B40"]
[NIC "SI.43"]
[Time "23:03:29"]
[TimeControl "3600+0"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. c3 Ne7 6. Bg2 Nbc6 7. O-O O-O 8.
Nbd2 d5 9. Re1 b5 10. e5 d4 11. c4 bxc4 12. Nxc4 Ba6 13. Nfd2 Qc7 14. f4
Bxc4 15. Nxc4 Rab8 16. Nd6 Nc8 17. Ne4 Nb4 18. Nf6+ Kh8 19. a3 Na6 20. Qa4
Bxf6 21. Qxa6 Bg7 22. Qa4 Nb6 23. Qc2 Rfc8 24. b3 Nd7 25. a4 a5 26. Ba3 Bf8
27. Rec1 Qb6 28. Rab1 Rc7 29. h4 h5 30. Qe2 Kg7 31. g4 hxg4 32. Qxg4 Be7 33.
h5 Rh8 34. hxg6 fxg6 35. Be4 Nf8 36. Rc2 Kf7 37. Rg2 Rg8 38. f5 exf5 39.
Bxf5 Rc6 40. Be4 Rc7 41. Bd5+ Ne6 42. Rf1+ {Black resigns} 1-0

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6

I played 2... e6 instead of my usual 2... Nc6 because I wanted to avoid 3. Bb5. I was expecting to go into the Four Knights variation instead of the closed. In the closed variation I prefer to have my pawn on e5, not e6.

3. d3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. c3 Ne7 6. Bg2 Nbc6 7. O-O O-O 8. Nbd2

In the Four Knights variation d5 is a critical move to get in. However, in this position I think that d6 is better because it helps to prevent White from playing his pawn to e5. Once White got his pawn on e5 I was never able to remove it and the pawn cut off my fianchettoed Bishop's range on that diagonal and it became an anchor for a Knight that White put on f6. I consider 8... d5 to be my first positional error.

d5 9. Re1 b5

I consider 9... b5 to be my second positional error. I believe that better here was 9... e5 followed by b6 and Bb7.

10. e5! d4?!

I consider 10... d4?! to be my third positional error. I have now given the entire length of the diagonal that runs from a8 to h1 to White's fianchettoed Bishop. Later on in the game that fianchettoed Bishop causes some real problems for me. I played 10... d4?! mainly because I wanted to prevent White from playing his pawn to d4 and thus reinforcing the pawn on e5.

11. c4 bxc4

I captured on c4 because I was hoping that White would recapture on c4 with the d pawn and thus give me a passed pawn in the Center. Instead of the passed pawn I ended up with a backward c pawn and that later became a target for White to attack. I think that better here was either 11... b4 or 11... a6.

12. Nxc4 Ba6

Yet another positional error. I still was trying to create a passed pawn on the d file. Better would have been 12... Bb7 followed by a series of moves that would allow me to trade off the light-squared bishops. As stated earlier, White's light-squared bishop caused some problems for me later on in this game.

13. Nfd2 Qc7 14. f4

Now I became aware of the fact that my backward c pawn is a potential target for White to attack. If White ever plays Nb3 Black will have trouble defending the pawn at c5. Capturing the Knight on c4 prevented Nb3 but it also left me with no way to get rid of White's annoying Bishop on g2.

Bxc4 15. Nxc4 Rab8 16. Nd6 Nc8

Black wants to get rid of the White Knight on d6. This is the beginning of the problems that the Knight caused.

17. Ne4 Nb4 18. Nf6+

I thought about capturing the Knight at f6 but didn't like White having a pawn at f6. I couldn't leave that pawn at f6 because of mate threats involving that pawn. Taking the time to win that pawn would leave my pawn at c5 unprotected.

Kh8 19. a3 Na6 20. Qa4

The Knight at a6 has nowhere to go. The only way to defend it is to play the Black Queen to b6 which would allow 21. Nd7! forking both rooks and the Queen. So, now I had to take the Knight on f6.

Bxf6 21. Qxa6 Bg7 22. Qa4 Nb6 23. Qc2 Rfc8

Now White begins his attack on the pawn at c5. Black adequately defends this pawn but runs into trouble when White shifts his attack to the Kingside.

24. b3 Nd7 25. a4 a5 26. Ba3 Bf8 27. Rec1 Qb6

Black protects the pawn at c5 to the max. Black is also now putting some pressure on the White pawn at b3. Neither pawn ever got captured during this game.

28. Rab1 Rc7 29. h4!

White realized that he can't win the Black pawn at c5, so he shifted his attack to the Kingside. Here is where I believe that I made my final positional error by playing h5. Black's Rook at c7 prevents the Black Queen from getting back to the Kingside in order to help defend the Black King. I'm not sure what the best move for Black is here.

h5? 30. Qe2 Kg7 31. g4 hxg4 32. Qxg4 Be7 33. h5 Rh8

Black realized that he needed to get a Rook back over to the Kingside to help defend the King. Black had some trouble defending both his King and the c pawn at the same time.

34. hxg6 fxg6 35. Be4 Nf8 36. Rc2 Kf7 37. Rg2 Rg8 38. f5!

Black is pretty much lost now. This is where the White light-squared Bishop begins to cause problems for Black. If 38... gxf5?? then 39. Qxg8+ winning a Rook. Capturing with the e pawn allows White's Bishop to go to d5 with check winning the exchange. Worth a try here might be 38... Rd7 to keep the White Bishop off d5.

exf5 39. Bxf5 Rc6 40. Be4 Rc7 41. Bd5+ Ne6 42. Rf1+ 1-0

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