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This was a 10+5 rapid game on Lichess where I had the white pieces, and my opponent played the Modern Defense (1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7). I personally don’t like playing against the hypermodern systems as I find it difficult to play in the middle game. As per my usual practice when I face an unfamiliar opening, I try to simply stick to standard opening principles whenever I play an unfamiliar opening – take the full centre if possible, develop knights before bishops, and castle once done.

I was gratified to see on analysis that after casting on move 5, all the moves thus far were “book moves” according to the analytic engine, and I had a reasonable position and advantage at [+0.7]!

Although I don’t play accurately from this point onwards, neither does my opponent with the Black pieces. We end up having a positional and manoeuvring game, and it wasn’t until move 19 that the first capture occurred – my opponent had hung a pawn (19. Nxg5).

One of the themes in this middle game is that Black had castled kingside, with a fianchetto bishop. However, this requires some discipline to maintain the advantage. Black, however, couldn’t resist pushing the pawns in front of their king. An earlier g-pawn move (17… g5) was a blunder [from +1.1 to +4.2] and my capture of this pawn on move 19 was the start of the crumbling of Black’s kingside defences.

The pawn structure was relatively disadvantageous for Black, with my pieces on the attacking/defending side of the palisade (kingside), while Black’s pieces were largely undeveloped and on the queenside. So, despite both our kings being comparatively exposed, I had the attacking chances. This made all the difference. With my f-pawn on the 7th rank, Black moved their rook to a passive position to block promotion (27… Rf8). Unfortunately, that reduced the defence of the king to only the queen, which was on the wrong square to block checkmate (28. Qf6#). GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/VQAHoGXVp?tab=analysis

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/37qljYf0"]
[Date "2023.01.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "unburro01"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2023.01.08"]
[UTCTime "06:00:12"]
[WhiteElo "1673"]
[BlackElo "1684"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+16"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-5"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "B06"]
[Opening "Modern Defense"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
[BlackUrl "https://adventuresofachessnoob.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/lichess.png"]
[BlackCountry "225"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.82046355.78x78o.ebd68214df6f@3x.jpg"]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 {Modern Defense [+0.4]. The \"hypermodern\" systems can be
tricky to play against and are a solid opening option for Black.} 3. Nf3 d6 4.
Bc4 e6 5. O-O {These are all book moves. Against the Modern, I usually just try
to open following opening principles and castle ASAP - this is actually good for
White [+0.7].} 5... Nf6 6. e5 $6 {[%c_effect
e5;square;e5;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f1e1;keyPressed;none;from;f1;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e1;persistent;false] An inaccuracy [+0.3]
but still okay.} 6... Ng4 $2 {[%c_effect
g4;square;g4;type;Mistake;persistent;true] A mistake [+2.5]. The attack is
premature.} 7. Qe2 O-O 8. h3 d5 $6 {[%c_effect
d5;square;d5;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 9. Bd3 Nh6 10. c4 $6 {[%c_effect
c4;square;c4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c1g5;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false] A relative inaccuracy
[+1.5]. Stockfish thinks that developing the bishop with tempo (Bg5) is better.}
10... c6 $2 {[%c_effect c6;square;c6;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
d5c4;keyPressed;none;from;d5;opacity;0.8;to;c4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c4;persistent;false] However, this is a
complicated middle game and Black makes a mistake back [+3.2]. Clarifying the
centre tension was better with dxc4.} 11. b3 $2 $9 {[%c_effect
b3;square;b3;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c1g5;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false] A miss [+1.7].
Developing the bishop is still better.} 11... Qb6 $2 {[%c_effect
b6;square;b6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] A mistake [+3] as there is no
attack.} 12. c5 Qc7 13. b4 $6 {[%c_effect
b4;square;b4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c1f4;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;f4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f4;persistent;false] An inaccuracy [+2]
with Stockfish still preferring development.} 13... Na6 $2 {[%c_effect
a6;square;a6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] Moving the knight to the edge of the
board was a mistake [+2.7]} 14. a3 b6 $2 {[%c_effect
b6;square;b6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] There is no valid threat here [+5.7]}
15. g4 $6 {[%c_effect g4;square;g4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
d3a6;keyPressed;none;from;d3;opacity;0.8;to;a6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
a6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;a6;persistent;false] An inaccuracy [+3.6]}
15... Nb8 16. Bf4 $6 {[%c_effect
f4;square;f4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c1g5;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false] Suboptimal [+2.7]}
16... f6 17. Qe3 $2 {[%c_effect
e3;square;e3;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f4g3;keyPressed;none;from;f4;opacity;0.8;to;g3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g3;persistent;false] Stockfish sees this
as a mistake [+1.1]} 17... g5 $4 $9 {[%c_effect
g5;square;g5;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f6e5;keyPressed;none;from;f6;opacity;0.8;to;e5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false] This was a miss
[+4.2] pushing the wrong pawn} 18. Bg3 $1 {[%c_effect
g3;square;g3;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 18... f5 19. Nxg5 Nf7 $6
{[%c_effect f7;square;f7;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c7e7;keyPressed;none;from;c7;opacity;0.8;to;e7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e7;persistent;false] An inaccuracy [+6] as
fundamentally, trading defenders around their king is not advantageous} 20. gxf5
Bh6 21. Bf4 Kh8 $6 {[%c_effect
h8;square;h8;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f7g5;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false] Complicated position
but this was an inaccuracy [+9.8]. The black king is trapping themselves
potentially in the corner.} 22. Nxf7+ Qxf7 23. f6 Rg8+ 24. Kh1 Bxf4 25. Qxf4 Qh5
26. Kh2 bxc5 {[%c_arrow
h5g5;keyPressed;none;from;h5;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false] Black should have
aimed to trade queens to diminish the strength of the attack, but the position
is completely lost either way: from [+8.7 to +18]} 27. f7 Rf8 $4 {[%c_effect
f8;square;f8;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
b8d7;keyPressed;none;from;b8;opacity;0.8;to;d7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d7;persistent;false] Blunders [+M1]} 28.
Qf6# {[%c_effect h2;square;h2;type;Winner,h8;square;h8;type;CheckmateBlack]
White wins by checkmate.} 1-0