Pirc queenside pawn push against Bc4: game 1344

In game 1344 my Pirc queenside pawn push against 2.Bc4 worked the way I wanted: b5, a5 and b4, then the central break d5, and White's light-squared bishop moved four times in fifteen moves. By move 15 the saved evaluation was -2.54, clearly better for me as Black. This post is only about that opening. How I later lost the game on time is a separate story.

The recorded game

I played this game on January 22, 2025 as Black, on my Chess.com account nacsol3, against bonjours (1365). My recorded rating was 1302. It was a ten-minute rapid game without increment, part of the From 631 to 1385 journey.

Context: the 2.Bc4 line in my games

In my saved rapid games White answered 1.e4 d6 with 2.Bc4 nine times when I had Black. I won four of them and lost five. In this game the bishop came out on move 2, before White's d-pawn, and on move 4 White played the modest d3 instead of d4. The engine's line preferred d4 there. With the d-pawn on d3, the bishop on c4 doesn't have a pawn on d4 supporting the centre, and my queenside pawns could go forward with some purpose.

The first eight moves were 1.e4 d6 2.Bc4 g6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d3 Bg7 5.h3 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 7.Bg5 Nbd7 8.a3 c6. The c6 pawn is the quiet preparation: it supports b5 and later d5. After 9.O-O both kings were castled, and I started.

Position 1: move 9, b5 attacks the bishop

r . b q . r k .
p p . n . p b p
. . p p . n p .
. . . . p . B .
. . B . P . . .
P . N P . N . P
. P P . . P P .
R . . Q . R K .

9...b5 was Stockfish's first choice too. The checker describes it simply: the pawn attacks the bishop on c4. The bishop can't stay. White went to a2 (10.Ba2), the square the engine also expected, and the evaluation stayed about equal. The pawn on c6 behind it is what makes b5 safe: a pawn that attacks a piece is only useful if it isn't simply lost.

Position 2: move 10, a5 or h6

Next I pushed my a-pawn to a5 to support the b-pawn. That move had no judgement in the analysis, but it was not the engine's first choice.

r . b q . r k .
p . . n . p b p
. . p p . n p .
. p . . p . B .
. . . . P . . .
P . N P . N . P
B P P . . P P .
R . . Q . R K .

Stockfish wanted 10...h6 first, a pawn move that attacks the other White bishop, the one on g5. In my check both moves are about equal, and the engine's own line after h6 plays a5 one move later anyway. I note it because it came up again two moves later: the engine kept wanting to ask the g5 bishop a question before going on with the queenside plan. I never played h6 in the opening.

Position 3: move 11, b4 attacks the knight

White answered with 11.a4, marked as an inaccuracy (+0.12 to -0.61). It attacked my b5 pawn, and my plan gave me a good answer.

r . b q . r k .
. . . n . p b p
. . p p . n p .
p p . . p . B .
P . . . P . . .
. . N P . N . P
B P P . . P P .
R . . Q . R K .

11...b4 matched the engine again. Now the pawn attacks the knight on c3. Of the three moves the engine checked, this is the only one that keeps Black slightly better; the alternatives (a rook move to b8, or taking on a4) are about equal. White's knight stepped back to e2 (12.Ne2).

Position 4: move 13, d5 attacks the bishop again

On move 12 I put my knight on c5. The checker says it attacked White's pawn on a4, which had no defender. Stockfish's first choice was once more 12...h6, but in my check the knight move is still about equal. White's bishop came back to c4 (13.Bc4) to look at my king's side. That gave me the central break.

r . b q . r k .
. . . . . p b p
. . p p . n p .
p . n . p . B .
P p B . P . . .
. . . P . N . P
. P P . N P P .
R . . Q . R K .

13...d5 was the engine's first choice as well. The pawn goes to the centre and attacks the bishop on c4. After 14.exd5 cxd5 my c-pawn took back and again attacked the same bishop. This is the point of 8...c6 from earlier: it prepared both b5 and the recapture on d5. I had a big pawn centre, and White's bishop had to move for the fourth time.

Position 5: move 15, the bishop lands next to my knight

White retreated the bishop to b3 (15.Bb3). The analysis marks that as a mistake (from -0.78 to -2.54). Stockfish's check of White's options preferred 15.Bb5. On b3 the bishop stood right where my knight on c5 could take it.

r . b q . r k .
. . . . . p b p
. . . . . n p .
p . n p p . B .
P p . . . . . .
. B . P . N . P
. P P . N P P .
R . . Q . R K .

I played 15...Qd6 and the evaluation went back to -0.87. It is marked as a mistake. Stockfish wanted 15...Nxb3: the knight takes the bishop and attacks the rook on a1, and White can take back. In my check the engine scores that capture and a pawn move to h6 equally, both clearly better for Black. The engine line is 15...Nxb3 16.cxb3 h6 17.Bh4 g5 18.Bg3.

I was lucky. White replied 16.Re1, another mistake, and the bishop was still on b3. This time I took it (16...Nxb3 17.cxb3), and the evaluation was -2.32. The bishop that my pawns had chased since move 9 was gone, and White had doubled pawns on the b-file.

On move 17 I moved my other bishop to b7, an inaccuracy (-2.44 to -1.66). Stockfish preferred a knight move to h5. After 18.d4 e4 my pawns were on d5 and e4 and the opening phase was clearly over. I still had about eight minutes on the clock.

The lesson of game 1344

The plan against 2.Bc4 with d3 is not complicated, and the engine agreed with most of it. Prepare with c6, then use pawn moves that attack something: b5 attacks the bishop, b4 attacks the knight on c3, d5 attacks the bishop again. Each of those moves gained space and forced White to spend a move. Stockfish's first choice matched b5, b4 and d5.

The mistake came when the plan had already worked. When a piece I have been chasing finally stops next to one of my pieces, I take it. A queen move "to get ready" gave White a free move. In my notes this becomes one question: after each of the opponent's retreats, can I capture the piece that just moved?

The engine also kept proposing h6 against the g5 bishop. My queenside plan was fine without it, but the engine's lines show it as a free tempo I could have taken along the way.

What happened next

The opening put me clearly better, but the game was long. I lost it on time after 66 moves, which I wrote about in the game 1344 collapse post. My next two 2.Bc4 games, 1347 and 1348, were also losses, so a good opening plan didn't turn into points that week. The weekly diary for week 55 has the whole run.

If you want to check your own openings the same way, Chess Coach in Claude or ChatGPT reviews a finished game with boards and arrows like these. The guide to reading Stockfish analysis explains the evaluation numbers, and the journey hub has the rest of the series.