Game #600: the Modern Defense with 1.d4, three chances for Ne5 and a draw
On June 21, 2024, in game #600 of my rapid journey, I had White against the Modern Defense with 1.d4 and DC_Papenburg_1979 (998) pushed the f-, g- and h-pawns in the first four moves. That left the black king open, and on moves 6, 7 and 8 the knight jump to e5 was winning on the spot, up to +8.79 by Stockfish's count after Black's fifth move. I didn't play it once. Forty moves later I was a full rook up and let my opponent give perpetual check: a draw by repetition.
My rating stayed at 1012. A round number of a game, and a round lesson in both the opening and the ending.
Where I was
Game #600 sits in week 24 of the journey, the week of the forks and loose pieces. Two days earlier I'd had a terrible day, fifteen games and 47 points lost, and the next morning I won four in a row to get back to 1012. Before this game I'd beaten nazifzeze in game #599.
The Modern Defense with 1.d4 was a bad matchup for me. Chess.com had given that label to six of my earlier White games, #160, #383, #415, #430, #457 and #568: one win, five losses. The last of them had been four days before, a loss to SkenderBresa (1012).
| Game | #600, June 21, 2024 |
| Opponent | DC_Papenburg_1979 (998) |
| My colour, rating after | White, 1012 (unchanged) |
| Time control | 10 minutes, no increment |
| Opening | Modern Defense with 1.d4 (A40) |
| Result | Draw by repetition after move 50 |
| Accuracy (Stockfish) | Me 68.0, Black 69.1 |
| My blunders / mistakes / inaccuracies | 13 / 1 / 7 |
The Modern Defense with 1.d4 and the open diagonal
The normal Modern Defense is 1...g6 and then the bishop to g7: Black lets White take the center and attacks it later. My opponent played 1...g6 and then went a very different way: 2...f6, 3...g5, 4...h6 and 5...a6. The engine called 2...f6 and 4...h6 mistakes and 5...a6 a blunder.
My own moves weren't great either. On move 2 I played the bishop to f4 (the engine preferred the e-pawn to e4, an inaccuracy), and when Black's g-pawn hit it, I dropped it back to g3. But the position after Black's fifth move was simply winning for me.
Look at the diagonal from h5 to e8. With the f-pawn gone from f7, nothing stands on it. The knight on e5 covers f7 and g6, the two squares where Black could block. So the threat is queen to h5, checkmate. And if Black takes the knight with the f-pawn, queen to h5 is still mate. The engine's line goes 6.Ne5 h5 7.Bd3 e6 8.Bg6+, with Black's king forced to walk.
I played c3. The evaluation went from +8.79 to +1.49.
Then Black played ...c6, a blunder, and the same position came back with one extra pawn move on each side. Same idea, same result: knight to e5 was winning, and taking it still allowed queen to h5 mate. I played the knight to d2 instead (+6.64 to +2.87).
The third chance
Black played ...e6, and now the king had a way out on e7, so the mate in one was gone. But the engine still had the same move at the top.
I went the other way with my queen, to b3. +5.18 became +1.88. Three times in a row the best move in the position was the same knight jump, and three times I made a quiet developing move instead.
I can tell you what I was doing, because the moves say it: c3, Nbd2, Qb3. That's my London System setup, played on autopilot. I had a plan for normal positions and I followed it in a position that wasn't normal at all. My opening accuracy over the first twelve moves was 67.9.
I did come out of the opening a pawn up. My bishop took my opponent's knight on b8, the other bishop took the pawn on a6, and after the trades I was +2.06 at move 12.
The middlegame: thirteen blunders
The middle of the game was a mess. I made 13 blunders in the whole game and my opponent made nine, and the evaluation crossed zero several times, from +2.82 on move 15 to -0.59 after move 16, back to +2.48, down to -0.59, up to +5.44, down to -0.74. On move 31 I pushed my a-pawn to a5 instead of breaking with e4 (+4.50 to +1.31), and on move 32 it reached a6.
Then on move 39 my opponent's rook took my pawn on g3, a blunder (+0.61 to +7.62). Five moves of captures and checks later, I had won both black rooks for one of mine and Black's queen was chasing my king.
The ending: the king on the wrong square
Here's the moment that turned a win into a draw.
I had a queen, a rook and three pawns against a queen and one pawn. Black's only hope was to keep checking my king. The engine's line after king to h3: queen to g4 check, king to h2, queen to f4 check, king to g2, and Black's queen has to stop checking and take a pawn on e5, with White still completely winning.
I played king to h5. From there it was check on g4, my king to h6, check on g7, my king back to h5, and again. On h5 and h6 my king had no other square, and every check came from the square right next to it, so nothing could block it. The game was drawn by repetition after Black's 50th move, and +5.58 became 0.00.
The clock matters here. I had about a minute; my opponent had 45 seconds. I spent three seconds on the move, and walked my king toward the queen instead of away from it.
What I learned from game #600
When the opponent's pawns move, look at what they used to guard. f6, g5 and h6 meant the diagonal to the black king was open. The question I didn't ask was simple: which squares did those pawns protect, and can I land a piece on one of them? A knight on e5 with the queen ready for h5 was the answer three times.
Setups are for normal positions. I have a London System plan, and it works when Black plays normal moves. When Black's first five moves are g6, f6, g5, h6 and a6, the plan should wait. Forcing moves first, then development.
Facing checks, run toward safety, not toward the enemy queen. With a queen against my king, I should look for the square where checks end, usually behind my own pieces or away from the attacking queen. The engine's h3 did that; my h5 did the opposite.
What came next
Later that day I lost game #601 to Hismail10 (1030) and won #602, and the week finished at 1020. For another opening lesson where one capture would have won, see game #480, and for an ending I threw away the week before, see game #538. The whole series is on the journey page.
If you're not sure what separates a blunder from a mistake in these numbers, here's a plain explanation. And if you want your own games reviewed like this, that's what Chess Coach does inside Claude: how the analysis works. You can replay game #600 on Chess.com.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Modern Defense with 1.d4?
It's the name Chess.com gives to 1.d4 g6: Black fianchettoes the bishop on g7 and lets White take the center. In game #600 my opponent played it very differently, with ...f6, ...g5 and ...h6 on the next moves.
What was the winning idea in game #600?
Knight to e5. With Black's f-, g- and h-pawns pushed, the diagonal from h5 to the king on e8 was open, and Ne5 threatened queen to h5 checkmate. On moves 6 and 7 taking the knight didn't help, because queen to h5 was still mate. Stockfish had Ne5 as the best move on moves 6, 7 and 8, with the position at +8.79, +6.64 and +5.18.
Why was game #600 a draw?
On move 46 I was a rook up, +5.58, with Black's queen giving checks. I put my king on h5, where Black's queen could check it forever between g4 and g7. The engine wanted the king on h3, where the checks run out. The game ended in a draw by repetition.