1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6? searched in db and this has seldom been played, and usually white plays the critical line e5, although in some games wimped out and played another move to allow black to transpose and undo his incorrect move order. Although the move has been played ostensibly on purpose (not by some momentary lapse) by GMs a couple of times, I believe it is poor enough to deserve a full? The rarity of the move implies that it is occasionally played by black by accident if the player is new to the sicilian and hasn't learnt any theory. 3.e5 A shock that on move 3 I could retreat his knight to g8; I checked in case the line had any independent significance, (i.e. such as the e5 pawn becoming a target), but judged that white is doign well whatever black tries 3...Ng8 Fritz already gives white a pawn advantage in evaluation. I was very happy with how the game had started and wanted to develop quickly and actively 4.Bc4 in hindsight this this bishop caused me quite a lot of trouble in the game with threats of being trapped by b5 c4 and cluttering development of the queenside, and because it can have no realistic threats to the f7 square due to the obvious e6 from black, it purely looks strong but has no real threat in building up an attack. However it does develop the piece and bring white closer to queenside castling. I believe due to these considerations that Nf3 would have been better and maybe the bishop could even have been fianchettoed. [4.Nf3 probably the best, after which white can be very happy with the opening few moves; 4.f4 is possible but not necessarily the best as the f4 pawn may not be ideal once e5 is traded and if white wants to castle kingside] 4...Nc6 logical attacking pawn and best way to start sensible attempt at developing 5.Nf3 [I considered 5.f4 but decided again that the f4 pawn may be badly placed after the e5 pawn is traded] 5...Qc7?! This could probably have a ? instead of ?! but I was unable to find the correct refutation over the board; it is clearly a dangerous move to allow more loss of tempo after the very slow start [5...e6 was logical, nullifying any threats to f7 and facilitating development] 6.Nd5?! not terrible but ultimately it does not win any time as it is forced to retreat after e6 [6.Nb5 is a better way of attacking the queen and the bishop is still eyeing f7 6...Qb8 7.0–0 e6 (7...Nxe5? can have severe consequences if white knows how to repond 8.Nxe5 Qxe5 9.d4! crushing according to Fritz. The black queen has to continue to protect c7 (9.Re1 is still a big advantage for white but not crushing) 9...cxd4 (9...Qb8 10.Qf3 Nf6 11.Bf4 d6 12.Rfe1 white has ferocious development and is threatening to take on d6 12...Kd8 proving the hopelessness of the position 13.dxc5 and white should have no trouble making black's life a misery) 10.Re1 Qc5 threatening bishop on c4 11.b4! Reminiscent of the Evans Gambit or a Sicilian Wing Gambit. Not the easiest move to find by any means, and not so easy to find tenable alternatives; I will look at the alternatives too since there is no guarantee of seeing this kind of move. NB: an important point is the bishop is poisonous because Nd6+ will win the queen a) 11.Qe2?? is a bad mistake and black gets a good game 11...a6 e.g. 12.Na3 Nf6 13.Bf4 b5 14.Qf3 d5 15.Bd3 Be6; b) 11.Bf1 is kind of ok for white; he is a pawn down with good development 11...a6 12.Nxd4 Nf6 13.g3 h5 14.Nb3 Qc6 and white has squandered the advantage, though still has reasonable development in compensation for the pawn; c) 11.Na3? a pretty dismal move after white should have got an advantage without difficulty from the opening 11...e6 12.Bf1 better for black according to F; d) 11.Qd3 looks a bit odd but is actually alright for white 11...a6 (11...d5 12.Bxd5! the bishop is poisonous 12...Nf6 13.Bf3 Bd7 14.Nxd4 Rd8 15.Be3 white has very good development indeed for the pawn, and black is still some way from castling) 12.Nxd4 likewise white has very good development advantage for the cost of a pawn; e) 11.Bf4! A move that Crafty points out, and is very strong 11...e6 (11...d6 loses to 12.Nxd6+; 11...Qxc4 loses the queen to 12.Nd6+ Kd8 13.Nxc4) 12.Nc7+ Kd8 13.Bb3 Rb8 14.Nxe6+ fxe6 15.Bxb8 and white wins a clear exchange; f) 11.b3 white is still doing pretty good after this 11...e6 12.Bb2 a6 13.Nxd4 Nf6 slight advantage to white according to F; 11...Qxb4 (11...Qc6) 12.Ba3 the pieces corrdinate beutifully and this looks crushing; white has three minor pieces and a rook all developed very aggressively on the black king, and all of the black's pieces are in their initial positions apart from the queen; sometimes pieces can defend well from their inital positions but in this case it is just a farcical contrast in piece development between the sides (12.c3 fritz at first liked this the most) 12...Qa4 13.Qxd4 (crafty also suggests 13.Qh5 ; 13.Qe2) ) ; 6.0–0 is probably the best 6...e6 (6...Nxe5 7.Nd5 Nxf3+ 8.Qxf3 Qc6 9.Nc7+! with a revealed attack on the f7 square 9...Kd8 (9...Qxc7 10.Qxf7+ Kd8 11.Qxf8#) 10.Nxa8 Qxf3 11.gxf3 clearly winning for white a full exchange up) ] 6...Qb8 [6...Qa5 is iffy and apparently no better; 6...Qd8 possibly better than Qb8 but surely can't be much better in any case] 7.Qe2 Choosing move 7 was difficult; I wanted to play 0–0 as I was I could make the most of my lead in development if black won the pawn, but it wasn't clear to me precisely how I could go about this and I was worried I would squander the development lead and end up a pawn down stupidly. I felt it was a cop out to play Qe2 but ultimately I played the move I believed in and just wasn't confident about giving up the pawn in this position. [7.0–0 I should really have trusted my intution and played this, and even if I messed up the initiative a pawn down I could analyse the game afterwards I would get practical experience with such a line and could analyse my play afterwards even if it didn't go to plan 7...Nxe5 (7...e6 would apparently have been black's best response anyway 8.Nc3) 8.Nxe5? in fact white can get a fairly crushing advantage if black takes the pawn 8...Qxe5 9.Re1 (9.f4 Qd4+ 10.Ne3 Nf6 11.c3 Qd6) 9...Qd6? a) 9...Qd4 10.Nc7+; b) 9...Qb8 10.d4 e6 (10...cxd4 11.Qxd4) 11.Bf4 (11.Qh5 b6) 11...Bd6 (11...d6 12.Nc3 cxd4 13.Qxd4 e5 14.Bxe5 dxe5 15.Rxe5+ Be7 16.Rae1 Qc7 17.Nd5) ; 10.d4 Nf6 11.Bf4] 7...e6 8.Nc3 I felt a bit gutted at this point; I felt that after my opponent had played such dubiuos moves early in the openign (Nf6 back to Ng8 and Qc7) that I should have a big advantage, but it goes to show unless you are prepared to go into critical lines a pawn down for development etc then the defending side can more or less catch up in development and take the sting out of the position. [8.Nf4 f6 9.Nd3 (9.exf6 Qxf4 10.f7+ Qxf7; 9.d4 cxd4 10.Nd3 b5 11.Bb3) 9...b5 10.Bb3 c4] 8...d5 I was fairly happy after this move as I don't have to worry about defending the e5 pawn [8...f6 9.0–0] 9.exd6 Qxd6? this looks very dubious and Fritz changes the evaluation from +0.5 to about +1.2. I cannot understand the logic of this at all; capturing with the bishops aids development of the kingside pieces and even coordinates well with the queen on b8, whereas the queen capturing is just a target and does not help with developing the pieces. I felt again that I should have a clear advantage after this move. [9...Bxd6] 10.Nb5?! although not bad, this knight is none the less made to retreat again before long. Fritz suggests the best move is d3 continuing development and the queen is pretty misplaced on d6 [when I got home after the game I analysed the game briefly without the computer and this was one move I looked at 10.Ne4 Qc7 11.c3 I suggested this, starting to work out how to make sure the light bishop is active (F 11.b3 Nf6 12.Bb2 Be7) 11...Be7 (11...Nf6 12.0–0) 12.0–0 Nf6 13.d4 the move I suggested is ok but maybe not the best (F suggests 13.Nxf6+ Bxf6 14.d3) 13...cxd4 14.cxd4 Nxd4? would be a blad mistake (14...Bd7) 15.Nxd4 Nxe4 I now looked at both Qx and Bb5+ 16.Qxe4? is wrong (16.Bb5+! Bd7 17.Bxd7+ Qxd7 18.Qxe4 is easily winning for white; I'm glad I reached this far into the analysis with the computer aggreeing with me mostly) 16...Qxc4 e.g. 17.b3 Qd5 18.Qxd5 exd5 19.Re1 white doesn't have enough compensation for the pawn; 10.d3 Qd7 (10...Nf6 11.Nb5 Qb8 12.0–0) ] 10...Qd8 11.0–0 a6 [or 11...Nf6 ] 12.Nc3 Nf6 again the knights is forced to retreat so I never really gain any tempo from attacking the queen on c7 (either of the two times). Again I was left with a slight annoyance that although I'm not doing too badly, I failed to get a substantial advantage out of the opening despite several punishable looking moves committed by my opponent. In this position the feature that bothered me was that my light bishop does not fit very well into the position and black has threats of b5 c4 potentially trapping it, and at the least the bishop seems to encumber development of the queenside and in getting some central control with my pawns. 13.a4 not a move I was that happy about playing, given the hole it creates on b4, but it does do a good job of nullifying threats of b5 on the bishop which at least takes that stress away so that I can concentrate on other things [in hindsight 13.d3 was perfectly playable and it would have been sensible to speed up the dark bishop development and central pawn control; For example if 13.a3 which does not create a hold on b4, there is a big drawback 13...b5 14.Bb3 c4 15.Ba2 actually fritz has a clever way of activating the bishop again 15...Be7 16.Rd1! preparing d3 and recapturing with the rook 16...0–0 17.d3 black has to take or loses a pawn 17...cxd3 18.Rxd3 Qc7] 13...Bd6 this move is ok, as is Be7 14.d3 I prefer this to 14.b3 14...Qc7 a decent enough move with a threat in mind; naturally of Nd4 attacking the queen and knight which leads to the loss of a pawn due to Bxh2+, so white has to meet this threat. The main choises appear to be g3 and h3. I preferred h3 in this position as it also covers g4, but admittedly it has a drawback of a potential attack down the g file by black hitting the g4 square. There are actually other options to meet the threat too: Bg5 and Be3; things can get pretty complicated as can be seen. [F prefers 14...0–0 ] 15.h3 [15.g3 is perfectly sound (I think) but the fianchetto structure without the bishop is slightly compromising long term, and black still has options of complicating with h5 and h4; 15.Bg5 0–0 (the main point is showing why 15...Nd4 doesn't work 16.Nxd4 cxd4 (16...Bxh2+ 17.Kh1 cxd4 18.Bxf6 dxc3 19.Bxg7 Rg8 20.Bxc3 Bd6 and white emerges clearly better) 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Ne4 f5 (18...Bxh2+ 19.Kh1 Bf4 20.Nxf6+ is complicated but it has to be nicer for white) 19.Nxd6+ Qxd6 20.Qh5 and white's position is clearly nicer with much greater king safety) 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qe3 is pretty good for white; 15.Be3 I should have considered this, as not only does it parry the threat but does not commit to any pawn moves in front on the king. On the other hand my f3 knight is still effectively 'pinned' due to the threat of Bxh2+ so it's probably not a bad idea to remove this threat of Bxh2+ permanently 15...0–0 16.h3 here Fritz suggested h3 anyway; naturally the plan is g5 is no longer on for black after committing to castling kingside] 15...Ne5?! a questionable move; black's c6 knight was strong controlling b4 d4 and e5 and trading it is nice for white [15...0–0 probably better to start with] 16.Nxe5 I'm more than happy to trade it off, plus all other moves that I can think of look silly here [16.Bg5 is possible but just seems pointless 16...Nxf3+ 17.Qxf3 Bh2+ 18.Kh1 Be5] 16...Bxe5 17.Re1 I was happy with this move; it develops the rook to a logical strong position on e1 with tempo 17...Bh2+ Fritz aggrees with this intermezzo, moving the king. I'm not entirely sure why but admittedly the king may not be as well placed on f1 or h1 as on g1. 18.Kh1 Fritz at first suggests Kf1 but I think that is a case of the computer lacking positional common sense in some cases, and after processing for longer agrees with Kh1 18...Bd6 [F seems to prefer 18...Bf4 e.g. 19.Bxf4 (19.a5 Bxc1 20.Rexc1 Bd7) 19...Qxf4] 19.Bg5 The natural move, and by now I was feeling fairly upbeat about my position after the initial stresses of working out the development of the queenside and potential problems of the light squared bishop 19...Be7 [F suggests castling straight away, although it could be wrong as the lines following BxN and gxf are sharp and could easily lead to problems for black 19...0–0 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Qh5] 20.Bh4 I'm happy with this plan, preparing Bg3 with a strong positioning of the bishop 20...0–0 21.Bg3 actually Fritz says that a5 was better here [21.a5] 21...Qb6? it looks like a clear mistake to allow the white bishop to have the run of the diagonal. None the less I have to meet the threat on the b2 pawn. I considered a5, which Fritz says is the best move, but not all variations were clear to me so I decided against risking something I couldn't calculate to the end clearly [21...Bd6 22.Bxd6 Qxd6 trading off the strong white bishop is the best option] 22.Bb3 a little anti position perhaps but it does the job and white still has a positional advantage [22.b3 doesn't look very nice; 22.a5 apparently the best move 22...Qc6 (22...Qxb2? 23.Na4 I looked at this but thought after Qd4 the black queen escapes having snatched a pawn, but there is more to it: 23...Qd4 24.Nb6 Ra7 25.Bb8! winning the exchange. A good example of why it is important to be able to calculate forced lines as far as possible in order to seize good opportunities) ] 22...Bd7 Fritz aggrees with this; it is logical to develop the remaining minor piece 23.Be5 I think this is quite a nice positional move, (it seems immediate a5 would have been technically stronger though); the main point of it is it removes the pin on the b3 bishop as the b2 pawn is defended now, and it also does quite a nice job of putting an at least temporary positional cramp on black. It seems that in this position black has to play quite carefully. 23...Bc6 quite a good practical move, with an uncomfortable attack xray attack on the whtie king. I was considering whether to move my king straight away but saw that a5 prodding the queen was good positionally. [F suggests 23...Qa5 ] 24.a5 Fritz aggrees this is the best move. After playing this I none the less admonished myself for not properly looking at the Bxg2 sacrifice; it is unlikely to be any good but I felt I should have looked at it at least briefly 24...Qd8 25.Ne4 F aggress with this. Instead of making a time losing king move when my king is not even in immediate danger I prefer to unravel my position further at the same time as blocking the diagonal attack 25...Nxe4?! Fritz says this is a mistake. [25...Nd5 and white only has a slightly better position] 26.dxe4 So after all the drama of the opening and early middlegame we now reach a position with all heavy pieces but only bishop pairs left, so it's the kind of time to clear your head and reassess the position. (There wasn't a lot of time to kill in the game though as it was 75 minutes for 36 moves and a 15 minute rapid play finish, so I had to ration myself to about two minutes per move and if a move took much longer than that there had to be a good reason, but I managed to keep the clock situation so that I had the equivalent of two minutes per move right until the time control). In this position black really does have to be very careful as white has quite a cramp on the position and the black queen has very limited options. 26...Bf6?! This lead to a nasty intermezzo, which although was still tenable for black, it required accurate and calm play. I at first looked at BxB QxB and then maybe e5, but realised that left white with little chance of any advantage, (in fact is may worse for white). It then struck me to look at Rfe1, attacking the queen rather than parrything the threat of black winning the bishop on e5, and looking through the responses I was happy with what I was seeing; they all seemed to be somewhat detrimental to black whatever he plays. I had a strong feeling I was likely to win the game after Rfe1. [F suggests 26...Bb5 e.g. 27.Bc4 Qe8 and F gives white about half a pawn advantage] 27.Red1! In this position my opponent needed to think calmly about any possible tenable defence, but instead he played a losing tactical move. Qc8 or Qe8 was necessary. 27...Bb5?? this made me wonder if I had made a mistake for a second or so, but then I realised my opponent had essentially given up and that c4 totally refutes this [27...Qc8 28.Bxf6 gxf6 29.Qg4+ is not pleaseant for black at all 29...Kh8 30.Qh4 Kg7 31.Qg3+ Kh8 32.Qf4 f5 and he looks in trouble (Fritz +1.9); 27...Qe7? is naturally no good because of the skewer 28.Bd6 winning a clear exchange; 27...Bd7?? is obviously unplayable 28.Bxf6 gxf6 (28...Qxf6 29.Rxd7) 29.Ba4 Qxa5 (29...b5 30.axb6 Qxb6 31.Rxd7) 30.Rxd7; when originally analysing I thought this was the best option for black, allowing BxB gxf 27...Qe8 28.Bxf6 gxf6 where it is not entirely pleasant for black but white has work to do to prove his advantage; also black can play Kh8 Rg8 and use the g file for counterplay. I think practically speaking this was the best move for black, (it is psychologically easier than giving up the queen for a rook and piece unless the latter is clearly good). 29.c3 (NB: the queen play such as 29.Qg4+ is not as good as after Qc8 because the black queen can support f6 with Qe7, and this is why 27...Qe8 is better than 27...Qc8 by the look of it 29...Kh8 30.Qf4 Qe7) ; 27...Bxe5 according to Fritz this is the best move for black, although it is difficult for black to give up his queen like that 28.Rxd8 Rfxd8 black could have good drawing chances. Although not pleasant for black, it certainly looks like white has a lot of work to do to try and win the position. this is reminiscent of the analysis of my game against Mark Broom in September 2011 where Fritz showed an actual (apparently dead drawn) fortress with Q+R+B vs R+R+B+B.] 28.c4 Bd7 there is nothing better 29.Bxf6 gxf6 30.Ba4 the crushing refutation of 27...Bb5. The only doubt I had was b5 but I saw that after axb6 the pin is still on, (it's important to note that Ra7 cannot help defend as the a7 square is attacked by the b6 pawn.) [At first I had looked at 30.Qd2 seeing that Bc8 and Be8 lose a whole rook, but saw that Bc6 is fine for black. Then I saw the crushing move Ba4.] 30...Qxa5 [30...b5 doesn't help 31.axb6] 31.Bxd7 This is fine, but F still slightly prefers taking with the rook [31.Rxd7 b5 I was concerned about this, losing the rook on a1 if the bishop moves, however it is harmless after cxb 32.cxb5 (32.Qg4+ is even stronger 32...Kh8 33.Qh4 bxa4 34.Ra3 is forced mate (in my own analysis I looked at 34.Qxf6+ Kg8 35.Rd3 which is also crushing but not a forced mate) 34...Qe1+ (34...Rad8 35.Qxf6+ Kg8 36.Rg3#) 35.Kh2 and there is no sensible way to avoid mate, for example: 35...Rg8 36.Qxf6+ Rg7 37.Rg3 Rag8 38.Qxg7+ Rxg7 39.Rd8+ Rg8 40.Rdxg8#) 32...axb5 33.Qxb5 Qxb5 34.Bxb5 Rxa1+] 31...Qb4 black has no good moves; maybe he can play to make it difficult for white to retrieve his bishop somehow. I now stalled a little. I had won a piece and got a totally winning position as a result, however I was unhappy about my bishop's position and was looking for the cleanest way to bring it back to base. 32.Ba4 I think this is a fair move practically speaking, although Fritz drops the evaluation from 5 pawns to 3 pawns for white. I wanted to avoid complications and stay a good piece up, (actually I'm a pawn down but have good compensation in play against his king etc too). After this I only had about about 4 or 5 minutes left to make the last few moves before the time control, which should be plenty, but after the time control there is only 15 minutes for the rest of the game. [32.Ra4 Qb6 33.Qg4+ Kh8 34.Qh4 Qd8; Fritz says the following is the best 32.Qg4+ Kh8 33.Qh4 Qxb2 34.Bxe6 Rg8 (34...fxe6 35.Rab1 Qxb1 (35...Qc3 leads to forced mate 36.Rxb7) 36.Rxb1) 35.Bxf7; 32.Ra3 Rad8 33.Qg4+ Kh8 34.Qh4 (34.Rad3 Qxb2) 34...Qxb2] 32...Qb6 [32...b5 33.cxb5 axb5 34.Bxb5 Rxa1 35.Rxa1 Rb8 36.Rd1 Kg7 (36...Rxb5 37.Rd8+ Kg7 38.Qg4+ Kh6 39.Rg8 mates) 37.Qg4+ Kh8 38.Be2 Qxb2 39.Rd7 Rf8 (39...Rg8 40.Qf4 f5 (40...Qxe2 41.Qxf6+ Rg7 42.Rd8#) 41.Bd3 Qg7 42.g3 fxe4 43.Bxe4 and white easily wins) ; F1: 32...Rfd8 ] 33.Ra3! not messing about this time; with the ruthless threat of Rg3+ 33...Rab8? I can only think this is a passing move in order to keep the game on white's clock time [F1: 33...Kh8 ] 34.Rg3+ strong but there was a much better move according to F [34.Qg4+ Kh8 35.Rb3 (35.Rg3 is obviously pointless after Rg8 35...Rg8) 35...Qxb3 (35...Qc7 36.Qh4 Rg8 (36...Qe5 37.f4 Qxe4 38.Qxf6+ Kg8 39.Rg3+ Qg6 40.Rxg6+ hxg6 the position is trivial) 37.Qxf6+ Rg7 38.Rbd3 Fritz gives white +12) ] 34...Kh8 35.Qf3? I'm very unhappy about this move and class it as a blunder, although white is still winning after black's best reply it gives black unnecessary chances to get back in the game with 3 pawns vs one on the queenside and my bishop currently being awkwardly placed on the queenside on the a file. Obviously this hangs the b2 pawn and after black takes it with the queen he covers f6. I noticed this within a coupld of seconds of playing it but was extremely relieved when I could see my opponent was not taking much time on his move and was about to play something else. 35...f5? now after the slight slip white can breathe a sigh of relief [35...Qxb2] 36.Qc3+ the position is now in the territory of forced mates 36...f6 37.Rd7 now there is no defence to a forced mate for black (providing white can find it) 37...Rbd8 in this position I was sure there had to be a mate but just couldn't find it. I would like to think given more time to think, (e.g. in a tournament game with 30 or 45 minutes added at the time control), that I would have found it soon after, but I only had five or ten minutes to finish the game so after a while I reluctantly traded the rook and got on with winning the game that way. 38.Rxd8 [38.Rg8+ a neat little mate which really shouldn't have been difficult to see in this position 38...Kxg8 (38...Rxg8 39.Qxf6+ Rg7 40.Qxg7#) 39.Qg3+ Kh8 40.Qg7#] 38...Qxd8 39.exf5 e5 40.Rd3 seizing control of the middle file with the rook. Of course the game should objectively be a formality now, but I still wasn't happy to relax yet 40...Qc8 threatening the f5 pawn, but this allows me to make a very favourable repositioning of my bishop which makes the win very easy 41.Bd7 Qc7 42.Be6 now my bishop is in the perfect place and there is little left to worry about 42...Rd8 43.Rxd8+ [the machine says 43.Rg3 is better, however computers don't understand the concept of blundering because they look at everything, and in this position it is the best human strategy to trade pieces and reduce any chance of counterplay for the defender] 43...Qxd8 44.Kh2 again a good human move in this kind of situation, taking away any chance of black checking the king; white is in no hurry (in a chess sense, although I was playing my moves pretty fast as I only had a few minutes left) and can methodically convert the win 44...Qf8 45.Qd3 Qb8 this looks like a clever trick, with the 'threat' of e4+ checking and attacking the queen with the pawn, however Qg3 intercepts it and moves the queen; a nice attempted trick by my opponent while I was fairly short of time however it didn't actually have any substance 46.g3 parrying the perceived threat, (again I would like to think given a bit more time on the clock I would have seen it was a harmless threat, but none the less it is a good idea to remove any chances of a swindle out of the position 46...b6 47.Qd7 preparing to trade queens 47...a5 48.Qf7 I thought for a second I had a mate, but obviously Qd8 parries this 48...Qd8 49.Qd7 enough is enough and it's time to trade queens and get this over with 49...Qf8 50.Qc8 Qxc8 51.Bxc8 although the endgame is technically trivial, it is still good practice to maintain good form in moves played and plans. I waste no time in walking my king straight up the diagonal g2-f3-e4-d5 51...Kg7 52.Kg2 h6 a pointless pawn move but the position is nevertheless defenceless 53.Kf3 Kf7 54.Ke4 Ke7 55.Kd5 Kd8 Fritz now suggests Ke6, but in a practical situation it would be cocky to play like this and give up the piece as it could backfire unless it is and extremely simplified position, especially when there are only a few minutes on the clock 56.Be6 [56.Ke6 Kxc8 57.Kxf6 Kd7 58.Kg7 b5 59.cxb5 e4 60.f6] 56...Kc7 57.f4 as good a way as any 57...exf4 58.gxf4 a4 59.Bf7 clearing space for my king to come to e6 and queen the f pawn 59...Kd7 The white king is blocked for now, but there are three ways that I can see of creating an immediate zugzwant for black: h4, Bg6, and the move I played Bh5 60.Bh5 Looking at the game now I like this move the most out of the options; it is a clear zugzwang as the a and b pawns will be lost for black if either move, and white has the opposition so if black moves his king, the white king can proceed and win 60...Kc7 [60...Ke7 61.Kc6 is just as bad for black] 61.Ke6 Kc6 62.Kxf6 b5 this allows a nasty bishop check that removes even the faintest hope of black getting a passed pawn. White would have to go out of his way here to give black a chance of saving the game, e.g. 63.Be8+ [63.h4 b4 64.Ke6 a3 65.bxa3 bxa3 66.Ke7?? a2 letting black queen] 63...Kb6 64.Bxb5 after this my opponent played on until checkmate, which from a practical point of view was sensible as I was down to a couple of minutes on the clock so it's possible for someone to blunder and allow a stalemate for example in that situation, however having 'grown up' on a diet of playing thousands of blitz chess games, (not that I am recommending blitz as it can be bad for your form, although it is good if you are not used to time trouble and want practice at converting technical wins quickly), I did not feel any doubt whatsoever about finishing the game sensibly. 64...h5 65.Ke6 h4 66.f6 Ka5 67.f7 Kb4 68.f8Q a3 69.bxa3+ Kxa3 70.Qa8+ [of course 70.Qxc5+ was the obvious move] 70...Kb3 71.Qa4+ Kc3 72.Qa3+ Kd4 73.Qb2+ Ke4 74.Qe5+ Kd3 75.Qxc5 Ke4 76.Qe5+ Kd3 77.c5+ I managed to write down most of my moves until about two minutes were left on the clock, (so I could analyse the moves later), but I now put the pen down and concentrated on finishing the game. I pushed the c pawn and promoted to a rook, checking carefully on each move that there was no chance of a stalemate, then checkmated with the queen and rook. I worried myself a couple of times in this final conversion of the game with a few minutes left as a couple of times I forgot to press the digital clock and gave me opponent ten or twenty seconds each time; naturally he did not tell me as he probably hoped I would lose on time, and the fact I did this twice was a bit silly; in any case drama was avoided and the game was converted cleanly. Overall an odd game in the opening which still leaves me pretty baffled, (then again the opening is the most subtle and difficult part of the game according to top players), since I was sure there was a way of getting a clear advantage, but this seemed to mostly disappear into the middlegame. None the less I still had an advantage into the middle game and apart from the slight lapse of 35.Qf3? giving black a slight chance of counterplay, (and missing a pretty simple checkmate, although I can forgive myself this as I had given myself a time limit to spend looking for a checkmate and needed to get on with winning the game), I'm very happy with how I played both positionally and tactically, as well as in the endgame conversion of the win. 1-0
