standing on the shoulders of giants

this humorous quote, attributed to Sir Isaac Newton was partially about how he saw further because he was "standing" on the knowledge passed on by past generations, and partially a slight to his short-statured rival Robert Hooke. our game i titled standing on the shoulders of giants as we both blitzed out about 13 moves of ruy lopez theory

C - K
March match (1) 3/3/2006
C99 - Ruy Lopez : Tchigorin variation, 12. ...cxd4

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 [I haven't found an antidote for the Falkbeer yet (still playing 2.f4 d5 3.Nf3 unsuccessfully online) so I decided to see what he had in store for the Ruy Lopez.] 2...Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3! [The exclam was for bravery. I have been diligently working on tactics for the past couple of weeks so felt comfortable allowing the Marshall. If I go back to an Anti-Marshall it will probably be 8.a4 ;
as i haven't figured out the weakpoints of 8.h3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 Nf6 compared to the mainline] 8...d6 9.h3 Na5! This was a surprise. Kirk probably expected me to vary earlier, but I have never seen him play the Tchigorin before. [Kirk said afterwards he couldn't remember the line that "the Russians used against Fischer" so he decided to play the Tchigorin. I assume he meant 9...Nd7 as in Fischer-Tal ] 10.Bc2 c5 As I got this position, as so many times before, instead of the usual Ng3 and go at the king, I was gonna try and play Nbd2-Nf1-e3 and dominate the weak d5-square 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Nc6 14.Nf1? [The mainline is 14.Nb3 ;
14.a3 is also played to take squares away from the knight.] 14...Nb4?! [Much stronger is 14...exd4 and White can't play 15.Nxd4 because of 15...Nxd4 16.Qxd4 Qxc2;
14...exd4 there are lots of moves for White but I think Black has better play. I may try this as Black from now on 15.Bb1 (15.Bf4; 15.Bg5; 15.Bb3) ] 15.Bb3 a5 16.a3 Na6 17.Bg5 trying to work on e5 and d5 17...h6 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.Ne3 keeping with my plan 19...Be6 20.Bd5? Giving him a tempo to mobilize his pieces [I should've just played 20.Bxe6 fxe6 21.d5 right away] 20...Rac8 21.Bxe6 fxe6 22.d5 [22.dxe5 dxe5 23.Rc1 was another try] 22...Nc5 23.Rc1 [I liked this move but 23.dxe6 Nxe6 24.Qd5 Qd7 25.Rad1 was another attempt] 23...Qd7 24.dxe6 Nxe6 [24...Qxe6 25.Nd5 would've been okay as far as i was concerned too] 25.Nd5 Rxc1 26.Qxc1 Rc8 27.Qd2? [I had Kirk's tactic that didn't work 3 moves later 27.Qxh6 . I should've been looking for things like this.] 27...Bg5? I wonder if Kirk just slowly felt himself get smothered and wanted to force something [27...Qd8 28.Nxf6+ gxf6 29.Qxh6 was still good for me though. HIs position was falling apart] 28.Nxg5 Nxg5 29.Nb6 Qxh3 An interesting try that almost worked 30.Qd5+ Black resigns 1-0