comings and goings

so me and kirk decided not to have a rated match...he wanted some opening advice and we're going to have a "fun" match instead after christmas. i bumped into Shah at Subway today and he said he was interested in going to the tournament which is cool. I decided to play the Bird's/King's Gambit as White and the Open Lopez and Nimzo as Black. Me and Kirk had a practice G/35 today, i'll show the game with some light annotations. I've sucked mightily in blitz so it was nice to get a win

C.Sadler - K.Sadler
London Training (1) G/35
A03 - Bird's Opening : Lasker variation

1.f4 d5
This is the position we started at
2.Nf3 c5!?
Bird himself called this move weak (or was it Blackburne) because this makes it easier for White to develop his light squared bishop
3.e3 Nf6 4.Bb5+
This is the Lasker line. We are following Bird-Janowski 1895 Hastings, but this is wrong. Better is 4.b3 and I should have waited for him to move his knight so I could actually pin it.
4. ...Bd7 5.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 6.b3 e6 7.Bb2 Bd6 8.Qe2!?
Maybe not the strongest move, but I was planning on trying d3,e4 to open the center that way, also I wanted to keep the option of castling queenside a threat. I only half intended to do it, but the threat is greater than the execution or something :)
8. ... O-O 9.d3 d4?!
Kirk wanted to open the center since I was behind on development, but I wonder if this wasn't the best mvoe
10.exd4 Bxf4 11.Nbd2 Rc8
11. ..cxd4 12.Bxd4 e5 was better, killing my bishop
12.c4 Qa5
12. ...Ng4 was playable with a juicy square for the knight on d3. Funny, I never even saw his threat of Ng4 the whole game and Fritz says he could've played it at any time around here
13. O-O Rfe8 14.dxc4 Qxc5+ 15.d4 Qa5 16.Ne4 Nxe4 17.Qxe4 Qc7 18.Rad1
The immediate 18. Ne5 was better...blocking off his pieces from the kingside after 18. ...Bxe5 19.dxe5
18. ...Nf5 19.Qe2 Ng4!
This seemed strong during the game, I wonder if I picked the right continuation
20.Rd3
g3! Ne3 21.gxf4 Qxf4 22.Ne5 was strong for WHite
20. ...Bxh2+ 21.Kh1 Bg3 22.Ne5
22.Ng5! was better 22. ...Nh6 23.Qe4 Nf5 24.d5
22. ...Nxe5 23.dxe5 Bh4 24.Qh5 Bd8
Fritz says it's even but I believe I'm in the drivers seat
25.Rh3 h6 26.Bc1 f5?? 1-0
I'm better in all lines...Kirk's move loses instantly but let's see what else there was
26. ..Qd7 27.Bxh6 (27.Rg3 Bg5 28.Bxg5 hxg5 29.Qxg5 f5 30.exf6 Rf8 +-) 27. ...g6 28.Qf3 +=

Anyways, I'm off to bed. I'm going to get back on the CT-ART track. Hopefully I'll be playing well by then. I'm not sure what King's Gambit to play, probably 3.Bc4 we'll have to see. I want to play another practice game v. Kirk.