G/25 w K

C - K [D35]
G/25 04.06.2011

In preparation for a summer tournament we decided to get together and play a QGD G/25 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c6 5.cxd5 [I know I could play but he plays the Cambridge Springs and I don't like it 5.Nf3 ] 5...exd5 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.Qc2 h6 9.Bh4 Be6 10.Nf3 Nbd7 11.0-0 Rc8 [I thought I had the exact same position as in a current correspondence game that I have but my memory is obviously faulty. 11...Re8 12.Bg3 Nh5 13.Be5 Bg4 14.Ne1 Nhf6 15.h3 Be6 16.f4 etc] 12.Ne5 [If I wanted to try something like this maybe 12.h3 Re8 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.dxe5 Nd7 15.Bg3 Nc5] 12...Nxe5 13.dxe5 Ng4 The first of many oversights this game...dropping a pawn 14.Bg3 Qc7 [Fritz liked 14...Bh4 better, stopping anything funny] 15.Qe2? [15.Be2! was better. I didn't even look at this because I didn't realize my Bd3 was attacked;
After the game we looked at 15.Bf5 Nxe5 but it had the same problems] 15...Nxe5 16.Bc2 [Shoudl have put some pressure on him 16.Rac1 ] 16...Bd6 17.f4 Bg4! Not sure if it was the best move but i definitely overlooked it 18.Qf2 [18.fxe5 Bxe2 19.exd6 Qb6 20.Nxe2] 18...Nc4 19.b3 Na3 Despite the material (and looming pin) I thought I was still good mainly because of this awful knight. 20.Bd3 Rfe8 21.Ne2? [K thought that 21.Kh1 was good] 21...Bxe2 22.Bxe2? [22.Qxe2 Bc5 23.Bf2 etc] 22...Bc5 23.f5 Qb6 24.Kh1 Nc2 25.f6 Nxe3 26.Qf3 Nxf1 27.Rxf1 g6 28.Bd3 Re3 29.Qf4?? [Short on time I missed 29.Qg4! saving the game as it gains me a tempo since the rook is attacked] 29...Rxd3 30.Qxh6 Bf8! 31.Qf4 Qd4 32.Qg5 Rd1 yes i got run over (badly) but it was nice to play. i'm impressed how much effort K has put into this 0-1

any ideas on a good line v. mainlain Scandinavian? That was something else that came up in conversation...let me know :)

I'm flattered

I was flattered to receive this email today

Gentlemen

Hope you are well! I've been informed that the 10th Pan/Am Team Tournament is being organized this year, by CADAP (the South American CC zone). I'm contacting all those players who played for Canada on our two teams in the 9th Pan/Amm TT, plus have extended invitations to all those that seem to be most of our other top players and that are still relatively active. It seems the start date is some time in July, but I believe if more time is needed this will be pushed up to August or September. Also, Canada, once again has been given the opportunity to form two teams if we wish. This is in case, however, they need more teams in order to put together the event. This event will be played on the ICCF Webserver, like last time.

Naturally I will try to put together the strongest team(s) possible. I also realize that some of you already have heavy commitments in other events. And I understand this. If you're interested in playing, please let me know one way or the other, asap! Thanks.

Best wishes

we'll see if anything comes of it. i'm very excited and honoured to even be mentioned. i am planning on playing a tournament with K this summer (dusting off my OTB "skillz") hopefully in London but we'll see

2 more G/15s

C - K
C31 - King's Gambit Declined
G/15 Owen Sound (1), 16.02.2011

We played 2 more G/15s tonight 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 I was hoping for this 3.exd5 Bc5 [3...e4 4.d3] 4.d3 [I played the passive text, worrying about ...e4 instead of the aggressive 4.Nf3 ] 4...Bxg1? Positional mistake. If he really wanted a pawn he could have grabbed the d-pawn with less trouble 5.Rxg1 Qh4+ 6.g3 Qxh2 7.Rg2 Qh1 8.Qe2 Bh3 9.Qxe5+ Ne7 10.Rf2 f6?? [10...Bxf1 and Fritz doesn't mind his position after 11.Rxf1 Qxd5 of course...the knight isn't pinned when the queen moves.] 11.Qh5+ with a double attack. Not a real interesting game. 1-0

K - C
A88 - Dutch : Leningrad Variation
G/15 Owen Sound (2), 16.02.2011

1.g3 I figured he was ticked off so I'd try and transpose into something interesting as opposed to grinding him in a symmetrical KIA/KID 1...f5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 d6 4.Bg2 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Nf3 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.e3? [Teh text was passive 8.Qc2 aiming for 8...-- 9.e4 was better] 8...Nbd7 9.Ng5 I didn't see this at all 9...Nb6 10.b3 h6 [Fritz recommended the immediate 10...e5 ] 11.Nf3 Nbd7 12.Ba3 Qa5 13.Bb2 e5 14.Nh4 Kh7 15.Qc2 e4 16.Bh3 g5?? [I should have continued with locking down everything with 16...d5 like I had been planning, but I got impatient] 17.Nxf5? [17.Bxf5+ Kg8 (17...Kh8 18.Ng6+) 18.Be6+ Kh8 19.Ng6+] 17...g4 18.Bg2 Qxf5 19.Nxe4 Kh8 avoiding all the checks [19...d5 Fritz says would work as well 20.Nxf6+ Nxf6] 20.Rac1 Nxe4 21.Bxe4 Qa5 22.Bc3 Qd8 23.d5 c5 24.Qb2 Ne5! blocking up everything 25.f4 gxf3 26.Rxf3 Nxf3+ 27.Bxf3 Bxc3 28.Qxc3+ Qf6 we both used a chunk of time but missed some big tactics 0-1

not a particularly memorable evening of chess but we did get to play which is important...

2 games

C - K
C78 - Ruy Lopez
G/15 Owen Sound (1), 14.01.2011

We played a couple of games at his house tonight (G/15) in preparation for the tourney on January 29th. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 He asked for a Ruy Lopez 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 [If I had known that he was going to avoid the mainline I would have just played 5.d3 ] 5...Bc5 6.d3 [I chickened out. I shoudl have just played my usual 6.Nxe5 ] 6...b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.Bg5 d6 9.Nc3 [9.Bd5] 9...Nd4 10.Nd5 [Fritz thinks I should have played 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.Nd5] 10...c6 11.Nxf6+ gxf6 12.Bh6 Re8 [He had the intermezzo 12...Nxb3 He should have been looking hader at this point] 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Qf3 Kh8 15.Bxf7 for instance. And he resigned.

Not a great game by him. I was happy enough...yes I didn't see anything, but I saw what little was there and played sensibly. 1-0

K - C
A40 - Owens Defense
G/15 Owen Sound (2), 14.01.2011

In return I asked him to play 1.d4 e6 I had been thinking about playing this for a while so figured...why n ot? 2.e4 [If 2.c4 I could always transpose to a Queen's Indian. I was thikning about doing this from 1.e4 e6 and if 2.d4 then b6 and if 2.Nf3 or other, going to a Sicilian] 2...b6?! Unusual but I wanted to get K out of his comfort zone 3.c4 Bb7 4.Nc3 [4.Qc2 Qh4 was in Silman's book based on a Korchnoi Candidates game (!)] 4...Bb4 Pressure on the e-pawn 5.Bd3 f5 6.f3 and I think I'm already better 6...fxe4 7.fxe4 Bxe4? [7...Nf6 is better] 8.Qg4? [and he blinked first 8.Bxe4 Qh4+ 9.Kf1 and he's better because Bxc3 is no longer check and my rook is hanging] 8...Bxd3 9.Qxg7 Qf6 10.Qxf6 Nxf6 11.Bg5 Rf8 [11...Ne4] 12.0-0-0 Bxc4 13.Kb1 Bxc3 14.bxc3 Ne4 Another easy win and we had a couple beers, but neither one of us saw very much! 0-1

2011 Chess Goals

it has been a busy year with the arrival of our twins in May. I have 2 goals for 2011 (chess wise)

firstly, is to play in 2 tournaments. The first one me and K are aiming for is at the end of January (good start). If I can get an active in or something before end of year my goal will be complete

secondly, is to get up to 2300 in correspondence. i am over 2200 but i think the next 100 points will be a lot harder than the last 100 :)

happy new year everyone!

big center QID

so me and K have decided to try and go to a chess tournament at the end of January since K is going to have a little k running around in the spring. so i've started playing less DDO and more chess again :) I went through a couple of Rubinstein games and I saw an interesting transposition in the QGD

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 b6 giving either the option of the Dutch or the Queen's Indian or something completely different. i tried it in blitz, for what it's worth, and it went okay. the way i play the Queen's Indian i go for the big center anyways. the idea with this though is that after 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6 etc. it's something i'd normaly play. anyways, there's my theory for the month :)

correspondence chess master

so as of today at ICCF i am a correspondence master

Rating Forecast Jan 2011 Rating 2206
Games 67
Calculation 90585 C 2189 from 63 games

very exciting...now i just need to get there OTB :)

also i've figured out how not to get upset when i start losing in blitz...if i tell myself i'm going through nerdrage that appears to calm me...we'll see how it goes

hopefully more chess in the new year...i'd like to play a "real" tournament...time will tell

hot theory and 1.e4 e5

i'm quite impressed with 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 Qb6 as a sharp line for Black



i used to play 3. ...dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 and get checkmated horrifically. Thank you Ivanchuk for bringing it to my attention.

Also, isn't it always a good idea to play 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 and not 2.f4! until they play the Petroff or the Philidor? :)

I'm also interested in 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g5?! as a lethal blitz weapon...can i use it v. 3.Bc4? likely not :)

am i a boring player?

in a fit of rage, i played about 25 3+0 games until 2am last night...and 2 players commented that i had a boring style or something along those lines (funny how when i lose no one ever comments). they said that i just exchanged everything off...i mentioned that it was 3+0 but that wasn't enough for them :) maybe i am boring...will have to look at my games...

Tournament in September?

K mentioned the idea of going to play an Active tournament in September. I am the new parent of a set of twins who were born in May and K has a baby on the way due in March 2011, so there is the chorus of "last chance for a long time". Critics will note that I haven't played a tournament since 2008 even with no kids. In any case, I think this will actually happen.

Which leads to the inevitable question of "What to play?" Since playing Correspondence my knowledge is deeper than it is wide, and playing my tax bracket at a rated tournament it would have to be wide. I'm toying with the idea of playing 1.g3 as White and the King's Indian and Modern as Black. It's active...not much time to refute...and I've become relatively battle hardened as these have been my blitz openings (more or less) since I read Suttle's books

i`m sure i will flip flop...if i`m playing in a section where there will be people rated lower than me, i could always play 1.e4, Sicilian. I will likely play King`s INdian v. everything else. In any case...more to come (hopefully!)

A correspondence game I'm happy with

here's a game v. a strong opponent in ICCF that i'm happy that my prep stood up

NN (C's rating + 400) - C
Slovenia (2) ICCF 2010

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Qc7 11.Rh4 e6 12.Bf4 Bd6 13.Bxd6 Qxd6 14.Ne4 Qe7 15.Qa3 Qxa3 16.bxa3



he had played this position in a previous game and I hadn't intended to play the Caro-Kann in this tournament, but I thought that, despite the fact that White has a *huge* score in this line, with the queens off Black had to be as good if not better.

16. ...Ke7

of course around this time the Anand-Topalov game took place where Anand had the doubled a-pawns and won a nice game and i was second guessing my positional judgement. Anand vs Topalov, 2010

17.Rb1 b6 18.Ne5 Nxe5 19.dxe5 f6 20.Nd2 fxe5 21.Rg4 g5 22.hxg6 h5 23.Rc4 c5 24.Nf3 Kf6 25.Re4 Ne7 26.Nxe5 Rhd8 27.Rb3 Rd4 28.Rf3+ Nf5 29.Rff4 Rd5 30.Nd3 Rg8 31.Rf3 Rd4 ½-½



i held it pretty easily and may have even been better in the final position. he was the correspondence champion of Poland a couple of years ago so I was very happy with this game.

draw v. a SIM

C - NN
D14
Slovenia's 15 years of ICCF (2) 2010

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 is going to an exchange slav here so bad? unfortunately i can't get any of the Bb5 lines where there is play, but I am outrated by 400 points.



5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Bf4 Nc6 7.Rc1 [A finesse because if 7.e3 Bg4 actually works] 7...Bf5 8.e3 Rc8 9.Be2 e6 10.0-0 Bd6 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.Na4 0-0 13.Nc5 Rc7 14.Qb3 Qe7 15.Rc3 Bg4 16.Rfc1



i wonder if i shouldn't have played sharper. i was going for equality and trying to follow Khenkin vs Karjakin, 2008 Khenkin ended up drawing.

16...e5 17.dxe5 Nxe5 18.Nxe5 Bxe2 19.Na4 Rfc8 20.Rxc7 Rxc7 21.Rxc7 Qxc7 22.Qc3 Bc4 23.Nxc4 dxc4



transforming the IQP into a 3 v. 2 on the queenside. i thought if his king was a little closer he'd have some winning chances. luckily i was wrong :)

24.Qd4 Nd7 25.Nc3 b5 26.b3 = and i offered a draw which he took ½-½ not a real glorious game but hey it was a titled player. it's a very strong tournament where i'm outrated by almost 400 points in every game...we'll see if i surprise some people. ir is cowardly to play the slav exchange, but hey if he just would've played a semi-slav the best i could've had was the QGD Exchange :)

Chessbase 8 and self-improvement

I am showing my age ;) but I still use Chessbase 8 for my chess database. One of my favourite features is the Dossier where it shows your repertoire and what the percentages are and what your performance rating is. Last year for instance it showed that I scored 18% with 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 (rated purely on games from 2001). i had played 1.g3 the odd time so I decided that if, over the year i got either 1.g3 d5 or 1.Nf3 d5 i would go for the King's Indian Attack just to raise my score. And I did :) So in the interest of scientific research I decided to do the same thing...this is from my personal database of over 11000 correspondence, OTB, and blitz games.

My lowest two as white are two of my most hated lines as White :

1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4 and 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4

(in the interest of putting some positivity my best numbers are against 1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6)

As Black my best is surprisingly the Queen's Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 and my worst is the Colle 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3

maybe for 2010 I'll go back to playing 1.d4 d5...i enjoy the Queen's Gambit Accepted, the Tarrasch and the Semi-Slav. And if I happen to beat some Colle's too...so be it :)

Slovenia's 15 years at ICCF

i'm playing in my first Norm tournament. granted it's correspondence not OTB chess, but here it is. Starts March 30, 2010. I need 6.5/10 for a norm which will be quite the performance I think. i'm quite outclassed and am taking on 2 SIMs and one IM. will be interesting.

Slovenia's 15 Years Membership of ICCF - Semif. 13 TD Pheby, Ian M.
Category 5 SIM=7 IM=6½ LGM=4½ LM=2½ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Score SB R Place
1 GER 85172 Laube, Bernd 2376 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
2 SWE 451180 Colin, Sonny 2322 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
3 GER 83546 Starke, Heiko 2365 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
4 NED 370381 Panman, Henryk J. 2361 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
5 SLO 480115 Jemec, Viktor 2376 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
6 GER 81252 SM Sielaff, Rudolf 2456 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
7 POL 429125 Slawinski, Tomasz 2470 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
8 DEN 150184 SM Nørrelykke, Svend G. J. 2408 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
9 POL 421428 Szymanski, Robert 2325 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
10 CAN 90585 C 2012 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1
11 ENG 211154 IM Shaw, Sidney S. 2398 . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 10 1

since the first round of this tournament i have only lost 3 games in ICCF. (8 wins, 3 losses, 12 draws) but the losses have been in the King's Indian and a Trompowsky where I grabbed a pawn prematurely and got beaten quite badly. The King's Indian losses were quite bad...i bet i get quite a few 1.d4s :) It is going to be fun. I have enrolled K as my "second" we'll see how it goes.

Fischer's 60 Memorable Games

Today I finished Fischer's 60 Memorable Games, 2008 edition, redone by Batsford in algebraic with no editorial changes. Fabulous book...highly recommended.

Here's one of my favourite games from it...there were a lot of fabulous games, Byrne-Fischer, etc. but here's one v. Smyslov that I quite liked as it gave me a new idea as White in the Lopez if, for instance, the guy plays a line i'm not too fond of



Fischer - Smyslov
Capablanca Memorial 1965
C77 - Ruy Lopez

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 Be7
7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Nf1 b5 9. Bb3 d5 10. Qe2 dxe4 11. dxe4 Be6
12. Bxe6 fxe6 13. Ng3 Qd7 14. O-O Rad8 15. a4 Qd3 16. Qxd3
Rxd3 17. axb5 axb5 18. Ra6 Rd6 19. Kh1 Nd7 20. Be3 Rd8 21. h3
h6 22. Rfa1 Ndb8 23. Ra8 Rd1+ 24. Kh2 Rxa1 25. Rxa1 Nd7 26. b4
Kf7 27. Nf1 Bd6 28. g3 Nf6 29. N1d2 Ke7 30. Ra6 Nb8 31. Ra5 c6
32. Kg2 Nbd7 33. Kf1 Rc8 34. Ne1 Ne8 35. Nd3 Nc7 36. c4 bxc4
37. Nxc4 Nb5 38. Ra6 Kf6 39. Bc1 Bb8 40. Bb2 c5 41. Nb6 Nxb6
42. Rxb6 c4 43. Nc5 c3 1-0

the concept of playing d3, Nbd2, Nf1 before castling is a great one! How often when playing the White side of a closed Lopez, could you have used the rook on f1 (behind the mobile f-pawn) instead of on e1?

Next book is Benko...this could take years ladies and gentlemen...lots of games and me and Mrs. C are going to be parents in May to twins!

pawn pushing

i showed my brother a couple of games that i have recently won (blitz, correspondence etc) and he mentioned that a lot of my nice wins involved pawn breaks. i have never made a special effort to do that (except on the queenside when the situation presents itself) but it's interesting to have someone else look at your games now and then.

How to play the English Opening (Karpov)

When we were in London a few months ago my lovely wife picked up this great book by Karpov for me. It is 30 games annotated by him, mostly on the King's English but also has a great section on the Hedgehog. The games are instructive, and many are quite spectacular. I have learned alot about the English and already some of the lessons learned in the games of the 12th World Champion (and others) have been used by me.

Here is one of the most spectacular

Karpov-Topalov 1994



Karpov - Topalov, Linares 1994

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. g3 Nc6 6. Bg2 Bc5
7. Nb3 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. O-O d6 10. Bf4 Nh5 11. e3 Nxf4
12. exf4 Bd7 13. Qd2 Qb8 14. Rfe1 g6 15. h4 a6 16. h5 b5
17. hxg6 hxg6 18. Nc5 dxc5 19. Qxd7 Rc8 20. Rxe6 Ra7 21. Rxg6+
fxg6 22. Qe6+ Kg7 23. Bxc6 Rd8 24. cxb5 Bf6 25. Ne4 Bd4
26. bxa6 Qb6 27. Rd1 Qxa6 28. Rxd4 Rxd4 29. Qf6+ Kg8 30. Qxg6+
Kf8 31. Qe8+ Kg7 32. Qe5+ Kg8 33. Nf6+ Kf7 34. Be8+ Kf8
35. Qxc5+ Qd6 36. Qxa7 Qxf6 37. Bh5 Rd2 38. b3 Rb2 39. Kg2 1-0



We were in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago and stopped at Chess and Math and picked up Fischer's 60 Memorable Games...the 2008 edition in algebraic and unadulterated :) I'm gonna fly through this one...i'm feeling my urge to play chess coming back, maybe I'll get a tournament in during the year 2009. Cross your fingers! I've been playing all sorts of things as White...I started the English because I felt that 1.g3 d5 was strong for Black :) As Black I'm mostly playing the Caro again, but I will be trying out the hedgehog v. the English and I've partially returned to the Nimzo. I suspect after playing over Fischer's games I will be playing the Najdorf and KID again :) We'll see

Winning Pawn Structures - Alexander Baburin

This is a good book on playing both sides of the IQP. There was some issues between Baburin and the publisher and for a while Baburin even advised people not to buy this book, but I believe it has been resolved. There are some interesting games. One idea that definitely stuck in my head was attacking the IQP by moving the knight from f3, then instead of pushing the f-pawn (after being brought up playing all kinds of 1.e4 e5 gambits and the KID) moving the bishop to f3 and attacking the long diagonal that way. it sounds silly, but i had never thought about playing like that before. funny what "thinking" does for you

in any case, highly recommended! next post won't be for a (long) while, i'm dusting off Kasparov Volume 2 - Euwe, Smyslov, Botwinnik, Tal.

Volume 2 finished (finally)

2 down one to go (but not immediately i need something different). i did enjoy this version quite a bit. going through his Averbakh games inspired me to try and save two tempi on the King's Indian by either playing the Leningrad Dutch or the Averbakh. I also learned about defending tough positions. If nothing else, Suttles was a fighter. The other nice thing is that, because this includes all his games, good, bad and ugly, it's okay to get run over playing these king fianchetto games. Case in point


Gordon - Suttles

1.d4 d6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 Nd7 5.Nf3 e5 6.Be2 Ne7 7.d5 O-O
8.g4 h6 9.Rg1 Nf6 10.h3 c6 11.Be3 cxd5 12.cxd5 g5 13.Qd2 Ng6
14.h4 Nxg4 15.hxg5 Nxe3 16.fxe3 hxg5 17.Nxg5 Bh6 18.Nf3 Kg7
19.Bd3 Bd7 20.O-O-O Rc8 21.Kb1 Rh8 22.Rdf1 Bh3 23.Re1 a6
24.Ne2 Qf6 25.Rg3 Bd7 26.Rf1 b5 27.Rgg1 Qd8 28.Ng3 Kf8 29.Qf2
Qe7 30.Nf5 Bxf5 31.exf5 e4 32.fxg6 exd3 33.Nd4 Ke8 34.gxf7+
Kd7 35.Qf5+ Kc7 36.Qe6 Bg5 37.Rxg5 Qxg5 38.Rc1+ Kb7 39.Qd7+
Kb6 40.Qxd6+ Kb7 41.Qd7+ Kb6 42.Qe6+ Kb7 43.Rxc8 1-0

These things happen :) Again, highly recommended book.

First loss of 2009 :)

K - C
Game 25 Owen Sound, 02.01.2009
E97 - King's Indian : Bayonet Attack

1.e4 g6 [I almost played the Sicilian 1...c5 but then I remembered he played 2.c3 Maybe next time :)] 2.d4 d6 3.c4 Very nice 3...Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 [I really thought he was going to play 6.Bg5 ] 6...e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.Re1 f5 11.Ng5 Nf6 12.Bf3 c6 13.Ba3 a5? [13. ...cxd5;
or even 13...h6 14.Ne6 Bxe6 was fine. Instead of thinking of Bxe6 as a developing move, i thought of it as a "victory" for K because he was happy with this position] 14.dxc6 bxc6? [I didn't really look at 14...Nxc6 although this was good as I could block off the d-file] 15.b5 c5 [15...Ne8 was about the only move not to lose a pawn and it's ugly;
my idea was along the lines of 15...h6 16.Nh3 g5 17.-- etc. 17...g4 Of course with the d-pawn hanging it would never get to that] 16.exf5 Rb8 17.fxg6 h6? not a great post-opening by me 18.Nf7! Rxf7 19.gxf7+ Kxf7 20.Rxe5 [20.Bxc5 may have been cleaner] 20...Ng4 21.Rxe7+ [21.Re4 Bxc3 22.Rc1] 21...Qxe7 22.Bxg4 Bxc3 23.Qf3+ Qf6 24.Bh5+ i missed this 24...Kf8 25.Re1 Bf5 26.Rd1 Be5 27.g4 Be6 28.Qxf6+ Bxf6 29.Rxd6 Ke7 30.Bxc5 Nicely played game by K. He overwhelmed me and didn't allow me back into the game at all. 1-0