Annotated chess game

29.Rc4!? looks interesting, if 29...Nd5; 30.Ra6 and White is better (unless I am overlooking something here).

My first instinct would have been to play 29.Rc4 here.

29. Rc4 was far superior.

Now your rook cannot go through your own knight. You introduced a lack of harmony amongst your pieces by playing 29. Nc5. Either way the black knight would be chased to Nd5.

Yet White is still very well placed, on the whole. Black's knight is on a fine outpost square it is true, and black has a certain amount of pressure on White's Q-side and centre. But White's c5-knight is not so badly placed either (even if White had better options a move ago). Here is the time for White to come up with a plan and follow through. I might be inclined to regroup the a4-rook to c4, and then to c2 to protect the queen if Black tries ...Nb6. Then one can look at a general advance on the Q-side, and/or unmasking the rook attack on c6. But White has a wide range of possibilities here.

30.Rc4 seems good, with the intent of putting pressure on c6 again - pretty much the same idea as before but now with 1 extra pawn.

The move played looks for all the world as though White is having trouble coming up with a plan. Given that lighttotheright is unimpressed with the range possibilities open to White here, this difficulty is understandable. My own view, thought, is that White has quite a few options. 30.Rc4 came into consideration, as do 30.a3 or maybe 30.b4!? (Though I'd probably prefer to redeploy the a4-rook before playing the latter move).

30. Nd3 and the pressure is automatically back on the c pawn. But because of 29. Nc5 there is a lot less penetration into Black's position. **** To be perfectly honest, there aren't a whole lot of good options for white here. It might be best to simply push the passed pawn. **** OK Ion...I probably should not have said, "...aren't a whole of lot of good options...". We should probably replace the word 'good' with 'clear'--as in 'clear' options that would force a win for white. Then the statement is more accurate.

This is a little early to be making this move; but black probably anticipated an endgame. This could be a simple centralizing move on Black's part. I don't see Qh6 as much of a danger at this point.

It sounds to me like you were trying too hard. Instead of playing the position, you tried to make the position. There is a simple rule about pawn movements. "When in doubt, don't move it."

Agreed. In any case, the K-side is irrelevant for the time being. I wonder if that was the purpose of Black's last: to distract your attention to this side of the board?

32.Ra5 still looks like it is holding (with the idea of Na4 and Rc5), but of course if you missed the threat then 32.Rb4 looks plausible.

Pity about the check. Were it not for that, White would still have decent chances...

If Re2 instead, then white has a protected passed pawn for the exchange. The game is not over yet.

I'm not sure that the game was over at this point. 35. Rxb6 (instead of cxb6) seems better to me. For example black takes 35. ...Rxb6, 36. cxb6 Ra8, 37. Rc1 and it seems to me that white has some counterplay.

Actually, 35.Rb6, Rb6; 36.cb6, Ra6 and Black is better (extra pawn). But it is still hard to win, as is after the game continuation. I think the fatal mistake is somewhere in the rest of the game (all pawns on the same side, 2 Rooks each = hard to win).

I agree. White's still in the game. I'd be inclined, though to keep the rook-pair, and play 35.cxb6, with a view to bringing the other rook to the c-file. Black can win the pawn, of course; 35.cxb6 Ra6 36.b7 Ra7 37.Rc1 Raxb7 38.Rxb7 Rxb7 39.Rxc6 Rxb3ch 40.Kf2, and after 41.Rc7 White has good prospects of holding on.

Probably the losing error was avoid exchanging a pair of rooks, which is why I prefer 37.Rc1 over 37.Rb6. But even after 37.Rb6 Raxb7 38.Rxb7 Rxb7 39.Rb1, White's more active king ought to account for something, threatening to make an immediate dash for Black's c-pawn. On reflection this might be preferable to the 37.Rc1 line!