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17. Nd2
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Continuing with my plan of putting the knight on e4, but better was 17.b4 to try and get some play on the queenside (I was thinking of that, but first wanted to get my knight in a good position).
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  2 comments
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17... Ng4
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Suddenly Black is threatening 18...Nf2#!
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1 comment
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18. Nde4 b5
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? Another pawn is pushed. However, the move is inferior to another pawn push: 18...f6. Then a queen exchange is forced (19.Qxg8 Raxg8, after which 20.Nd1 is forced because I need to defend f2 a 2nd time before Black can chase my other knight away with ...d5.
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3 comments
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19. Qb3
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? This was a good chance to free my position with 19.Nd5+! Bxd5 20.Qxd5, but I was not sure if 19.Nd5+ wouldn't lose a piece. After, say, 19...Kd8, my knight is only defended by the queen, which is in danger as well, but if I had looked more closely I could have seen that there was no way for black to take advantage of that fact because I can move my queen to b3 after which Black has no tactics to win the knight or the queen. Probably I went with the 'safe' option, because I didn't want to take too much time on this move as I already was foreseeing time trouble.
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19... Bxe4
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? Black allows me to free my position on the queenside. Far better was 19...f6.
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20. Nxe4 Kc6
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Black's king is tired of staring at his own pieces and decides to take another step to watch the White army from a closer distance. Still he is completely safe at c6. However, White is 'threatening' to free his position with 21.c4, but Black can do nothing to prevent that move. The computer suggests to sacrifice a pawn with 20...Qd8. Apparently the threat of 21.c4 is so strong that such a move is needed to stop it. Maybe the idea of the king move is to make ...d5 possible.
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21. Re1
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? Too slow. With 21.c4, all of White's queenside pieces would suddenly spring to life and he would destroy Black's strong pawn falanx on that side of the board. I don't really understand why I didn't try to activate my queen, which is doing next to nothing on b3.
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21... h5
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? I don't understand this one either. Black should stop c4 with 21...d5. I don't see any coherent plan in Black's moves.
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22. Nc3
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? I was now thinking of moving my queen or knight to d5, but still I didn't look at 22.c4 which is still a great move.
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1 comment
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22... f6
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Black decides on a queen exchange. I can't really avoid it, not because 23.Qa3 loses a piece to 23...b4 (I can play 24.Qa4+) but just because a3 is an even more horrible place for the queen than b3. Note, by the way, that Black has pushed all of his 8 pawns at least once in this game. He has now made 11 pawn moves and 3 king moves (White has only made 5 pawn moves. Still, Black is clearly better in this position, although I still couldn't believe that during the game.
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1 comment
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23. Qxg8 Raxg8 24. h3
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Finally I chase that threatening knight away and give my king some air to breathe.
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24... Nh6 25. Bxh6
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I exchange, because my bishop couldn't really do anything useful with such a closed pawn falanx. I also thought my knight would be superior to his currently useless bishop in the endgame. Was this the right thing to do? I think so.
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3 comments
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25... Rxh6 26. Ne4
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?! targeting the weak pawns at d6 and f6, but if I had looked for one second at Black's possible replies, I would not have made this move. I even offered a draw here, thinking the pawn structure was totally closed so no-one could do anything useful with it. The problem was that I was already running low on time (I had some 15 minutes) so I still didn't assess the position correctly and I didn't take time to analyze possible replies, as mentioned earlier.
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26... d5
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This is such an obvious move... I don't know how I could have missed this one.
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1 comment
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27. Nd2 Bd6
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OK, but also very strong was 27...h4, cramping White's kingside completely, as suggested by the computer. But this move doesn't give away much of Black's advantage. Clock times: 15 minutes for me, 35 for Black. |
2 comments
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28. Re2 c4 29. Rc1
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Aligning my rook with the king on the c-file, but it's unrealistic to think Black is ever going to open it up by trading pawns (probably I thought he would because it would weaken my d-pawn).
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2 comments
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29... Rh7 30. Nf3
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Here I offered a draw again, still wondering how my position could be worse. The problem is that I just have so little space and Black can do whatever he wants because White can hardly break out.
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30... h4 31. Rd1 cxd3
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Now that the rook has moved off the c-file, this exchange is OK.
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32. Rxd3
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?! I could get back my pawn in a much better way: 32.Red2!. If 32...dxc2? I still win the pawn back with 33.Rxc2+ Kb6 (33...Bc5?? 34.Rdc1 and Black loses a bishop) 34.Rxd5. Now my rooks are misplaced.
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2 comments
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32... Rh5 33. Red2
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? An unnecessary mistake (I had seven minutes on the clock). It closes off the escape route for my rook.
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