Annotated chess game

There is more to this than the prospect of being chased away, I suspect - very much a multi-tasking move. That Queen will be eyeing the squares d7, e6, h6 and h7.

Joe: Remember that Black's a-pawn would be abandoned by the rook if it moved to d8. The d-file isn't a whole lot of use to Black neither, though potentially the d4-square is - or might be.

Surprisingly, 22.Be3! might have been the better choice, even though it would have closed off the e-file. Why? It is a double attack: Threat 1: Qxh7ch; Threat 2. Bxc5! Defence against the former being practically mandatory, Black could have kissed his c-pawn goodbye.

Would probably have been best against 22.Be3, as well.

It must have been tempting to play 23...f5, hoping to restrain the White K-side pawns. But then the dark-square spectre would have haunted Black's K-side one more.

23.... looked horrible after Bc3 and presumably he can still lever open the king-side by say Qf3, h3 and g4.

I would have pushed, too. 24...gxf5 25.Qxf5, with 26.Re5 threatened looks unpleasant for Black.

Maybe now was the time to double rooks: 25.Re4.

I agree with Joe: better to contest the file while the contesting is good. After 25...Rdd8 the game might have gone: 26.Re4 Rde8 27.Rae1 Rxe4 28.dxe4 ... (28.Rxe4 looks more logical, but the pawn capture provides White with a lever to break open the K-side, e.g.) 28...h4 29.e5 or 28...g4 29.Qg3 Re8 30.e5!? Fxe5 31.Bxe5 Qd7 (fortunately, the knight is taboo) 32.Qf4 ... with an overwhelming attack on the dark squares.

27...Kd7, probably... The move 27...Kf7 looks OK, but 28.Qe2 looks to carry a nasty threat against h5, and the K-side in general.

After a bit of thought, I came to much the same conclusion as Fritz.

It was 28.Qe2 that I thought made 27...Kf7 problematic.

Not sure that it makes a whole lot of difference. What he he in mind after ...b5?

Not sure, you would have to ask him. Maybe taking on b5?

The reason why I would have considered 30...Rh8, here, is to ask White the question: what have you got? For instance, suppose White grabbed the e-file with 31.Re1. Where can it make further inroads? Black has all entry points covered, and this without his rook's help. That suggests Black can reply 31...a5, partially closing off the Q-side, and then look to counter-attack with his K-side pawns. With the rook boosting them, those pawns could become dangerously mobile. Black is still in this fight....