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11. Nc7+
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Now Black has a choice. He can let me take the rook where I'll still have a strong attack on the dark squares (but he'll have two pieces for the rook), or sacrifice the queen and end up with three extra minor pieces. |
 
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11... Qxc7
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Baker isn't the type of player who likes to defend. |
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12. Bxc7
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Duh! |
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12... Bxc7
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Now Black has three minor pieces, for the price of his queen and a pawn, a roughly even trade, although I'm 1 in material count, the material is too imbalanced to say who is better here. |
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13. Qg4
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Hitting g7. |
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13... g6
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Not Be5 because of f4 h5 Qg3 h4 Qg4 Bf6 e5 and Black's bishop can no longer defend g7. |
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14. f4
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Gaining more central territory. |
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14... Nge7
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Nf6 would've attacked my queen, but Qf3 is simple and Black's knight on f6 is subject to attack by pawns like g4-g5 |
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15. Qf3
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I couldn't see any useful moves here, so I played Qf3 which prepares g4 and makes f5 less annoying. |
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15... d5
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Making a break in the centre. |
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16. Bb5
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This move is better now that d5 has been played, and Black has no a-pawn to harass my bishop with. |
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16... Bd7
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Breaking the pin. |
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17. a4
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I wanted to castle queenside here and attack Black's kingside with my pawns, so I played a4 to stop Rxa2 after I castle, and also to stop a b5 advance in the future. |
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17... O-O
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Exactly what I wanted, now after I castle queenside, it will be a classic Sicilian position where each side goes for a mating attack on opposite sides of the board. |
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18. O-O-O
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My intended move. Although my king's position is weaker than Black's, I have more attacking potential on the kingside with my pawns. |
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18... Rfd8
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It seemed awkward that Baker would move a defender away from his king. Maybe better was dxe4 Qxe4 Nd5 where at least Black would free up some space in the centre. But then again, Baker knows he's better than me, and maybe thought he'd win through my mistakes. So I intended to make accurate moves throughout the rest of the game. |
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19. e5
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Now Black cannot free up space with dxe4, and I control the weak f6 square. The pawn structure somewhat resembles a French Defense now. |
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19... Bb6
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This is another strange move by Baker. I realized that he probably wasn't playing his best, and this was my chance to finally beat him in a tournament. Na5 was probably Black's best move. |
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20. h4
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Now my attack can pick up steam due to a couple of pointless moves by Black. |
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20... Nb8
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Baker's idea to trade pieces to weaken my king's position was good, but my kingside attack is too fast. |
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