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Rezonator - Rossini 2004.07.18

Rated game, 60m + 0s Playchess

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 c5 9.Ne2 Qc7 10.Bd3 Rd8 (10... e5!?)

11.O-O c4 12.Bc2 Nc6 13.e4 Qa5 14.f4!? a6?! I don't really see the point of this.

15.Qe1 Not just a stodgy move, but defending c3 while moving towards the king-side and freeing the Ne2 for other duties.

15... Qh5? 16.Ng3?! A natural move, and as this move was part of my plan, it was difficult to consider anything else, especially now that I could play it with tempo. But instead of being happy with a good move, I should have searched a little harder for the best move, 16.f5!. (16.f5! The Queen is all but trapped, and Black has to lose material 16... exf5 (16... e5 17.Rf3! exd4 18.Nf4 Qg4 19.h3 Qg5 20.Nd5 Qh5 21.Nxf6+ gxf6 22.Rg3+ Kh8 23.Bd1 Qh4 24.Rg8+) 17.Nf4 Qg4 18.h3 Qg5 19.Ne6)

16... Qh4 17.Ne2 Qxe1 18.Rxe1 b5 19.Ng3 Ra7 20.f5 Re8 21.Bf4 exf5 22.Nxf5 Bxf5 23.exf5 Rae7 24.Rxe7 Rxe7 25.Kf1 Nd5 26.Bd2 Nf6 27.Re1 Rxe1+ 28.Kxe1 With the two Bishops in an endgame, I gave myself decent chances here. What I didn't properly appreciate was how crucial control of the d5 square was to my hopes of making progress.

28... Ne7 29.Ke2 h6 30.Kf3 h5 31.h3 a5 32.Kf4 Kf8 White is looking pretty good here, but 33.Be4 is White's only hope of retaining chances. I was so protective of my two Bishops that I didn't really consider it.

33.a4? I missed the response, which means I wasn't using any kind of thinking process, as checks should be the first thing looked at. I have a tendency to switch off or lose concentration at times.

33... Nfd5+ 34.Ke4 b4 35.cxb4 axb4 36.a5 b3 37.a6 bxc2 38.a7 Nb6 39.Ke5 Nc6+ 40.Kd6 Nxa7 41.Kc5 Nac8 42.Bc1 Ke7 43.d5 g6 44.fxg6 fxg6 45.d6+ Ke6 46.Kc6 Nd7 47.Kb5 Ne5 0-1