[Event "Koelle 'A'"]
[Site "BCC"]
[Date "2016-11-17"]
[White "Bas van Riel"]
[Black "James Watson"]
[WhiteElo "1884"]
[BlackElo "1854"]
[Result "1-0"]

{584MB, Fritz11.ctg} 1.Nf3 {(BvR) Most, if not all of my previous games against James were dominated by opening choices.However, most of my knowledge and experience in this area is far beyond its useby date. Hence, I am finding that in the early phase of my game it usually takes too much of my time and my energy, refreshing my memory. And then select the useful bits and pieces at each move until the middle game. I decided to avoid any opening theory and simply play pure chess from the first move, thereby saving time and energy. Hopefully...} d5 2.g3 c6 3.c4 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.d4 Bg4 7.Ne5 Bf5 8.Bg2 e6 9.O-O Nxe5? {Positions were dead even, but now FRITZ 11 gives -1.00. Black should have first completed his development.} 10.dxe5 Nd7 11.Qa4 a6 12.g4? {(BvR) Fritz rates this move as an error (loosing1.17 points), suggesting 12.Qf4 instead with an equal position again). However, I am not convinced...} b5 13.Qf4 Bc2 {(BvR) The benefit of 12.g4 is that now 13...g5! can be met with 14.Qg3} 14.Qd2 Bg6 15.f4 Rc8?! {(BvR) A brave move by James, anticipating a piece sacrifice against 2 pawns and long term prospects. (Fritz gives a neutral/uncommittal verdict)} 16.f5 Nxe5 17.fxg6 hxg6 18.Qf4 Rc4? {(BvR) A second piece sacrifice, but this time it is a major error (-3.5), as James miscalculated the follow-up. But so did I. 19.Qxe5, Bd6; 20.Qxg7, Bxh2; 21.Kf2, Qh4+; 22.Ke3, d4 I rejected, but overlooking 23.Kd3 and winning. That only left me with 20.Qg5?, giving away my advantage. BTW fritz suggests black to play 18..Bd6 or Bc5+ with equal chances.} 19.Qxe5 Bd6 20.Qg5? Bxh2+ 21.Kf2 Qc7! {(BvR) a quiet and powerful move, exposing white's weakness on g3. Meanwhile, I could not believe that I was 2 pieces ahead, but having trouble finding a good move.} 22.Qe3! {(BvR) the only move. It prevents checkmate on g3, the development of white's black bishop, and it blocks the urgent move e3 to give the king some breathing space. Moreover, t will loose a piece. Just imagine my problems, but Fritz gives black only a slight advantage. Blissfully unaware of Fritz, I nevertheless was optimistic, probably because I felt that I was aware of my predicament, but felt in control of a very difficult position.} d4 23.Qf3 dxc3 24.b3 {(BvR) Just have said that (at move 22), I should have played the stronger 24.bxc3, Rxc3; 25.Be3 with a slightly better position. I also completely missed James next move.} Re4! 25.Rd1? {(BvR) Fritz penalised me with 0.5 point for this move, evaluating the position as -1.05 in black's favour. It offers 25.e3 as a better alternative, but then what about the development of my black bishop?} f5! 26.gxf5 Rf8? {(BvR) Instead of simply playing gxf5, James became side-tracked by 27.Qxf5 (yet another piece sacrifice!), Rxf5; 28.Ke1, Bg3 checkmate.} 27.Bh3 {(BvR) Fritz recommends 27. Qxe4,Rxf5; 28.Qxf5, gxf5 with equal position. However, I opted for the slightly inferior text-move, to maintain the tension.} Qe5 {(BvR) Fritz now rates the position as dead even (0.00). It suggests 27.c2 instead for a minor plus for black.} 28.Bg5 Kf7?? {(BvR) A horrible blunder.} 29.fxe6+ Kg8 30.Qxf8+ Kh7 {(BvR) Kxf8; 31.Rd8++} 31.Rd3? {(BvR) e3, Qf3 and Kf3! (the best) were all superior to Rd3} Qxg5 32.Rf3?? {(BvR) Incredible: within 2 moves my position turned from +8 to 0!, just as James did a few moves earlier in reverse.} Qe5?? {(BvR) Here we go again. A minus 5 point move. After 32. Bf4! or Qh5+ black would have very good chances to draw, according to Fitz.} 33.e3 Qg5 34.Bg2! Rg4? {34...Qh4} 35.Rh3+ Rh4 36.Qf3 Bd6 37.Rah1 Rh6 38.Rxh6+ gxh6 39.Qf7+ Kh8 40.Rh3? {(BvR) 40. Be4 is stronger} c2 41.Qe8+ Kg7 42.Qd7+ Qe7 43.Qc6? {(BvR) Rh1, of course. Probably due to time trouble} Qxe6 44.Qxc2 g5 45.Rf3 g4 46.Rf5 g3+ 47.Ke2 Be7 48.Bd5 Qd6 {With reference to my introduction at move 1, I believe that my approach was most successful: I spent almost all my time on complicated positions and combinations, none on opening issues. The mistakes which I had made (too many) were definitely not due to tiredness. Some of it was undoubtely related to the inefficient management of my time. I have already plans to address that soon too..!} {#r}