[Event "BCCC 2018"]
[Site "Mechanics Institute"]
[Date "2018-06-21"]
[White "Robert Bailey"]
[Black "Ruari Coffey"]
[WhiteElo "1497"]
[BlackElo "1438"]
[Result "0.5-0.5"]

1.e4 c5 {Rob's favourite opening. A bit of a surprise for me to play it I think. (R.C) It was a pleasant surprise, yes - I was expecting either a Modern or your ol' high school favourite, the Scandanavian. :) (RB)} 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3 {Alapin variation of Sicilian, black can consolidate but only with accurate moves (-0.1, stockfish 8) (R.C) Actually, it's a Morra Gambit by transposition. I decided to try a delayed approach as inspired by Rod Jacobs. Mostly to avoid any potential preparation based on my game with Cassandra. (RB)} dxc3 5.Nxc3 e6 6.Bc4 {Back into the realm of the Smith-Morra gambit (R.C)} Bb4 7.O-O Nge7 (7...Bxc3 8.bxc3 Nge7 9.Qd6 {Or similar, I was not wanting to play against with ideas of Ba3, Rd1 with an eventual Bxc6, continuing to cramp black's position. (R.C)}) 8.Qe2 O-O 9.Rd1 Ng6 {Bg5 looked scary (R.C) I looked at it briefly but elected for a more simple development. (RB)} 10.Be3 {A bit passive. Sotckfish went from +0.1 to -0.4. Not much difference between the values but the bishop is still noticeably passive. Bg5 is suggested (R.C)} a6 {Stockfish suggests Bxc4 (R.C)} 11.Rac1 Qa5 12.a3 Be7! {A nice way to preserve the bishop. I appreciated this move. (RB)} 13.h3 Qh5 {A cute way to bring the queen onto the kingside, although stockfish doesn't like it very much (prefers b5) (R.C) I expected b5 now (given it is the typical sicilian thrust) but the queen sortie was a creative way to keep me on my toes. (RB)} 14.Qc2 {Avoiding pinning themes. White did have Nd5 here according to Fritz and this is also a typical idea in e6 sicilians. But after exd5, Rxd5, Nce5, I don't see anything concrete. From here on, I very much struggled to find the best plans. (RB)} f5 {This looked suspicious to me over the board, but Fritz likes it. (RB)} 15.exf5 Qxf5 16.Bd3 (16.Qxf5 Rxf5 17.Bd3 Rf7 18.Bxg6 hxg6 {White is down a pawn but blacks king is very much compromised (R.C) I looked at this Ruari but wasn't convinced that white had enough for the pawn despite black's hampered queen-side development (RB)}) 16...Qh5 17.Ne4 {Kent asked me after the game why I never traded on g6 instead then played Ne4. (RB)} Nh4 {An odd choice, but I wanted the f-file more open and was almost falling asleep (R.C) Yes, this surprised me. I was also struggling energy wise, getting tired...plus the C grade championship was getting exciting! (RB)} (17...Rxf3 18.Be2 Nh4 19.Nd2 Nxg2 20.Bxf3 Nxe3 21.Bxh5 Nxc2 22.Rxc2 {And black is up an additional pawn, though might need to return one to gain activity with undeveloped queenside pieces (rook vs 2 pieces + 2 pawns). Stockfish gives -0.6. (R.C) Pretty interesting line! I did analyse the exchange sacrifice on f3 a little over the board, thought it was a viable option for you. (RB)}) 18.Nxh4 {Nd4 looks like a better, more active option; keeping pieces on the board. (RB)} Qxh4 19.Ng3?? {A weak move which loses most of white's energy. Nc5 was a better try. Black now plays accurately to retain an edge. (RB)} d5 20.Bc5 Bxc5 21.Qxc5 Qf6 22.Qc2 g6 23.Rd2 {Rob offered a draw. Despite my position looking better than before, and the evaluation giving -1.3, I was starting to get more sleepy and not wanting to let slip this game accepted the offer. Interesting point that our time was getting to around to 20-30 minutes for both of us and not out of the middlegame. (R.C) I was definitely worse here; plus Pat's draw against Bas somewhat took the fire out of me. It was great to finally play Ruari over the board after seeing him rise through the ranks from his days at Ballarat Clarendon College, to the present with fine wins against Pat and JB in this years championship. My play declined in quality in this game, but like yourself, I was also starting to tire after so much effort put into the opening and early middle game phase. Interestingly, I found many of your moves difficult to predict which makes me look forward to the next meeting. (RB)} {#d}