[Event "Rapid Play # 1"]
[Site "Mechanics Institute"]
[Date "2017-03-30"]
[White "Rodney Jacobs"]
[Black "Bas van Riel"]
[WhiteElo "1695"]
[BlackElo "1872"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 Bg4 {Rarely played. The usual move is O-O or c5. (RJ)} 6.Be2 O-O 7.Be3 c6 8.Qd2 Qa5 {Diverging from book. To me there doesn't seem much point to this. (RJ)} 9.O-O Qc7 {Black has given up a tempo and a lot of space. Stockfish 7 gives White an advantage of 1.0 here. (RJ)} 10.f5 Nbd7 {Interestingly, both my engines recommend Black wins a pawn here by gf - something a human would almost automatically reject. (RJ)} 11.fxg6 fxg6? {Presumably just looking as far as contesting the f file with his rook. However it overlooks the horrible resultant weakening of e6. 11....hg and it's fairly even. (RJ)} 12.Ng5! h6 13.Bxg4 Nxg4 14.Ne6 Rxf1+ 15.Rxf1 Qa5? {Picked up by the engines as a critical mistake, as it allows 16. Bf4! Qb6, eyeing the d pawn, is better. (RJ)} 16.Nxg7? {Returning the favour, giving up what the computers say is a 1.8 advantage. I spent a while here trying to figure out which was better - my knight on e6 or Black'sBishop on g7 - i.e. whether I should take it or not. I made the wrong choice. The engines indicate the the right move is Bf4! Perhaps the real point was that White should be preserving his Black squared bishop, which is stronger than Black's knight.} Kxg7 {The position is now equal. (RJ)} 17.Bf4 h5 {Rf8 is better. (RJ)} 18.h3 Ngf6 19.Rf3 Rh8 {At the time I thought this was an unnecessary concession, but my stronger program says it's best. (RJ)} 20.Rg3 e5 21.Be3 exd4 {Again best. (RJ) I disagree, as it allows to activate white's already powerful bishop even more. At the same time it weakens blacks' king position. Much better would have been 21...Qb4; 22. b3, d5! (BvR)} 22.Bxd4 Ne5 23.Qg5 {A strong move as it ties black's pieces up and creates some nasty threats (BvR)} Rh6 {This all looks ugly, but the computers only give White a slight edge. (RJ)} 24.Be3 Ng8? {Rh8 (RJ) a bad mistake, overlooking that Ne5 is not pinned anymore, hence protecting g6. Now is is lost for black and Rodney finds the correct plan and start utilising his knight (after a little hiccup) (BvR)} 25.Qh4? {Missing Qf5! (RJ)} Rh7 26.Bd4 Qc7 27.Qg5 Ne7? {Rh6. (RJ)} 28.Ne2! {With the huge threat of Nf4. Now the programs give White an advantage of 2. (RJ)} c5? {The king must move away from the the position where it can be checked. (RJ)} 29.Nf4 Kf7? {Kg8. (RJ)} 30.Bxe5 dxe5 31.Nxg6? {Missing the killer Nd5!} Ke6? {Ke8. Bas was now very short of time. (RJ)} 32.Nxe7?? {Nf8. (RJ)} Qxe7 33.Qf5+ Kd6 34.Rg6+? {Qc8! (RJ)} Kc7 35.Re6 Qd7 36.Qxe5+ {In our defence, the last 10 moves or so were made with little time left. (RJ)} {#r}