[Event "BCL Division 2"] [Site "Luton"] [Date "2024.12.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Bowler, Andrew"] [Black "Vora, Samir"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B31"] [WhiteElo "1945"] [BlackElo "1819"] [Annotator "Samir Vora"] [PlyCount "107"] [EventDate "2024.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.02.13"] [WhiteTeam "Milton Keynes B"] [BlackTeam "Luton B"] {Prior to this game, fellow club player Humayun Mirza shared the game my opponent played vs Faisal Rashad earlier this season in a division 1 match. I was pleased to see that game was similar to how I also like to play as Black and therefore was reasonably happy to find myself in a Sicillian Dragon position. However I was expecting Andrew Bowler to have pawns on e4 and c4 similar to his previous game (which I dont like playing against, so it was good and bad that he didn't play it!).} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. O-O Bg7 5. c3 Nf6 6. Re1 O-O 7. d4 cxd4 8. cxd4 d5 9. e5 Ne4 10. Ng5 Bf5 {During the opening moves I think I had comfortable development and felt I was not under any pressure at all which I would normally expect to be playing Black} 11. Nxe4 Bxe4 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Nd2 Bf5 14. Nb3 f6 15. Bf4 g5 16. Bg3 Qb6 17. exf6 Bxf6 18. Be5 a5 {After} 19. g4 {I felt I had a good advantage, however the computer says its still close to equal.} Be4 20. Bxf6 Rxf6 21. Qd2 Rf4 22. h3 Raf8 23. Re2 h6 24. Nc5 e5 25. Nd7 Qxd4 26. Qxd4 exd4 27. Nxf8 Kxf8 28. Rc1 d3 29. Rd2 Rf6 30. a4 Ke7 31. Rc5 Kd6 32. Rxa5 Rf3 33. Kh2 {After} h5 {I felt I had a good advantage, however the again computer says its still close to equal.} 34. gxh5 Bf5 35. b4 Rxh3+ 36. Kg2 {After} g4 {I felt that almost any move would win and I had 3 plans in my mind on 38. Either Ke5 or Rg3 or Be4. For some reason I switched off calculating at around this point and played on instinct instead. Had I played Rg3 or Be4 I think the follow up plan would have been easier to convert. My opponent on the other hand had only 1 plan on the queenside and was playing very fast and for some reason I played fast too.} 37. f3 gxf3+ 38. Kg1 Ke5 39. b5 Kd4 40. b6 Bc8 {threw away the advantage to become level, but over the board I thought I was still winning otherwise I would have offered to repeat Bishop moves between a6, b7 and c8.} 41. Ra8 Bb7 42. Ra7 Ke3 43. Rxd3+ Kxd3 44. Rxb7 Rh4 45. Re7 {is where I finally realised that I was now in fact losing, however I should have played Re4 here to force my opponent to find the only move Rf7 that keeps his advantage.} Rxh5 46. b7 Rh8 47. a5 c5 48. a6 c4 49. a7 c3 50. b8=Q c2 51. Qb3+ Kd2 52. Qxd5+ Kc1 53. Re1+ Kb2 54. Qd4+ {In summary I think I had a good opening and middlegame, then overestimated my position and switched off calculating at a critical time playing on instinct instead. Hopefully I will manage my time a bit better in future and use it instead of playing quickly when I have plenty of time available. Overall a good lesson to learn, so in a way I learnt more from losing than I would have learnt had I won!} 1-0