[Event "Early Summer Swiss 2021"]
[Site "lichess.org"]
[Date "2021.04.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Journey2FM"]
[Black "Damma17"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E01"]
[WhiteElo "1913"]
[BlackElo "1533"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2021.??.??"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 {Being the ratings favourite, I opt for one
of my pet lines, the Cataln, where White seeks for a nagging small edge
throughout the game, believing at some point I will outplay my opponenet.} c5
$6 {I think if one wants to play the Tarrasch the correct move order is to
play the ...c5 break before ...Nf6 - although I couldn't find a way to make
easy use of this assumption...} 5. Bg2 Nc6 6. O-O cxd4 7. Nxd4 Bc5 8. Nb3 (8.
Nxc6 bxc6 9. Qc2 {was considered briefly, but I didn't like the idea of
helping my opponent to solidify the centre with ...bxc6}) 8... Be7 9. cxd5 exd5
{White has achieved the aim against the Tarrasch of getting this isolani on d5
- now I need to win it.} 10. Nc3 Be6 11. Be3 {I'm very happy with the position
here, nearly fully developed with every piece either attacking or preventing
the advance of the d-pawn.} O-O 12. Rc1 {Avrukh's 1.d4 repertoire on the
Catalan is one of the staples of my reperoire and until now both players have
been following the main line in Avrukh's introduction on the Catalan.
(Unbeknown to me - I've never had a game arising from a line in this chapter
before) - Avrukh recommends Qd2 instead of my Rc1 - but I don't think my
choice is in any way bad.} Rc8 13. Qd2 Bb4 14. a3 Bxc3 15. Rxc3 {I wasn't sure
which way to recapture here. At first I was going to do so with the Queen, but
decided on the Rook recapture having seen a nice continuation should my
opponent take the bait and play ...Ne4.} Ne4 16. Bxe4 {Fored to give up the
Catalan Bishop - but for concrete reasons!} dxe4 17. Qxd8 Rfxd8 18. Nc5 $5 {
This is as far as I had seen, but not being able to immediately find a way for
Black to avoid losing material I assessed this as good and having achieved my
aim of "outplaying" my lower rated opponent.} Nd4 $4 {Unfortunately for my
opponenet he makes a tactical oversight, resulting in the loss of a piece -
and the game!} (18... Bh3 {I hadn't even considered this move!! I think White
is still better here but this is far mor annoying to deal with than at first
sight and something I kicked myself for not seeing until post-mortem.} 19. Rfc1
Na5 20. Nxe4 Rxc3 21. Nxc3 b6 {Black is down a small amount of material but
White's King is restricted and other pieces will take a couple of moves to
organise. White should be prefered but it's by no means won!}) 19. Bxd4 Rxd4
20. Nxe6 $1 {Attacks both Rooks - my opponent can only save one at a time!}
Rdc4 21. Rxc4 Rxc4 22. Nf4 (22. b3 Rc3 23. Nd4 g6 24. e3 {is the Engine's
choice to extracate the Knight.}) 22... g5 23. Nd5 Kg7 24. Ne3 Rc7 25. Rd1 Kg6
26. Rd6+ f6 27. Re6 {Not even in the engine's top 5 picks(!) but good enough
to do the job, despite being a bit sloppy.} Rc1+ 28. Kg2 Re1 29. Rxe4 Rxe2 30.
Re7 Rxb2 31. g4 {My opponent has been grabbing pawns, I've been setting up a
mating net.} h5 32. h3 hxg4 33. hxg4 f5 34. gxf5+ Kf6 35. Re6+ Kf7 36. Nc4 Rb3
37. Ne5+ Kg8 38. f6 {According to my silicon friend it is #10 from here - not
that either of us saw, or needed to see, that far ahead to know White's pawn
would eventually join the Royal family.} 1-0