I spent a good twelve minutes or so on my first eight moves. Figuring out what I wanted to do against this ...d6 ...f5 setup took a little bit of time. Then my opponent, who had been moving quickly, slowed down considerably over the next few moves. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I was starting to nod off while waiting for my opponents moves. So I went out into the hall and did some jumping jacks to wake up! I also spent a good deal of time walking around during my Miguel's moves. I had forgotten just how much stress I put on myself during a tournament.
Black's eighth move wasn't so bad, but his ninth was a blunder, giving me a good advantage. I blundered in turn on my eleventh move, giving up most of my advantage.
Miguel Ararat, 1869
Todd Durham, 1733
Here I played 11 Qb3? I was thinking that I'd clear the d1 square for a rook, eventually, while gaining some time attacking the P@b7. But Black can calmly reply with 11...Nc6, when White's best if probably 12 Ng5. (12 Qxb7 would be "electing the way of pain" after 12...Na5 and the queen is running out of squares rapidly.)
Here the proper move was 11 Ng5 when Black has nothing better than 11...Bxc4 12 Bxb7 Nbd7 13 Bxa8 Qxa8 14 Qxd6
Analysis after 14 Qxd6
This position would have probably given me the willies. It's hard to give up the light-square bishop in this position when Black still has both his light-square bishop and his queen to attack my king's position. But White's large (and likely growing) material advantage, plus the airy position of Black's king would have given me a big advantage. The simple truth is I didn't look at either 11 Ng5 or the almost as obvious Bf4. I had already been thinking about swinging my queen over to the queen-side, and these ideas didn't even occur to me. Fortunately for me, my opponent blundered in turn with 11...Bc8?
The next moment of interest occurred a few moves later.
After 15...h6
By now I'm simply winning. Here I chose 16 Bc1?! The "dubious" mark is not for changing the evaluation, I'm still winning, but because I missed two better moves. Best is 16 Be3!, threatening Bxc5, exf5 and all manner of punishments outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. That I didn't see at all.
What I did see was the line 16 e5! hxg5 17 e6! (better than 17 Rxd6) Qe8. But here I couldn't evaluate the four possible moves I saw: 18 e7 (best it turns out, and what I thought was best during the game), 18 Nxg5, 18 Nb5, and 18 Nd5. (I don't believe 18 Rxd6 even occurred to me during the game. I just assumed I'd pick that pawn up at my leisure.) It turns out 18 e7 & 18 Nd5 keep the win firmly in hand, but the others give up most or all of the advantage.
I felt this sequence was correct, right up through 18 e7, but I just couldn't keep the calculations straight (try it yourself from the diagram) and I didn't have enough trust in my positional instincts to make the call. Especially when I saw that 16 Bc1 was adequate to the task, as it were. Miguel and I went over the game after the round, but we got wrapped up in the opening phase and never got this far, so I didn't get to ask him what he thought of 16 e5. A pity.
The game rolled to a fast conclusion on move 21. I was very happy at the time of the game because I felt like I had jumped all over an opening inaccuracy by my opponent (I had) and followed it up with a nice crushing attack right up the middle. There were enough errors by both sides, however, that I'm not quite as happy with the game now as I was then, but the silicon beasts make fools of us all. But I am still happy about it!
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