[Event "ICA Sumr Classic (Open)"] [Site "Boise, ID"] [Date "2012.07.14"] [Round "2.7"] [White "Nahlen, John P"] [Black "McGarvey, James H"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1601"] [BlackElo "1600"] [ECO "B21"] [Opening "Sicilian: Grand Prix, 2...Nc6 3.Nf3"] {Note by John Nahlen.} 1. e4 c5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 e6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. O-O Be7 7. e5 {When I made this move, I did not see that after 7... dxe5 8. fxe5 Nxe5 9. Nxe5 Qd4+ I am down at least two pawns. So, I unintentionally hung a piece right off the bat, but I did get some decent counter play as will be seen later.} dxe5 8. d3 {8. d3 later renders the c4 bishop ineffective. You will see that this comes to be a real pain to me later in the game.} exf4 9. Bxf4 {Developing my position while creating a semi-open 'f' file.} a6 10. a4 O-O 11. Kh1 b6 12. Ng5 h6 {I deliberately played 12. Ng5 in hopes he would play 12... h6, and I would play 13. Nge4. My idea was to start attacking the kingside by getting as many pieces to the king side as possible.} 13. Nge4 Bb7 14. Qd2 g5 {While I played 15. Nxg5, at first I was evaluating 15. Bxg5, which looked stronger. However, after 15. Bxg5 Nxe4!, black attacks my queen on d2, while also twice attacking my g5 bishop. One line may have continued: 16. Bxe7 Nxd2 17. Bxd8 Nxf1, and black is significantly up material. Another possibility after 15... Nxe4:16. Nxe4 Bxg5, and black wins a free bishop and gains/maintains tempo.} 15. Nxg5 hxg5 16. Bxg5 Nh7 {I was n ot expecting this move, however it seems to be a good one. My initial plan was to play 17. Bh6, presuming his knight would not move, then attacking the f8 rook and gaining a tempo, with the idea of 18. Qg5+! after 17... Re8. However 17... Bg5! forking the queen and bishop rendered any such attack ineffective. I decided I needed to keep my bishop in order to maintain my attack, thus 17. Be3. Obviously 17... Bg5 could still be played, and may still be strong, but gains no tempo.} 17. Be3 Nd4 18. Rf4 {This was played with the idea of 19. Rg4+ followed by 20. Bh6. } Kh8 19. Raf1 {Attempting to double up on f7.} Rg8 {Threatening 20... Bxg2+, forking king and rook. Also threatens a possible windmill tactic.} 20. R1f2 Nf5 {Misses an oppertunity to play 20... Bh4! which traps the f2 rook. Remember the g2 pawn is pinned by black's fianchettoed bishop on b7. If 21. Re2 Nxe2; if 21. Rf1 Bxg2+ wins rook or queen and is very dangerous for white.} 21. Ne4 Nxe3 22. Qxe3 Bg5 23. Nxg5 Qxg5 24. Qh3 Rg7 25. d4 {This may seem like a strange move to some. My idea is 26. Rxf7, so let's examine what happens if I had not played 25. d4 first: 25. Rxf7 Rxf7 26. Rxf7 Qc1+ with mate in one after 27. Rf1. Moving 25. d4 allows the c4 bishop to also cover f1.} cxd4 26. Rxf7 Rxf7 27. Rxf7 Be4 28. Bd3 {This move creates an X-Ray on the e4-h7 diagonal. How I thought it would work was 28. Bd3 Bxd3 29. Qxd3, with the d3 queen still covering f1 in case the rook needs to move back to prevent a back-rank mate. Instead, with 28... Bf5, he walks right into the X-Ray and gives me a free piece. However, it looked very dangerous for me (white), as he would either pick up my queen or I'd be checkmated with the Qc1 move again (Bf5 blocked my rook from coming back to protect the back rank).} Bf5 29. Rxh7+ {Executing the X-Ray tactic. My next moves were forced to once again prevent Qc1 or losing a rook.} Kg8 30. Qh6 Qg4 31. Rh8+ Kf7 32. Qh5+ Qxh5 33. Rxh5 {Now that the queens are off the board, no longer any need to prevent Qc1. Thanks to the X-Ray tactic played a few moves back to pick up a free knight, I am now in good shape, and even a pawn ahead.} Bg6 {I'm frankly shocked at this move, 33... Bg6 instead of 33... Bxd3 34. cxd3 Rc8, threatening mate or a quick road into my rank of pawns.} 34. Rh3 e5 {34... e5 is a MAJOR mistake here because of 35. Rf3+; black must move, and if he moves away from the bishop I simply capture it with my bishop. After Kg7, Rg3 wins a bishop.} 35. Rf3+ Kg7 36. Rg3 e4 37. Bxe4 Re8 38. Rxg6+ Kf7 39. Rg4 {Black resigned here, two pawns and a bishop down. Time control was G/120 WITH 5 second delay. Final clock times were as follows: White 14:48 Black 37:19. The fact that he was drinking a Double Strength, Double Size Rockstar energy drink probably didn't help things!} {#r} 1-0