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[pgn] 1. e4 c5 {Here I thought for a while trying to decide how I wanted to play against this guy. I finally decided to not play scared and just enjoy the lesson of how a master plays the sicilian.} 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 {Looking this up, apparently this is the Sicilian, Kan Variation. I will probably forget this.} 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. Be3 {Apparenly book was to simply castle here. I was a little afraid of queen coming out to b6 harassing a couple of things, but felt Nb3 with a discovery should be fine. Qa5 I thought was met with Nc3 maybe followed by Nb3 decently enough. At this point, I still had not really developed a plan beyond getting the pieces out.} Nc6 7. O-O {Taking knight looks like it might have been best. I felt I had the edge in development and was hoping he would start taking some of my pieces to further my development and that my bishops would start giving him some concern both being pointed at the kingside i.e.: 1. ...Nxd4 2. Bxd4 however, I think the main problem I missed is Ne5 hitting my bishop which is certainly uncomfortable.} Qc7 8. c3 {I felt c3 did a couple of things for me. It adds to the support of the knight, in case of things like Bc5, and gives a nice hole for the light-squared bishop in case of Ne5.} d5 9. Nd2 {Here I continued standing my ground, continuing to develop and hoping to force my opponent to initiate some trades, thereby developing my pieces further. In hindsight, taking the pawn might have been better as it opens the position up a bit with his king still in the middle of the board. I did not believe that I would be winning through tactics or blitz attacks against a much higher rated player though, and was instead depending/hoping on better development with a strong position.} Be7 10. f4 {Here I thought I was either forcing him to take the pawn finally, and if he did not, then playing e5 locking in his light squared bishop for a while and harassing the knight. I felt my dark-squared bishop provided adequate protection to the hole I was creating to my king. He quickly showed the fallacies in my logic.} dxe4 11. Nxe4 {Succcess in my mind! Pieces are well developed, queen can comes to f3. The rooks have great spots on e1 & d1. After the game, he told me I did have good development, but there were simply no threats being created. I agreed that I was playing somewhat passively.} Nd5 {Ouch! I certainly overlooked this. The knight invades already and my pawn looks very silly out there as a target. I did not want to give up the bishop pair even though, again in hindsight, he was threatening to take the worse of my 2 bishops. Queen up was probably best.} 12. Bd2 Qb6 {Ouch ouch! My opening has fallen apart at this point in my mind. I thought for a long time here considering simply Kh1 and surrendering the pawn. I finally saw a slight improvement.} 13. Qb3 Qa7 {Actually got him thinking for a bit! I had probably used up 1/2 hour already and he had used around 5 minutes. I knew I was playing slow, but I wanted to give him as good a game as possible. Currently that appears to have been amounting to losing material. I looked for a long time at 1. Qc4, but I felt after ...b5 My queen had simply wasted a move. 2. Qxc6 seemed to trap the queen after Bd7. So I finally surrendered the pawn feeling like I still had decent development for compensation.} 14. Kh1 (14. Qc4 b5 15. Qxc6+ Bd7 16. Bxb5 {An interesting alternative I had looked at a bit that the computer actually likes} Bxc6 17. Bxc6+ Kf8 18. Bxa8 Qxa8 {Winning a knight, a bishop, a pawn and the exchange for my queen. Black is a mess, but should be fine. Computer has white up 1/2 a point. I might have tried it in a blitz game.} ) Nxd4 15. cxd4 Qxd4 {Here I thought for a while. 1.Rad1 seemed decent and holding, but being down material, I felt had to start trying to make something happen.} 16. Rac1 O-O 17. Rc4 {Working on doubling the rooks and taking c file, but it doesn't seem like that really does me any good. I have been keeping an eye on the possibility of moves like Ng5 but didn't feel good about it yet.} Qa7 {Here I saw that his light-squared bishop was still out of play, and that his queen was also a bit out of the battle. I thought, how about I reposition the queen to h5! Now that Ng5 move looks pretty good. I thought that 1...Bxg5 2. fxg5 and now the rook could swing over to h4 at some point, start making some things happen.} (17. ... Qb6 {He later said that he probably should have just played here.} ) 18. Qd1 Bd7 19. Qh5 f5 {Luckily my confidence in my attack concerened him enough or something and he did not play Bb5.} (19. ... Bb5 {I thought this move was met with} 20. Qxh7+ Kxh7 21. Ng5+ {This is just horribly losing though. In my brain, I believed he was forced to go to h8, the pawn for some reason was not on f4, my rook can come to h4 for check, then bishop can come back and forth to h7 with check forcing perpetual.} ) 20. Ng5 Nf6 {did not expect this move. I looked for a long time at Qh4 and Qh3 for a long time keeping the mate threat alive if only to provide a distraction and uneasiness for my opponent. Qh4 seeemed to get me into some trouble after Ng4 and now the knight is pinned and he's threatening Nf2+ winning the exchange or smother mating me, so I finally discarded that idea. I had almost settled on Qh3 when I finally looked at Qe2. Not only am I hitting the pawn twice I thought! I see a great sac of the bishop winning my pawn back!} 21. Qe2 {He later told me, he felt this was a pretty good move. I happily accepted the compliment. (: This was the first point in the game I actually saw him think for more than a couple of seconds/minutes.} b5 22. Rc2 Qb6 {Getting protection to his pawn finally and one of his reason why he felt he should have just played Qb6 much earlier.} 23. Bxf5 {Yay! Certainly far from winning or anything. But I felt this was a huge milestone in re-earning the draw with this guy after I felt like I was completely lost. Not only is it winning the pawn back, this will leave us with bishops of opposite colors.} exf5 24. Qxe7 Rae8 {Again I thought for a long time here. I only have a few choices, one of them swaps the queens off, getting closer to what I was hoping was a draw. The other 2 (Qa3 and Qb4) just didn't really seem to do much of anything but let his rooks come in. Looking at it now, it does seem like I might be threatening something like Qb3+ with threats of smothered mate of my own! Instead...} 25. Qc5 {I went for the draw. I knew after he took, his rook would be invading to e2, but I felt like taking the biggest threat out of the game, even if I dropped a pawn, the opposite colored bishops should hold for a draw if I can find a way to swap off the knight and rooks.} Qxc5 {He happily took} 26. Rxc5 Re2 {and just as happily brought the rook to e2. Again I though for a long time.} 27. Rd1 {The move I finally settled on after looking at some alternatives I'll list. I felt like getting my rook into the game with a potential discovered attack on the bishop was strongest. My bishops and knight could work together to hold e1 if need be.} (27. Bc3 h6 28. Nf3 Ne4 {This greatly concerned me. If knight takes bishop and rook recaptures, his rook will be a monster against my queenside pawns.} 29. Rc7 Nxc3 30. bxc3 Be8 {I might have still been ok here with Ra1 or something, but I feel far from comfortable having my pawns split up and both being targets.} 31. a3 {what the computer suggests, and then bringing the f rook to d1. certainly gets my rooks active but at the cost of a passed a pawn. Didn't even consider it.} ) ({another move i considered, but I was concerned about...} 27. Bc1 Rfe8 {but I suppose I was fine after...} 28. Nf3 {so maybe that would have been ok as well, though I felt like my bishop was out of play a bit.} ) Ng4 {However, this move seemed to dash all of my hopes at a draw again. I had just given my opponent a huge gigantic fork opportunity!! I had no idea what to do. Kg1 just seemed to allow the knight to come in anyway. And after the rook moved the bishops falls. (Had i looked closer, I had moves like Kf1 threatening to win the rook back, or even Rf1 counterattacking the knight to consider.} 28. Nh3 {I sadly settled on this, totally removing my knight from play. Hoping my slightly more active rooks and bishop could create some havoc on g7.} Be6 29. Bc3 {Giving up the a pawn but hopefully for some counterplay. He also had a nice fork trick on e3 after 1...Rxg2 2. Kxg2. That would still probably hold for a draw as a single pawn difference would not matter in the opposite colored bishop endgame.} Ne3 30. Re1 {I thought for a bit about this move as well, I saw a chance to trade off more material and ended up going for it} Rxe1+ 31. Bxe1 Bxa2 32. Ng5 Nd5 33. g3 Re8 {I saw this and felt the knight coming back to protect it was strong. If he didn't invade with the rook, I would lock it out with Ne5. If he did invade, then I had some counter play which is what happens.} 34. Nf3 Re3 35. Rc8+ Kf7 36. Ne5+ Kf6 {He again thought for a while before deciding on this move.} 37. Bf2 {Jumping at the chance to play Bd4 which protects the pawn and gives some chances at double checking. Those are usually quite strong, but in this case I couldn't find anything to follow it up with.} Re2 38. Bd4 Ne7 {Ignoring the double check/discovery threats, the knight can't seem to threaten anything with it's free move from the center of the board, at such a fine outpost. Unbelieveable!} 39. Rc7 Bd5+ 40. Kg1 Ke6 {finally breaking the discovered check} (40. ... Rg2+ 41. Kf1 Rxh2 {fails to...} 42. Ng4+ ) 41. Ra7 {winning back the pawn yet again!} Be4 42. Rxa6+ Kd5 43. Bc3 Rg2+ 44. Kf1 {With 5 minutes on the clock, I confidently offered a draw to my opponent.} Rxh2 {He took with no reply} 45. Ra7 {He thought for a few minutes here. Then to my shock he said...yea...okay.} *[/pgn] more