The last thing on my mind

qwert9888 (Russia) - Hennie Schaper

Leonardis Opening

1. e4 Nf6 2. d3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bd2 0-0 6. a3 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 d6 8. h3 Qe7 9. Be2 Nd8 10. 0-0 Ne6 11. Bd2 Bd7 12. c3 a5 13. Qc2 Bc6 14. Ng5 h6 15. Nxe6 Qxe6 16. f4

After the somewhat supersafe way of dodging the Alekhine defence, white has played the opening better than black, getting his pieces ready for a king side attack. I was not comfortable at all with this position, and that may have influenced my thinking later on.

16. ... exf4 17. Bxf4 Rfe8 18. Bf3 Qd7 19. Rae1 Re7 20. Qd1 Rae8 21. Bg3 Re6 22. Bh4 

White still has the better position, but did not make much progress. Black's position still looks defendable, but my next move weakens the position. Of course I had to deal with the threat Bxf6 followed by Bg4, but there were better ways to do that.

22. ... g5 23. Bg3 Qe7 24. h4 Nh7 25. Bg4 Rf6 26. Bf5 Qd8 27. e5 dxe5 28. Bxh7+ Kxh7 29. hxg5

By now I was convinced I was going to lose this game, based on my dislike of the position, the fact that my opponent had a higher rating, and that I was down to 8 minutes for the rest of the game while white still had 23 minutes left. The last thing on my mind was looking for a winning move. Unfortunately, because after white's last move (a mistake) I could have gotten a winning position. I should have played Rxf1, followed by Qxg5, pinning the black bishop on g3 with loads of threats. Instead, I went down quickly:

29. ... Qd5 30. Qe2 Rxf1 31. Rxf1 Rg8 32. c4 Qe6 33. Rf6 1-0