A race against the clock

Me (2039*) - Cureton (2100), 5+4 Blitz game

Sicilian Defense (Grand Prix Attack)

1. e4 (only now I realized that I accidentally started a game while logged in instead of in anonymous mode - oops) c5 2. 2. Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 e6 4. Nf3 Nge7 5.Bb5 a6 6. Bxc6 Nxc6 7. O-O Be7 8. d3 d5 9. Kh1 O-O 10. b3 b5 11. Bb2 d4 12. Ne2 b4 13. Ng3 Bb7 14. f5 Qd7 15. Bc1 Bd6

So far both sides had made reasonable moves in this opening (another one I borrowed from the twitch streams of IM Eric Rosen). However, as the computer points out in the post mortem, Bd6 is a blunder, allowing white to take the advantage with 16. f6! I did not see it.

16. fxe6 fxe6 17. Qe1 Rf7 18. e5.Be7 19. Ne4 Raf8 20. Qg3 Qc7 21. Bg5 Qxe5

I had slowly improved my position, and now black blundered - and I saw it. After the coming exchanges, white gets a winning position (the computer gives 6-7 pawn equivalent advantage). However accurate play is still required and both sides had just over a minute left (of course there is a 3 second increment er move, but that is less than it sounds....).

22. Qxe5 Nxe5 23. Bxe7 Ng4 24. Bxf8 Rxf8 25. Nfg5 Re8 26. Rf3 h6 27. Nh3 Ne3 28. Rc1 Kh7 29. Rg3 Rf8 30. Rf3 Rxf3 31. gxf3 e5 32. Nd6 Bxf3+ 33. Kg1 Bd5 34. Ne8 e4 35. dxe4 Bxe4 36. Nf4 Bxc2

That was a decent series of moves from both sides, no blunders, not even inaccuracies according to the computer. This is still won for white but time was going to play a major role from now on (we were down to 7 and 11 seconds). My next move throws away the advantage completely, and the remaining moves were full of time pressure blunders resulting in a continuous seesaw between drawn and winning for white.

37. Ne6 (Ng2 wins) Bf5 (d3 draws) 38. N8xg7 (Nxc5 wins) Bg6 (Bxe6 draws) 39. Re1 (Rxc5 wins). After my move, we both had just over 3 seconds on the clock (I had come within one second of flagging) and that turned out to be insufficient for black who flagged in a drawn position. 1-0.

My rating went up from 2039 to 2082 (still provisional).

 

Full game.