Analysis please - Mr Hand v Dragon

OK all, please critique my game below. I'm white. Strong (compared to me ~1400) opponent as black (USCF 2074).

First I have a question from a particular position (immediately below). White to move.



I chose 30. e5 Nf7 31. Rde1. My opponent suggested that Rde1 was a mistake. It was a quick conversation, so I didn't fully grasp his point. Aside from the retrospectively obvious problem with black 31. ..f4 I'm not sure I see the issue. I give away the d file and limit that rook's mobility. He said leaving the rook on d was better. Thoughts beyond that?

For the rest of the game, I was surprised that he dropped a pawn so easily. I know that move 20 was a mistake from me. I should have played 20. Nxe4 ... he could have won my knight with h6 or f6.

It's like 2:15 am and my eyes are killing me.
I'll not comment on the whole game as I can hardly see, but I did notice that after 20.dxe4 he can't take your knight.
20...f6 is met by 21.Ne6 with a fork of all 3 heavy pieces. 20...h6 is met by 21.e5 threatening his knight with the Q+B battery. I can't see an easy way to combat that and your knight jumps away to e4 afterwards.

The main question in your post - erm maybe someone who doesn't drop pieces on move 10 and is nearly collapsing from lack of sleep would be better answering it 😛

Originally posted by MrHand
OK all, please critique my game below. I'm white. Strong (compared to me ~1400) opponent as black (USCF 2074).

First I have a question from a particular position (immediately below). White to move.

[fen]4rrk1/p5p1/1q1n2bp/1p3p2/1Pp1P3/2P1R1PP/P1QN1PB1/3R2K1 w - f6 0 30[/fen]

I chose 30. e5 Nf7 31. Rde1. My opponent suggested that Rde1 was a mist ...[text shortened]... 27. b3 b5 28. b4 Qb6 29. Re3 f5 30. e5 Nf7 31. Re1 f4 32. gxf4 Bxc2 0-1 [/pgn]

First 30.e5 is a mistake because of 30...f4 but he missed that and gave you a chance to redeem yourself with 31.e6 but you chose 31.Red1 which makes ...f4 even stronger. The reason 30.e5 is a mistake should be obvious, its because you have your queen in line with his bishop on g6! There was no reason for e5 since you have just as many defenders as attackers on that pawn... 30.a4 fxe4 2.a5 grabs some space and allows you to now play Rde1 or you can play what my plan would be which would be to get the knight on e3 via Nf1-Re2-Ne3.

By the way, if he gave some abstract reason as to why Red1 was bad besides the tactical reason, then don't listen to him.

When you play a kings indian attack (or a set-up like that), be sure to recapture with a pawn when your opponent plays d5 and dxe4. You need it for control over d5. The rook on e1 isn't misplaced at all since it reinforces the control over d5 (as any attempt to remove the e4-pawn consequently opens the e-file for the rook).

Thanks for the comments guys.

Also, aside from my great patzer-tude, slightly in my defense, this game (OTB) was G/30 and the clock was bearing down on me I had about 5 min. left there during my blunder and I think he had 12 or 14.

Tomtom, his reasoning wasn't abstract...it was just that we play in a small room and other games were still going.....the quick & whispered conversation was difficult for me to grasp.