Hi everyone. Had to substitute in the first team of my club last night and got white against a sicilian dragon - kind of my favourite since I hadn't lost one of them OTB.
Well, for everything there's a first time, of course. I thought I was playing well, then chose the weaker of basically two options and got crushed by a smashing tactic I overlooked.
Did some quick annotations, any thoughts on the game?
Header
PGN
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7. Qd2 Bd7 8. Bc4 Nf6 9. f3 h5 {Weird move order, but since I like the main variation where there is usually h5 and h4 after black castles, I decided to play it now as well. Might not have been the strongest} 10. h4 a6 11. Bb3 Na5 12. O-O-O Nxb3+ 13. Nxb3 Rc8 14. Kb1 b5 15. Bd4 {now pinning the f6 knight because black hasn't castled yet} Be6 16. Qf2 Bxb3 17. cxb3 O-O 18. g4 {black castles? Time to attack! I was considering e5 here as well.} hxg4 19. h5 Nxh5 20. fxg4 Bxd4 21. Rxd4 e5 22. Rd3 {on this move I took quite some time, and this is where I chose the weaker option. Of course the tempting move is gxh5, but I couldn't figure out a winning variation which is why I chose the more solid Rd3. Afteranalysis showed gxh5 is in fact the strongest move.} Nf4 23. Nd5 {I was very happy with this move, since it seems to win in every possible continuation, except one:} Rc1+ {!! very nice move, I hadn't seen it.} 24. Rxc1 Nxd3 25. Qd2 Nxc1 26. Qxc1 Kg7 27. g5 Rh8 28. a3 Rh5 29. Nf6 Rxg5 30. Qxg5 Qxf6 31. Qd2 {the game went on for 30 more moves after this, since our team was in a tight spot, but my opponent played it out well and I had to resign.}*
