Openings sub 2000 continued

[Event "DCC Winter League"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5{Grunfeld for those less familiar with d4 openings.} 4. Bf4 {Classical variation, probably reached it's pinnacle when Karpov used it vs Kasparov in 86. Now considered a minor sideline to the Exchange variation and the recent popularity of the Fianchetto variation} Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Qb3 {This move went out of favor around 1940. However, it has been played by Fine, Reshevsky, Capablanca, Beliavsky, Kotov, Uhlman etc. Modern Play prefers Nf3 or cxd5. I often like to trot out lines like this even thought they have might be objectively not a testing fight for advantage. Sub 2200 who cares we both will make mistakes from here to the end.} c6 {the quiet choice, c5 would bring add more tension- see Capablanca-Flohr 1938 avro as one example.} 7. Nf3 {One of the minor details of playing Nf3 on move 6 is that Black will sometimes punt their Bishop with Bg4 and capture to follow. I like keep a lockdown on e5 so a small plus to Qb3 is that I can play Nf3 without fear of Bg4 straight away.} Nbd7 {this is a bad choice. Now clearly Black isn't lost here, but I don't think Black gets full compensation in coordination and development for the pawn. Only one high level game has ever tested this see Geller-Pilnick 1952.} 8. cxd5 cxd5 9. Nxd5 {before you can take this pawn you have to be sure wierd tactics like 9.. Nc5 10. Nxf6+ Bxf6 dxc5 doesn't turn the tables. It is easy to see that Black would play Qa5 and have some pressure but Nd2 is fine, OTB though frequently one will fear the shadow of such an attack. I spent the extra couple minutes to be sure there is no unexpected surprises.} Qa5+ 10. Nc3 Nb6 11. Qb5 {How annoying is this move for Black? You have just dropped a pawn and now you are forced to exchange Queens. Down a pawn is certainly defensible but you don’t play a dynamic opening like the Grunfeld to suffer for 4 hours in an endgame.} Qxb5 12. Nxb5{Bxb5 was better, I let the door creep open a little for Black to grab the iniative.} Nbd5{A good move, Black threatens either capturing the Bishop mucking up my pawns or playing Nb4 with the fork threat. I burned some time here looking at what to play after Be5 Nb4, ideas included Nc7 which was the theme of my last otb game, Bxf6 and Na3.} 13. Be5 Nb4 14. Na3{Probably too passive, an interesting idea was to play Rd1 where if Nxa2 Nc7 Rb8 and then Nd5!} Bf5 {the curse of grabbing material in the opening is that you will almost always be forced onto the defensive and lacking coordination of pieces. White is very uncomfortable here and will have to walk the line to escape intact.} 15. Bc4 {Ambition bites the nails of success (U2) trying to solve my issues in one move. Be2 was my alternative, but at the board I was too stubborn to concede just how unattractive my position was shaping up to be.} Bd3 {Trying too hard to get his pawn back. The key idea is that after takes takes Ke2 the knight can scoop up the b pawn. However after the simple Rhb1 or Rab1 White gets a rook on the seventh and a pawn. Since that line can’t be terribly appealing what else could he be thinking?}16. Bxd3 Nxd3+ 17. Ke2 Nb4{I highly doubt this was the move Black had in mind when he went down this rabbit hole. That being said it is probably a more sober choice than letting White thump a rook onto b7.} 18. Nb5 {The idea is to reroute the Knight to c3 blocking a Black Rook’s access to c2.The problem is that Black now gets a tangible point to focus on, and in club play the last thing you want to do is give your opponent a clear goal to try and achieve. } Rac8 19. Nc3 Rfd8 {I was far more worried about doubling the rooks on the C file and occupying d5 to put pressure on my c3 Knight. I was likewise not ready to part with my Bishop so I was not so comfortable with this position as I objectively should have been.} 20. Rhc1 {maybe Rac1 is better but the practical choice is to decide and play the move and save my time for more critical moments.} Rc6{Too late to double now as White can force a wholesale liquidation of pieces after this move. Black should be striving to complicate and/or get his dark square bishop into effect as in more traditional grunfeld situations.} 21. a3 Na6 22. Na2{Swapping off the heavy pieces invites a scenario where Black will have less scope ot create problems and the threat of further simplification may give me important squares etc in the upcoming endgame. Likewise, a pair of the rooks on the board would drastically increase the chance of nullifying my pawn advantage in converting to a win. Normally, I would seek to play for a decisive position in the middlegame but here this seemed the sober choice.} Rdc8 23. Rxc6 Rxc6 24. Rc1 Rxc1 25. Nxc1 Nd7 {White was dominating one of the Black Knights so this move is logical but unfortunate for Black.}26. Bxg7 Kxg7 {we are now in an endgame essentially.With Knights there will be more tactics but at this point I began to ask the question of how to create pressure on Black and either create a passed pawn or achieve dominant positions for my knights.} 27. Nd3 {centering the knight} Nc7 28. Nc5{I liked moving my majority to the queenside after Nxc6} Nb6 {the decisive mistake, my opponent stated after the game that he overlooked Kd3} 29. Kd3 {now Black is just dropping a pawn and the rest is an hour long grind to create the decisive passed pawn.} Ncd5 30. Nxb7 f6 31. Na5 g5 32. g3 e6 33. e4 Ne7 34. Nc4 Kg6 35. b3 h5 36. h3 Nec8 37. Ne3 f5 38. exf5+ exf5 39. Ne5+ Kf6 40. f4 gxf4 41. gxf4 Ne7 42. b4 Nbd5 43. Ng2 Ng6 44. Nxg6 Kxg6 45. Kc4 1-0