1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Bg5 An uncommon sideline used mostly to take Benko players out of their game. 4...Ne4 5.Bf4 d6 This move is not the main line. The main line goes: [5...Qa5+ 6.Nd2 g5 7.Be5 Rg8 8.b4 Qxb4 9.Ngf3 where the old move being played was 9. ...g4?! and it was thought to be giving black an advantage until white came up with the brilliant reply 10. Rb1! Nowadays black plays 9. ...Qa5 with a safe advantage.] 6.f3 Qa5+ A mistake. Now black is heading towards the main line with the wasteful move 5...d6 thrown in. Instead black should try [6...Nf6 7.e4 b4 8.Bd3 g6 9.a3!? where white only gets a small advantage.] 7.Nd2 Nxd2 [7...Nf6 During the game, I thought this move was better as it allows black to develop his pieces in a rather smooth fashion; however, how much better is to be decided since black's queen is misplaced and will cost him in the long run.] 8.Bxd2 Qb6 9.cxb5! This move secures the square c3 for the dark squared bishop. The square was in jeopardy as black was threatening to play the move b4. 9...Qxb5 10.Bc3 From here the bishop wreaks havoc on the black king-side. 10...Ba6 Trying to keep white from expanding too quickly, but to no avail. 11.Nh3 Nd7 12.e4 Qb6 Now I was faced with the challenge of finding a square for my light squared bishop. If I try taking on a6, black will capture back with his queen, making it hard for me to castle. If I place the bishop on d3 the black knight will move to e5 with a tempo, as I did not want to part with my nice bishop. What to do? 13.Be2! Solving the problem nicely. 13...Bxe2 14.Qxe2 Nf6 This move came as a shock. I was expecting my opponent to play Ne5!? when my reply would have been f4. 15.g4 Keeping up the pressure on black. 15...h6 16.f4 I played this move thinking that if black were to play g6??, I would play g5 winning a piece. 16...g6 "Oops," I thought to myself while writing this move down in my scorebook, for you can now see that my calculations were incorrect. 17.Nf2 Threatening g5. 17...Rg8 This move was designed to give black more options. If black plays the move Bg7 instead, I will castle queen-side, where it will then be questionable if black will ever be able to castle. [17...Bg7!? 18.0-0-0 0-0 (18...0-0-0 would have been an improvement over the game.) 19.h4 This has to be an improvement over the game because at least here black has very good active counterplay. The problem with castling king-side is that it is very hard psycholgically for any chessplayer to put their king in the midst of such a fearsome storm, and the time alone that would have to be involved in finding an accurate defense makes the idea of castling king-side a frightening idea.] 18.0-0-0 0-0-0?! Probably not a good move, because I can attack black very easily on that side of the board. 19.Bxf6 exf6 20.Rd3 By this point in the game I had a huge advantage. Black's bishop has a lack of squares and his king is in very bad shape. 20...Qa6 21.Qc2 Bg7 22.Ra3 Qb6 23.Qa4 Rd7 The only move was to guard the pawn. 24.Rb3 Qc7 25.Kb1 Re8 26.Rc1 Kd8 I guess black didn't like the queenside after all! [26...f5? 27.e5! Kd8 (27...dxe5 28.Nd3 Bf8 29.fxe5+-) 28.Nd3+- where white's position is crushing.] 27.Nd3 Ke7? 28.f5! The bishop is now forever imprisoned to the seventh rank. 28...g5 [28...Kf8? 29.fxg6! fxg6 30.Nf4 when my knight reaches e6 with devastating effect.; 28...gxf5!? 29.gxf5 Kf8 30.Nf2 and I will bring my pieces back over to the king-side to attack the king.] 29.Nb4 The killing blow and the key to the king being on e7. Without this key king placement, this move would never have been possible as e4 would have been taken. 29...Kf8 30.Nc6 Kg8 31.Rc4 Taking it slowly. 31...Bf8 32.Rb5 h5 33.h3 I didn't feel like giving the black bishop any chance of escaping. 33...Rdd8 Black has resorted to desperation. 34.Nxd8 Rxd8 35.Qa5 Qe7 36.Rb7 Qxb7 37.Qxd8 The rest of the game was just a matter of being patient. 37...Qb5 38.b3 a5 Lovely! At last counterplay! 39.Qxf6 Bg7 40.Qd8+ Kh7 41.f6 Bh8 42.Qxd6 a4 43.Qxc5 Qa6 44.Qc8 Qb6 45.Qf5+ Kh6 46.h4 Qg1+ 47.Rc1 Black gave up, but why? He has plenty of chances for counterplay... 1-0