18.Nd2
This was the position I found myself in from Round 6, playing against the same WGM Brian had comfortably drawn with earlier in the event. I had a brief look at her games and noticed that with White she was a very well versed and capable player who had lots of experience with the open Sicilian, an opening which although perhaps my favourite opening, often sees me play really well or really recklessly.
I therefore decided to go for the French Tarrash variation instead, as I often do against certain players when I want to take them out of their book and into my book so to speak. It almost never fails to gain me lots of time on the clock and put me in a situation in which I know the positions and themes very well whereas my opponents dont.
With that in mind it is perhaps all the more surprising how often I can get really careless and mess things up in this line, which sometimes walks a tightrope between complete obliteration and a strategic edge growing into something more in the late middle game or ending. Here it is the former and although I ended up with an advantage later in the game it was never very much I could work with [though I did try] and I always had the sense that I was somewhat lucky not to have been blown off the board early on in this game so was grateful for what I was able to get from the game.
18...h4?
After this move Black is in big trouble. My idea had been to force the Knight to retreat and only then play Nc4, but I simply neglected to pay attention to all Whites options, and of course after the logical and obvious Nh5, which allows White to reconfigure his pieces for attacking purposes, with a nice fixed target to go after. I was dancing on very thin ice indeed. [18...g6
19.Rc1
Bc6
20.Rc2
Nbc4
21.Nxc4
Nxc4
22.Rf1
Na5
23.Qf3
Qb6
24.Rd1
Nb3
25.Rc3
Na5
26.Rb1
Rc7
27.Qd1
]
19.Nh5
Black is in big trouble now [19.Ne2?
Is what I would have liked White to play 19...Nac4
20.Nxc4
Nxc4=
; 19.Ngf1
Kf8!?
(19...Nac4
20.Nxc4
Nxc4
21.Rb1
Kf8=
) ]
19...g6
[19...Kf8?
20.Qg4
g6
21.Bxg6
fxg6
22.Qxg6
With a winning attack]
20.Nf4
Bc6
I am not sure if there was anything better here? I just wanted to have a square available for my King if things got to hot on the Kside
21.Qg4
Normal and very strong
21...g5
[21...Kd7
22.Rab1
(22.Qf3
Rf8
23.Rac1
) 22...Kc7
23.b3
]
22.Nh5
[22.Nxe6!?
Would have been interesting 22...fxe6
23.Qxe6
Qd7
24.Qg6+
Kd8
25.Bxg5
]
22...Nbc4
23.Rab1
Nxd2
24.Bxd2
Nb3
25.Be3
[25.Bb4!?
]
25...Kd7
26.Nf6+?
Too greedy. White is impatient and throws away a big advanatge [26.Bc2!
]
26...Bxf6
27.exf6
Qxf6
28.Bxg5
Qg7
And I was happy enough with my position agian. the only problem was that the more I ooked at the position the harder it was to see a way to crreat any winning chances
29.Be3
Rcg8
[29...Qxg4!
Was best now]
30.Qxg7
Rxg7
31.Kh2
f6
32.Rg1
e5
It seems like things are going swimmingly for Black but actually finding an effective and strong plan is hard to do.
33.g3
Ke6
34.Rbe1
e4
A big choice. I simply could not see any way of improving my position now and what follows is a mutual time scramble that sees me trying to confuse things and taking risks in doing so, while towards the end anything might happen and I refused a draw, soon after I was glad to just split the point.
35.Be2
f5
36.Bd1
Rgh7
37.Bxb3
hxg3+
38.Rxg3
axb3
39.Bf4
Rh4
40.Bg5
[40.Be5
Is what I was hoping for 40...f4
41.Rxb3
R8h5
With some winning chances and pretty much no losing chances 42.Rg1
Rxe5
43.dxe5
d4
]
40...R4h5
41.Reg1
Bb5
42.Bf4
Be2
With the possible threat of Bg4
At this stage White is better but having just offered me a draw a couple of moves before and being in worse time trouble by me it seemed like a gamble to refuse now for White. After the game we had a look at sone really crazy lines and the nature of them was such that regardless of the objective merits of any given position the doubledged nature of some of these lines meant that a mistake could easily allow a win for the otherside. I was not willing to gamble that much and so offered a draw knowing that if it was refused I could just move fast and not worry about the result too much. just enjoy the scamble and see how it goes. My opponent seem to pick up on this and so was content to draw rather than take a gamble and possibly go badly wrong in time trouble. 1/2-1/2