This was an interesting game that I had with Lon today.  Watch how I underestimate my position and let him counter attack.

1. e4 d6, 2. c4 Nf6, 3. Nc3 g6, 4. h3 Bg7, 5. g3 o-o, 6. Bg2 c5, 7. Ne2 Nc6, 8. o-o Be6.  This last move was questionable.  My idea was to get my queen behind the bishop and threaten the pawn on h3. Obviously, it would be easily defended, but I thought I could gain some tempo lining up my pieces towards the king side.

9. d3 Qd7 (Qc8 is better). Lon made a good point after the game that Qc8 creates the same threat, but allows the bishop to move back in the case of a king side pawn storm.

10. Kh2 Rab8, 11. f4 b5. A mistake on my part. And then, Lon let's me off the hook.  He admitted later that he should have taken the pawn and the initiative.

12. g4 Bxg4. The key move of the game. I have played many games with this position, and have lost many of those games playing passively and trying to hunker down and defend. I obviously could have moved the queen back to give the bishop an escape, but I knew the pawn storm would leave my king exposed and given Lon all the momentum.  The sacrifice was not total desperation.   I thought I could move my knight into a good square and perhaps find some way to push the action.

13. hxg4 Nxg4+, 14. Kh1 bxc4, 15. dxc4 Nd4.  Lon said this was one strategy of this white opening to lure the black knight into this square, retreat the white night and then there is no place for the black knight to go and be useful.

16. Ng3 Rb4, 17. Nd5 Rxc4. Here is the crux of my situation.  I have momentum thanks to the bishop sacrifice. I actually back to even in material.  I have his king exposed, but I could not find a way to follow-up the attack.  After the game Lon said that I could have tried f5 and opened up the position to bring my rook and queen into the attack instead of wasting time on the queen side.

18. Ne7+ Qxe7, 19. Qxg4 Rb8, 20. f5 Nc2, 21. fxg6 fxg6, 22. Bg5 Qe5, 23. Bf4 Qxb2, 24. Rab1 Qxb1, 25. Rxb1 Rxb1+, 26. Kh2 Rb2?, 27. Qe6+ resigns.

A blunder ends my game, but I think one can see that I had allowed Lon to take the initiative, and my attack fizzled out.