Had a fun game against our club's top player today, Tom B.  We both made mistakes, giving rise to some good action on both sides.  Because of this, the outcome of the game was not certain until much later in the game.

Tom was playing white.  1. e4 d6, 2. d4 Nf6, 3. Nc3 g6, 4. Nf3 Bg7, 5. Bc4 0-0, 6. Bg5 Nbd7, 7. h3 c5, 8. e5 a6, 9. a3 b5, 10. Bd3 c4, 11. Be2 Nc5, 12. Nd2 Qc7, 13. Rb1 Re8, 14. f4 Bb7, 15. o-o e6, 16. e5 ....

I think this was a miscalculation by Tom.  He loses a pawn in the exchange.  16. ... Nxd5, 17. Nxd5 Bxd5, 18. Bf3 Qb6, 19. Bxe5 dxe5, 20. Qf3 .... 

Here Tom told me that he had thought the discovered check was not a problem, but he realized too late that this queen move changed that.  20. ... Ne4+, 21. Kh2 Nxd2, 22. Qxd5 Nxb1, 23. exd6 Nd2.  I needed the threat Nxf1+ to stop the pawn from queening since his bishop was controlling the d8 square.  

24. Qxd2 f6, 25. Bh4 Qc6.  Tom regretted his 25th move almost immediately.  He felt if he had played 25. Qd5+ and then moved his bishop back he would have had a better chance to even the game since it looked like I could lose a rook defending the d8 square.  Instead, it gave me a chance to control the d5 square.

26. Bg3 Rad8, 27. f5 Rd7, 28. h4 Bf8?  Here I make another mistake.  I had considered playing Kf7 first, protecting the f-pawn, but I miscalculated, thinking I would have enough tempo, but instead it gave Tom chance for counterplay.

29. fxg6 Bxd6, 30. Qh6 Bxg3+, 31. Kxg3 Rg7?  Another mistake.  I missed a chance to take the g-pawn.  Tom showed me afterwards that I could have taken the pawn since if he played Qxg6+, I could just play Rg7 winning his queen.

32. h5 Qd6+, 33. Kh5 Qe6+, 34. Kh2 Qe5+, 35. Kh1 Qg5, 36. gxf7+ Rxh7, 37. Qxf6 Rxh5+, 38. Kg1 Qc5+, 39. Qf2 Qxf2+, 40. Rxf2 Re1+, 41. Rf1 Rxf1+, 42. Kxf1 Re5. 1-0

 There were a few more moves but white eventually resigned since there was no way for him to dislodge my king and my rook could easily support my queen side pawns advancing.  Not a game to be totally proud of, for sure, but I was happy to get my first win against Tom in a long time.