Here is my game against Tom B. today.  He had white.

1. e4 d6, 2. d4 Nf6, 3. Nc3 g6, 4. Nf3 Bg7.  I have played this position over a hundred times in the last three months.  It's the Pirc opening for black.

5. Bc4 (Tom goes off the main book line here) o-o, 6. o-o Nd7, 7. Be3 c5.  This seventh move is usually where I try to change gears and go on the offensive.  If white develops passively, I slow down again and try to get my light square bishop to b7 before mounting an attack.  If white takes, I jump to the attack with my knights.

8. Nd5? Nxd5?  Afterwards, both Tom and I were scratching our heads.  Chalk it up to "chess blindness" how neither of us realized that the e4 pawn is hanging.  Chessmaster 10th Edition (CMX) doesn't think this was much of an oversight and barely tips the scales in favor of white at this point of the game.

9. Bxd5 Rb8, 10. Ng5 e6.  I wanted to play 10. ... cxd4 here, because I wasn't concerned about trading a rook and pawn to gain a knight and a bishop (Josh Waitzkin Academy teaches that having two extra minor pieces and a rook instead of two rooks is more dynamic in the end game).  After cxd4, white can't take with the queen because of the bishop on g7, and if white takes with the bishop, the knight is lost to the black queen.  But, the in-between move Bxf7+, followed by Rxf7, Nxf7, Kxf7, allows white to play Bxd4, attacking b7 and a7 with the centralized bishop.  So I wanted to prevent Bxf7+ before playing cxd4.  At least that was my plan.

11. Bxe6! Wow.  I did not even consider this move.  Now if fxe6, Nxe6 forking the queen and the rook.  cxd4 looks very weak and distant now.

11. ... Qe7, 12. Bxf7+ Rxf7, 13. Nxf7 Qxf7.  The threat of cxd4 is gone and white is a pawn up.  Worst, my king is exposed, my queen is not on a great square for the battle in the center, and my light square bishop (my extra attacker) is totally passive.

14. c3 (more to remove the pin on b2 and a1 than to protect d4) b6, 15. Qb3, with the idea of trading queens while being up a pawn and opening an attack on a7.

15. ... Qxb3, 16. axb3 a6? I wasn't that worried about trading queens, because I was still thinking that my four pieces to his three would give me an advantage in the end game, but a6 was weak.  It relegated by light square bishop to a defensive position.  Probably a5 is more efficient.

17. Rfd1 Bb7 (a weak threat since Bxe4 allows Rxa6 -- of course the a-pawn here is not as valuable as the e-pawn).  Notice that black has two pawn islands and white has one.  This position favors white.

18. f3 Ra8, 19. Bf4 d5.  CMX doesn't like 19. Bf4 and called it white's biggest mistake in the game.  If that was the biggest mistake in the game, no wonder I was in so much trouble!  There were only four moves that CMX did not agree with Tom, and this was one of them.  CMX preferred 19. dxc5.

20. e5 (creating a passed pawn) Kf7, 21. Re1 Ke6, 22. h4 cxd4, 23. cxd4 Bc6.  Even though I isolated my d-pawn, I felt I needed to break white's pawn chain to give me a chance to attack the central pawns with Nb8, Nc6.  Again, my 16. ... a6 move is crippling me, keeping either my bishop or my rook occupied.  So I try to maneauver my bishop to a good square (b5) where I can then activate my rook.

24. g4 Bb5, 25. Bg3 h5.  I was trying to figure out what Tom's plan was here.  I wanted to see if I could create another pawn island and prevent him from playing f4, f5, driving my king from the  e6 square.

26. g5 Bf8, 27. Rec1 Bb4.  I finally thought I had activated my "extra" piece advantage and was getting ready to have some counter play.

28. Be1! Bxe1.  In retrospect, if I had been playing for a draw here I could have played back 28. ... Be7 followed by Bd8 and controlling all the squares on the open c-file on my side of the board, but I was too far into trying some kind of attack to win, and I gave my good bishop away.  My psychological state is so key in this position.  Next time I will play back or at least anticipate his trade offer (maybe playing 27. ... e7 then d8).  Thing is, I was worried about giving up the a3-f8 diagonal, but the truth is that his bishop does not have any targets except for b6.  Bad trade on my part.

29. Rxe1 Rc8, 30. Rec1 Rxc1, 31. Rxc1 Kf5.  CMX shows this as black's worst mistake.  I had to think a long time about this move.  My knight needed two moves to get to e6 or c6 to put pressure on d4, and I was trying to find a way to get there with a tempo.  But it turns out that placing my knight on c6 was better than on e6.

32. Kf2 Nf8.  I hesitated here bringing my king to f4.  I saw that white could play Rc7, Rf7 mate, so I started my move to Ne6 instead. 

33. Ke3 Nh7.  Here I was still trying to figure out how to have a threat to occupy his rook or king.  I decided on a knight sacrifice, but Tom played it well, controlling the king side with his king.  Of course, I have my own worries with his passed pawn and his free roving rook on the c-file.

34. Rc7 Nxg5, 35. hxg5 Kxg5, 36. Rh7 Be8.  Here I had the misconception that as long as I secured my g-pawn and the e8 square with my bishop, I can just march my king to g3 and g2 and queen my pawn.  Did I even consider that he might move his king?  Of course not.

37. Re7 Bb5, 38. Rf7 Kh4, 39. Kf2 Kg5, 40. Rf6 Bd3, 41. Rxb6 h4, 42. Kg2 Kf4, 43. e6 (probably could have won the game earlier with this move).  And of course after 43. ... Bb5, 44. Rxb5, and I resigned.

I welcome you comments.  Let me know if you see a better attack for black!