Where my last game finished in 17 moves, this one took me quite some more. It was a hard struggle from the start, where both of us had opportunities, but especially in the beginning of the middle game I feared things might be over quickly.
White played 1. d4 and I really wasn't looking forward to another King's Indian as in game 4, so decided to try to transpose it to a Black Lion, which I'm used to playing as well. So far so good, but after 7. Bd2 I was a bit out of theory as well, so needed to change things up. Decided to go for 7. ...., Qb6, which was still ok, but my 8. Nc5 was starting to get me into trouble already. I thought it was an ok move to create some space, but actually 9. e5 would have been very bad for me.... luckily enough he played 9. h3.
After 9. h3 I should have just taken Ncxe5, winning a pawn. After Nxe5, I can take trade queens and take Nfxe5, which I can protect with my pawns. However, I played Ne6 instead. It created at least a bit of room for my white squared bishop, but my position was far from good.
After changing queens (reducing my tactical risks), I figured that I might be ok if I succeeded in getting rid of the f-pawn. So, here I played Ng7, as I figured now both g and e pawn needed to protect the f-pawn. Alternatively, the f-pawn would be exchanged, and my knight could go to e6. However, here Nf6 would be better, as after e5 you can play Nfe4, where some center pawns need to be traded.
Some pawns now got traded and although this led to some more space, it did bring my king to g6 and completely open. With the queens off the board, it's doable, but it's far from pretty or safe. Here I had just played Be7, which I liked better than Nge6 (apparently more accurate), because I wanted to get my bishops off the back rank, in order to free up my rooks.
In the below position I was glad to be alive still at least. I had just played Kg7. The pawn on g4 looks tricky, as it's hard to defend, then again, also hard to attack. White has 2 isolated pawns but does have the bishop pair. I of course also have double pawns on the b-file, but they do not seem to be a weakness so far. Instead of Kg7, it would have been sharper to play Rf8. The pawn on d6 is poisoned, as after taking with the bishop, you can play Rd8 pinning the bishop.
In the meantime, we kept on moving some pieces trying to find small improvements in order to move forward. I thought that the major danger was gone by now and a couple of moves before the position below I offered a draw. Obviously, my positon was still not good. Then again it seemed that my opponent also did not have a clear plan on how to take advantage of it. When he played 30. h5+ I feared however that he might....
My king was again being forced to the back rank, but luckily enough there were still a number of tactical possibilities to stay in the game. After 33. e5, I played Rxf5, followed by Rxf5 and Rf8. Although white's pawns are pretty far advanced, they also miss protection for the last part of their journey.
Now the rooks are being changed, the advanced white pawns are going off the board and I wouldn't say that the tables have turned, but I have at least a serious seat at the table again. Although the pawn on g4 is still hard to defend / get across, with white's d-pawn going off, white has limited to none winning chances left.
Although I was back in the game and now actually on the plus side.... how to take advantage of this? To be honest, endgames are not by thing. One of the reasons is that I often don't reach the endgame, but also because it's less tactical. In the position below however, there was a nice tactical way to make use of my g-pawn. Playing Nf3 would clear the g3 field, as the dark squared bishop needs to protect the d2 field (for the knight fork). The bishop can only go to b4, followed by c5 and Nh4, after which in the end white needs to sacrifice the white squared bishop for the pawn. I missed this however and played Kf7, which in itself is quite a logical move.
We exchanged some pawns and the dark squared bishops. I thought c4 was a nice move as the closer the pawns come to the back rank now, the harder it will get to stop them. A better move would have been to play Nf5. It protects the g6 pawn (the king can't go to e4, due to g7), and frees up the d6 square to start chasing the bishop. I did see this but overestimated the risk of the a-pawn. Somehow, I felt that going too much forward with my king to advance my pawns, the a-pawn would at some point become unstoppable. Coming back to my endgame tactics.... after 52. c4+ white played 53. Ke3, which should have been punished by Nf5+. The g7 field is now protected, due to Ne3+ and the c-pawn becomes really dangerous by now.
After c4 didn't work I was a bit lost on how to go for a win. So, I decided to go for the draw. For that I only needed to take off the a-pawn of course, which was doable. Below was the end position. In the end I felt ok about the game. It was a struggle, where I was at least able to make a comeback, against a higher rated player as well.
Full game can be found here.
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