[Event "BCCC 2018"]
[Site "Mechanics Institute"]
[Date "2018-05-31"]
[White "Cassandra Barnett"]
[Black "Bas van Riel"]
[WhiteElo "1138"]
[BlackElo "1812"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 {(Bas) The Dutch defence was one of my pet-openings in my younger years. The then-worldchampion, Michael Botvinnik was my hero. He was an expert in the Dutch and French openings. My first chessbook was a collection of his best games, and I studied and subsequently adopted his favourite openings. I became quite good at them, and my success as a junior was mainly thanks to my opening choices. I was still at secondary school when Botvinnik) visited the Netherlands, and I had the chance to play against him in a simul! I was over the moon and I wanted to celebrate this opportunity to challenge him with his own opening, the Dutch defence. Unfortunately, I received a (very useful!) lesson, I will never forget: I lost in about 20 moves. As a result, I rarely played the Dutch defence with black ever since.} 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 {(Bas) Usually, the Dutch involves the fianchetto of the white squared bishop to g2. White's alternative opening play is nevertheless sensible.} Be7 5.e3 c6 6.Bd3 d6 7.b4?! {(Bas) A somewhat premature move. I don't see a good reason for the move now. This pawn could become a liability later on, as it is unprotected. For instance, I looked at the immediate 7...e5!; 8.dxe5, dxe5; 9.Nxe5, Bxb4, but rejected this line because black is swapping a centre pawn against a minor pawn. But the engine says that black's position nevertheless is already better than white's.} O-O 8.Bb2 Qe8 {(Bas) The usual queen manoevre in the Dutch defense, putting pressure on white's king position.
.} 9.Qc2 Qg6 10.Rg1! {(Bas) Good move, white committing to a king side attack, but also to queen-side castling.} Na6 11.a3 Qh5?! {(Bas) A wasted move, overlooking  Cassandra's obvious and strong next move} 12.h3! Nc7 {(Bas) As it turns out, this knight is placed ideally, controlling the important e6 and d5 squares and playing a crucial part later on} 13.O-O-O Qe8 {(Bas) Now the queen has to get out of trouble asap!} 14.g4 d5 {(Bas) For this and the previous move, I spent 10 minutes each: I was worried!} 15.Ne5! {(Bas) Another strong (instinctive?) move, placing the knight on a better spot,} dxc4 16.Bxc4 Nfd5 {(Bas) A necessary blocking move, to prevent  white's black bishop to take part in the (attacking) fun, starting soon.} 17.Qe2? {(Bas) I think that it is a wasted move. Opening the g-file would be more direct and 'to the point': 17.gxf5, exf5; 18. Rg3 with the option to double the rooks.} a5! {(Bas) Strangely, both players ignored any action around the pawn on b4, the next few moves, like bxa5 or b5 (both good moves for white) and axb4 (by black). As recommended being stronger by the engines.} 18.gxf5 exf5 19.e4 {According to Stockfish 9, this is the critical error, and b5 is the correct move. (RJ) (Bas) I am not sure that it was a critical error, Rodney. White apparently still retains a small advantage, but the situation is almost too complicated to assess over the board. Both sides can easily make bad mistakes which only may become apparent a few moves later. Good calculation usually is  the aim of the game, but certainly at the moment.} fxe4 20.Nxe4 Kh8 {ab (RJ) I removed your questionmark, Rodney. It is necessary to immediately activate the knights, and also to remove the king from the firing line. Winning a pawn on b4 is the least of my priorities, thereby moving the black bishop away from the defence..} 21.Ng5 {ba (RJ) (Bas) Again I believe that a ? is too harsh. I also don't see why bxa5 is a better move, as it allows black to open up white's king position via Rxa5, and further options b5 and c5} h6 22.h4? {I don't like this. I had hoped I could put pressure with the active rook but after black takes, white ends up a piece down without any clear explanations as to what it was worth. (C.B.) (Bas) Yes, it was a mistake, but it was very difficult to calculate all the possibilities. Which took me more than 10 minutes to work out, and to convince me that I could survive the resulting complications. I assume that you had missed 23...g6? After I found that move (the only one), I had to make sure that my g6 pawn was safe. (C.B.) I had missed g6. If I had spotted it, I would have rejected the knight sac altogether.} hxg5 {Bas admitted after the game I just couldn't see any reason why not to take the knight. (C.B.)} 23.hxg5 g6! 24.Rh1+ Kg7 25.Rdg1 {Black has counter-play with bishop check, putting white's attack on hold. I had calculated this to a degree but underestimated how much of a problem it presented. (C.B.)} Rh8 26.Rh6? {(Bas) Looses more material, but what else? eg. 26.Rxh8, Qxh8; 27.Bd3, ganging up on g6, fails because of 27...Nf4.} Bxg5+ 27.Rxg5 Rxh6 28.Bd3 Nf4 29.Qf3 Ncd5 {(Bas) The two horses in tandem are awfully strong} 30.Bc2 Qe6 31.Qg3? {This wasn't intentional but was just a good reason to resign earlier. All other moves just made the end come slower. Thanks for the game, Bas. (C.B.) (Bas) After 31.Qe4, I had the outline of the more or less forced sequence in mind, resulting in a king-queen fork: 32. Qh3, Nxg6; 33.Qf1, Qf1; 34.Ke2, Qxf2; 35.Kc1, Ne3+; 36.Kb1, Nec3+
Cassandra, I also enjoyed our game.You played the opening and the middlegame very well. I also believe have that you have a natural feeling where (and when) to place your pieces on spots where they are most effective. I like to suggest that your next step could be to improve your calculating skills by working with chess puzzles. The ChessTempo site (https://chesstempo.com/) has very good training modules to practice this and other usefull chess-subjects.} Ne2+ {I don't like the Dutch defense that's one of my worse defenses of  all of what   black got to offer and it's not played at the top level (jb)} {#R}