Opening

Standard first set of moves for the Sveshnikov, building this Boleslavsky pawn formation in the centre: e4 c5 Nf3 Nf6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 e5 Nb5 d6 N1c3 a6 Na3 b5 Nd5 Nf6 Bg5 and Qa5+, where the best move is to bring back the bishop to d2, which I found, then he retreated the Queen to d8:

Here I took the knight on f6, but more accurate would have been to simply continue with development with Bd3. We’re not scared of the capture Nxd5 as after the pawn recapture, the c6 knight is rather short on squares - indeed the engine recommends he retreats back to e7 and white is left with the two bishops and queen laser beaming the kingside while blacks development is stunted:

Instead, I captured the knight, with the idea that I didn’t want the pawn to be on e5 and blacks queen didn’t really want to be on f6 as it blocks the bishop and any f5 ideas will take an additional tempo:

After c3 (engine: Bd3 preparing to castle and defending e4) Bb7 Nc2 he erred with Na5?, but the line to punish it is hard to see over the board. The most accurate line is to sac the e4 pawn with Ne3 and go for queenside play with a4, for example Ne3 Bxe4 is a whopping +2.8 for white:

And the continuation is a4!, taking advantage of two key weaknesses in blacks’ position: the undefended knight on a5 and the king on e8 being open to checks from the white bishop via b5. On top of even that, theres the fact that white has this 3-on-2 majority on the kingside which can very quickly get rolling. An idea to remember here; one which requires calculating a few moves deeper than I typically do in these positions. I didn’t see the strength of that idea (nor the idea itself even), and so played Bd3, an inaccuracy, to which he responded Nc4, which incidentally was also inaccurate.

+1 for white. Why? Because after Bxc4 Bxc there’s Ne3!. Again not caring about the central pawn, this time because of the counterplay against the uncastled black king - Bxc4 Bxc Ne3 opens up the a4-e8 diagonal and if black were to grab on e4, Qa4+ is the follow up, forcing the king to d8.

After f3 Bb7 O-O-O, king safety for black is going to be hard to come by. A good thematic idea to remember in this opening.

I didn’t see this continuation however and instead played Rb1?

-1.1 for black now after the follow up d5, liberating the black bishop. Where did this error come from? I suppose that I didn’t even calculate anything after Bxc4 (which is the best move) due to it hanging the e4 pawn, but I failed to evaluate the position after Rb1 d5! where black gets these two laser bishops staring down the white kingside. Moreover, the engine has its eye on the weakness of the white pieces down the D file; after exd5 there’s all sorts of ideas with Rd8 and e4, and now we can see why trading off the bishop for the knight on c4 was preferred, the pressure it exerts on the white position is significant.

The game continued d5 exd5 Bc5 O-O Bxd5 b3 Nxd2 Qxd2, and black blunders away his advantage:

Easy tactic, Bxh7+ Kxh7 Qxd5 wins a pawn. Game continued Bd6 Rbd1?! (Ne3 was better) Rad8 Qe4+?! (again Ne3 was better, just centralising the knight) Kg8 Rd3?! (Rd5 with the idea of controlling the c5 square and doubling on the D file was better) Bc5! Rh3 Qg6 Qh4?!

Better here was just taking the fucking pawn. We can justify it tactically; Qxe5 Qxc2 Qxc5 and black can’t take the a2 pawn at the end of the line due to Qf5! and the black monarch being offside. I here had calculated Qh6 Qxh6 gxh Rxh6 and the black pawn structure is weak on the kingside, but even then black gets access to the second rank with his rook which is positionally pretty disastrous. This was why Rd5 and doubling on the D file was better - black wouldn’t be able to infiltrate. Not hard really, put your rooks on the only open file, simple ABC chess.

Anyway, black played a different defence that I only saw after playing Qh4; f6. Now after Ne3 black gets to play his Rd2 infiltration. I keep threatening with Rg3 and he retreats to h7 with the queen. I slide my own queen over to g4 and now he uncorks the amazing f4!!

Seriously though, I really should have seen this in advance, it’s not like the threat isn’t obvious. Here, I panicked? Succumbed to fancy play syndrome? I’m not sure, but I missed that the fork isn’t that threatening as I can danger levels my way out of it with Qg5 f4 Rh3! and I escape with tempo. The move played in the game: Nxf5??

My idea was that if he takes with the queen its mate on g7, and if he takes with the rook then Rh3 traps the queen. And while this is true (where is the queen gonna go?), black is in time with the counterplay; Rfxf2

Rdxf2 was even better here, immediately threatening Rxf1 mate, but either way this is terrible for white even if it is terribly complicated. I seemed to make a habit of missing all of my opponent’s counterplay this game, quite poorly played on my part. Anyhow, I played Qe6+ and continued trying to make him calculate and worry over his position. He answered Rf7+ and I played Kh1.

He now slides the rook along to f2, and in turn I slide my own rook over to d1, which actually does come with some pretty serious threats. He spent a long time here.

The position is lost for black, but it’s far from trivial. His queen is still hanging, there’s threats of checkmates (pretty much any queen move and there’s a mate in 3), his rook is pinned to his king, and my queen is threateningly placed on e6. He very almost played Qc2, but stopped as he saw the mate after Rd8+ Bf8 Rxf8 Kxf8 Rh8#. Instead, he slides back to d2 with the rook (we can’t capture it, Qb1 is mate in 2) and I have nothing better than to just move the rook back to the F file. His best move here was Qg6, which is completely winning, but he doesn’t play it and instead takes the easy way out and offers a draw. He must have either been so fatigued by all the calculating that he just wanted a way out or not confident enough in his ability to not blunder all the various mates that a draw seemed the safer option. Needless to say that against a stronger player this wouldn’t have happened and would’ve been an embarrassing loss.