My opponent for this round is Lucas Davies from Vancouver, British Columbia. He told me after this game that this is his 9th Canadian Open.
1.e4
c5
2.Nc3
d6
3.g3
Nf6
Another Closed Sicilian. I guess I am going to have to learn this opening. It seems that White gets good positions out of it (at least against me anyways).
4.Bg2
Nc6
5.d3
e6
6.f4
Be7
7.Nf3
a6
8.0-0
Qc7
9.h3
Bd7
10.Be3
0-0-0
I thought long and hard about which way to castle. Since I am an attacking player, I thought I would castle Queenside. Although, I never did get to attack and all I did was defend.
11.d4
Nxd4
12.Nxd4
cxd4
13.Bxd4
e5
14.Be3
Bc6
15.a4
Kb8
16.a5
Now I am wishing that I had castled to to the other side. I can feel the onslaught coming. I am a good defender though.
16...Rc8
17.Bb6
Qd7
18.Qd2
Bb5
19.Rfd1
Qc6
20.Rac1
Rhe8
This Rook really wanted to go to d8 but that square is covered by the Bishop. I desperately want to push my d-pawn to d5 to open the position. I need to get some of his pieces off the board before he can get them active.
21.f5
h6
22.h4
Bf8
23.Nxb5
Qxb5
My opponent suggested after the game that he thought that maybe I should have taken with the a-pawn here instead of with my Queen but the computer shows this move as worse for Black.
24.c4
Qa4
25.Qc3
Nd7
26.b3
Qc6
27.Bf2
Be7
28.b4
You can see that I don't really have anywhere to go. Black is simply applying steady pressure towards my King.
28...f6
29.Qe3!
With the last b4 move, my Queen is cut off from the crucial c5 square. Now, the Queen can invade all the way to a7.
29...Kc7
This is my last ditch effort to escape but it comes too late. I think next time I will castle Kingside!
30.b5
axb5
31.cxb5
Qxc1
Since my opponent had only 7 minutes left to make it to move 40, I decided to play out the position. Normally, I would have resigned.
32.Rxc1+
Nc5
33.Qb3
b6
34.Bxc5
dxc5
35.Qd5!
A nice place to put the Queen as it cuts off the King from the other side of the board and threatens Qc6+.
35...Kb8
36.axb6
White has a very nice finish to this game. Watch how he uses the 2 doubled pawns on the b-file to mate me.
36...Red8
37.Qa2
Rd7
38.Ra1
There is no good defense in this position and my opponent still had 3 minutes on his clock. Time to resign. 1-0