There doesn't seem to be anything against the knight recapture (11...Nxc6). White has given up a lot for a little, it seems to me - a powerful bishop on the long diagonal that has plenty of potential strong points at e4 and d5, for a rather inoffensive knight - B. Bottomley (Esq), withal.

This is a pretty old annotate so I might not get an answer but... Why not Nxc6 instead of stacking the pawns?

Gets the knight off the edge, where it's not doing a whole lot, but from g2 he might support a pawn push to f4.

What was the first?

But the Q is quite well placed on e7. Black already seems to have the better of it, but it's still anyone's game.

14...f7-f5 must have been worth a look!

I did look at f7-f5, but decided against it as it seemed to open up my kings defense some ...

I still think Black has the whisker of an edge. His Q-side pawns are weak and under pressure, but they can be defended comfortably enough (e.g. 16...Rc8, with ...Rc7 to follow. This rook manoeuvre leaves open the possibility of sliding over to the K-side and joining in the attack there). Meanwhile, Black's chances on the K-side aren't to be sneezed at.

Maybe Qb7 so your Queen isn't quite so constricted here?

... Qb7 was possible; but whether to do that depended upon the motives of the game. Was a draw OK? Or did you need a win? **** There are lots of possibilities in this position. ... Qd6 is not one that I would have chosen, but I cannot find anything particularly wrong with it either.

I GENERALLY try to keep things in the middle of the board, did look at Qb7, but thought I wouldn't make a very good attack from that side.

Looks risky - the open b-file now looks useful for Black. Before this move, White could always seal it off (for a time at any rate) by b2-b3. Now it's not so simple.

Ion, I like your idea of 19. ... dxe3; but if 20. Nxe3, then 20. ... Qd4 pinning the knight should do the trick. In fact, it is winning. But White doesn't have to take with the knight. 20. Rfd1 instead, and it is still unclear.

An alternative was 19...dxe3 with the idea 20.Nxe3 exf4 21.gxf4 Nxf4. It's not clear that Rf1-d1 at some point in this sequence will help a whole lot. *** Ah, yes, lighttotheright - I had seen the possibility of ...Qd4 but overlooked the double attack on e3 and b2. I ought to have looked a bit more closely...