Playing the Bird's Opening as often as I do, I often transpose into a Stonewall, as I did here. But, as was mentioned, I played the stonewall incorrectly and didn't target the e5 square at all. The reason was actually the h5 pawn. If I had played 10. Ne5 (which looks best to me now), I would have been a bit scared to play Bxg4, even if it won me a pawn. I don't mind throwing my own kingside pawns up the board, but I won't open kingside files for black to use. And so the light-square bishops would have sat opposed to each other for a while until I 'wasted' a move unpinning my queen. Instead, I hold off on Ne5 and end up forgetting all about it.

At this point, black's king is in the center, and so I thought it natural to attempt to open the center as well as give my rook something to do. I had not yet even begun to dream of fighting on the queenside as I felt keeping forces around for a kingside defense was necessary. But surely the annotated suggestions look better in retrospect. And of course, the black queen coming to g5 was something I somehow never saw, as I wouldn't have allowed it if possible.

Generally it's a bad idea to start a K-side attack when you have short castled and your opponent still hasn't.

I admit it's ugly, but it was played for a purpose I failed to follow through with. My plan was to play fxe6 and Raf1, doubling my rooks on the only open file on the board. Also, the rook here 'threatens' the powerful knight (I considered that I may have to trade the rook for a knight and pawn if it ever came down to it). You have to remember that at this point, I was still mentally attacking the kingside and center. Black somehow seemed impervious to my mental attacks, however.

I like this move a lot. Not only does it add to the excitement of the game, but it also caused me to completely change all of my plans thus far, which in general is a bad idea. The rook on f4 will be a poorly placed piece unless white continues on the kingside, where black's king is not.

This seems very logical. In chess you cannot create opportunities for attack without giving the other side none. You just have to be faster than them.

Ah, the simple mate threats. I make too many of these, but they are all so easily thwarted. When a threat can be eliminated so easily, it's often not even worth making, especially at 10 days per move.

I practically begged for ...b6 on every move from here on out. Just check out my next move where I could hardly scream louder for it. But black is too smart to weaken his king's position. If only I had known this in advance, I wouldn't have tried   .

I loved this move at the time, but hate it now. For the curious: 20...b6 21. cxd5 exd5 (else the knight is hanging and so ...bxa5 won't win a piece) 22. Qc6 Re7 23. Qa8 Kd7 24. Qxh8 Re8 25. Qh7 Nf6 fails for white, so 21. fxe6 would be necessary first. Even better, in hindsight at least, is 20. fxe6. First, it gives me access to black's recently weakened back rank. Second, it blocks off the 6th rank so that black's attackers on the kingside can't defend the queenside at the same time. Finally, it doesn't lose me a pawn.

Ah, an excellent suggestion. I commented during the game that I felt I was attacking with pawns while black attacked with pieces. Generally, the pieces are faster and so that attack gets through first and more powerfully. For some reason, I hadn't even thought of opening files for my pieces prior to getting pawns on the 6th rank (which I can't achieve anyway). Plus, anything that provokes ...b6 is winning in my mind.

At this point, I was at a loss for what to do. The rook on h6 really made attacking hard as I needed to put pawns on c6 and b6 to open things up. Also, it threatened to go to g6 which would force me to worry about defense the whole time. And so I'm a pawn down with no obvious threats of my own yet under attack. Things don't look so great for me, and the small reason for this move will be explained shortly. Any suggestions for what could save me here? ------------------- In response to ionadowman: What about 24...Qxe3 ? As in 23. Raf1 Rg6 24. Rxf4 Qxe3 and I either give up the exchange on f2 or play 25. Kh1, after which 25...Ng3 26. hxg3 hxg3 and I think black wins.

Maybe 23.Raf1 threatening 24.Rxf5. The queen is defending g2 for the moment. If Black tries 23...Rg6 then 24.Rxf5 Qg4 25.R1f4 Qh3 26.Rf3 seems to hold. ...Well, as it transpires, 23.Raf1 doesn't threaten 24.Rxf5 at all as ganstaman rightly points out. Aside from that (inexplicable) glitch, 23.Raf1 still seems to be worth a look (E.g. 23...Rg6 24.R1f3; or 23...h3 24.g3 Nxg3!? 25.hxg3 Qxg3ch 26.Kh1). Another try is 23.a4 with a view to doubling along the second rank (24.Ra2) and retaining hopes that White might yet achieve something of interest on the Q-flank. I think I still need some persuading that White is quite out of the game at this point.

Yes, still considering that I'm losing I hope to get in a cheap trap. First, I was a bit afraid of 24. g3 as it allowed an evenutal ...Nxg3 hxg3 ...Qxg3 which looked like it could eventually be strong given the placement of black's kingside pieces. Second, I was just trying to buy time here. After 24...fxg4, I have time for 25. c6, and if I get lucky, 25...bxc6 26. bxc6 Rd6 27. Rb8 ! Kxb8 28. Qb3 Kc8 29. Qb7 Kd8 30. Qxc7 Ke8 31. Qxf7#

The immediate sacrifice looks playable after 24.g3 - at least White would have to take it into consideration. 24...Nxg3 25.hxg3 Qxg3ch 26.Kh1 or Kf1 Qxe3 with 3 pawns for the piece and a double attack on R and d-pawn. Even if it isn't enough right now, it looks pretty scary as a future prospect! Is White losing? If he is then 24.g4 was the losing move...