I was looking at 26.Ne3, heading for d5. After 26.Ne3 Be6 27.Nd5 Bxd5 28.exd5 a5 29.Kc2 Bd4 30.a4 ... Black's Q-side attack would have been localised, and more easily held, it seems to me. Whether Ne3 is better than Rd3 I won't call, though!

I would almost for certain have played Ne3 here.

grabbing a red-hot pawn, but leaving open the c1-h6 diagonal, very dangerous

the weakness of the dark squares is brutal here. The followup of Bxc4 will hurt.

Yep: found it after maybe half a minute. Those bally dark squares, eh? White has to lose a big chunk of material.

Joe, all the point was for black to win c5, and important outpost for attack on the WK. The Bdsb is already "mobile"...

The point is that black has tied white up in a passive position in which B's pieces are active while W's are much less 'mobile'

I disagree with this analysis. White has an excellent position before the 28th move. Other 28th moves such as 28. g5, 28. h4 or Ne3 leaves white with a clear advantage due to the pressure on d6. part of my problem was spending time in the opening as I was unfamiliar with the variation, leaving me with less time than I would have liked in this position. I think with more time I would have seen black's idea.

I'm not sure White had a 'clear advantage' at move 28. A whisker of an edge, possibly on account of his central hold. But even that edge was predicated upon knife-edge accuracy, methinks. After 28.Ne3, Black seems to keep a rough balance with 28...a5 29.a4 Rcb8 30.Kc2 Bd4 31.Nd5 Bxd5 32.exd5 Nf6, and the knight is heading via d7 to e5. The position so reached looks too close to call, for mine.

Maybe 30.Bg3 was more circumspect.

another example of mobility at work. this move further weakens W's position.

Another strong move was 31...Bg7! and then after 32.Kc1, c4!

a fighting game in which you had to take chances because your team was quickly down. I've been there myself. The early trade of Q's could have been avoided, although it wasn't losing. You drifted into a more passive position later in the game, and I'd say that affected your judgement of black's combination. The annotations were fine, typical Charles Higgie quality work. Not everyone wants to honestly annotate losses.

Many thanks everyone - I have just found out that I have beaten this guy previously. gameknot.com

Interesting game, a case of a single error tipping the balance decisively. I don't quite agree with Kenneth's assessment of the game before the mistake at move 28. I reckon White was doing fine. But nor do I agree that White had enough of an edge to call it. That weak dark-square complex was always going to demand alertness from White, and was certainly something Black could work on.

Not how I expected a Samisch to play out but it turned into a fluid and complex game, not easily assessed, as the comments indicated. I enjoyed the annotations and the comments, thanks.