Best now is 21.Bxe5, of course. But 21.Rxe5 Bxe5 22.Bxe5 would also hold a decisive advantage for White.

You point out two diagrams later that 22... Nxe1 loses immediately to 23. exf7+, so you should have come back and edited this comment after realising that. It's true that Black is lost no matter what, but to put up a better defence, he could try 22... Nf6 or 22... fxe6.

22.Qxf3 is best, but this pawn capture is certainly creative - as a 'second best', I'd prefer it to 22.Rxf3, say.

Black best defence would have been very hard to find: 22...Bf4+. It goes to show just how desperate Black's game is that such a move held out longest. After the capture on e1, White now has a checkmating attack available.

23. exf7+ Kd8 24. Qe8+ Kc7 25. Nd5+ Kb7 26. Qb5+ Kc8 27. f8Q+ Bxf8 28. Rxf8#

White allows himself to be distracted by an attractive diversion. With a bit more experience, he would not have given this even a glance in view of the terrific attack available after 23.exf7+. But it gets worse: Black is now allowed to climb back into the game!

23... Qxe6! Black is a whole rook and knight up at this point, so it's okay to give material back to save the king. After 24. Rxe1 Qxe2 25. Rxe2+ Re7 26. Rxe7+ Nxe7 27. Bxh8 White is a pawn up in an endgame, but Black has come back from what seemed a dead loss.

Nuntar is right: Black could reach near-equality after 23...Qe6!! The endgame he arrives at would be no easy matter to win for White. Black would have something to fight for! But suppose White exchanged queens on e6? 23...Qxe6 24.Qxe6+ fxe6 25.Bxh8 Ng2 26.Bd4! Be7! (White has set up some interesting tactical difficulties for Black: the trapped knight) 27.Rf2(?) Bg5+ 28.Kb1 Be3 would yield Black a winning game. The game would be about equal after 27.Kd1 Bg5.

24. Bd4?? Now 24... Qxe6 is winning for Black.

Instead of throwing away his queen, 26...Rd7 would have been good enough to level up the game.

White had quick checkmates available after 28.Qxg8+ or 28.Nxd6+

White seems to be unable to find a winning plan. Instead of grabbing side pawns, at any time in the last few moves he could have pinned and won the d6 bishop, with mate following very soon.

After 29...Kd7, White could have set out on a King Safari with 30.Qd8+ Ke6 31.Qxd6+ Kf5 32.Rf1+ Kg4 (best) 33.Qg6+ Kh3 34.Qf5+ Kxh2 35.Qf3 ... 36.Rh1#. ***** After 31...Re8, if I couldn't find a quick clear mating attack, I'd be inclined to go for this: 32.Qxe8+ Kxe8 33.Bxb4 Bxb4 34.Rxe5+ K-any 35.Rxh5... Simplified down to rook and FIVE versus a lone bishop, this game is going one way only.

It is baffling why Black, after forking the queen and bishop, did not simply take the latter.

Again, after 34...Re5, I would have simplified down: 35.Qxe5 Bxe5 36.Bxb4 ... 37.Rxe4 emerging with R, B, 5P vs B. It might not be the most efficient way to deal with General Custer, but it is sure!

41... Kxa5 leads to a pretty mate: 42. Re3 (or Rxe4) Kb4 43. Qa4#

Yarooh!! Stalemate. A 'fingerslip' maybe? 43.Re8+ Ka7 44.Ra8# would have done. Well, that was fairly entertaining. Buried in here there are some very good chess moves, but inattention lets the players down at crucial moments. White had the choice of two 2-move checkmates, and settled upon a stalemate instead. ****** There is a story concerning one GM Paul Keres, who, with a winning game ahead, was bored enough to start calculating all sorts of ways to win the game. He found five ways to continue, all leading to the win. He chose the sixth...