[pgn]

1.e4 {1. e4 is my standard opening move. I'm looking to branch into some 1. d4 openings soon} e6 {the French} 2.Nf3 {I like to meet 2. ... d5 with 3. e5. Question: is it better to play 2. d4 to get both centre pawns on the 4th rank early on?} d6 3.d4 Bd7 4.Nc3 Be7 {I was lucky that he played such a passive opening. Firstly because his pieces were badly placed and secondly it was easy to visualise his position} 5.Bc4 Nf6 6.Bg5 O-O 7.e5 Nd5 8.Bxd5 {If 8. ... Bxg5 9. Bxb7 Bc6 10. Bxa8 is winning material, but instead we have:} exd5 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.Nxd5 {Wins the pawn and threatens Nxc7. Qd8 is only move for black I calculated, which would have won a tempo for me} Qe6 11.Nxc7 {forking Q+R, as you can see} Qg4 {attacking my unprotected g pawn} 12.O-O {I castle, knowing that black's rook cannot flee and my knight is safe} Nc6 13.Nxa8 Rxa8 14.exd6 {After the earlier exchanges on d5 I remembered that black had no pawn on the e file. Nxc7 meant that there was no pawn on the c file. By taking on d6 I now had passed d pawns. I was aware that the pawn on d6 would drop but I wasn't concerned. D4 was my valuable asset} Qg6 15.Ne5 {Attacking Queen, Knight and Bishop. If Nxe5 then I would be repairing my pawn structure, which left black with Qxd6 as his only move, as I had a tempo on his queen.} Qxd6 16.Nxd7 {simplification as I wanted to maintain my advantage. The bishop could also have conveniently blocked my passed pawn} Qxd7 17.d5 {Kicking the knight and hold onto my pawn which would have been won otherwise.} Nb4 18.c4 {another defender of d5, as the knight was attacking it again} Rc8 19.a3 {A valuable inbetween move as it kicks the knight to a worse position} Na6 20.Rc1 {natural move, activating my rook + coordinating my pieces} b5 {here came a lot of calculation. c5 would be met with Nxc5, which left me with b3 or cxb5. I also remembered that we both had backrank issues. With my R and Q on the 1st ranks, I had no concern, but after 21. cxb5 Rxc1 22. Qxc1 I threaten mate on c8 and thus would not drop the d pawn. If black didn't take my rook I would control the c file. I also won the b5 pawn which I considered would improve my advantage} 21.cxb5 {after this move I had around 3 minutes left on the clock. 10 second increments however} Rxc1 22.Qxc1 Nc7 23.Rd1 Nxb5 {Black gets his pawn back, but... 24.Qc6 {crushing move as if Qxc6, dxc6 threatening mate on d8 + black lacks defending pieces to guard the d8 square} Qg4 {threatening to mate me on d1} 25.Qe8# 1-0 [/pgn]