I had a dilemma before the game – to go to the club or watch the playoff hockey. I thought that I will be too upset if my team loses and I miss the club as well, so decided to play. My opponent was a father of 2 boys I played before in that club, that was funny. He chose the same Bxd7 line in Canal-Sokolsky attack in Sicilian as his son, but then played a more quiet line.
I played 9. Bd2 in an expectation that his knight will get to d4, so my hands would be free (in case I want to exchange it). This is exactly what happened, then he played b5. I decided not to play Rc1, then take on c4 with the rook as I did some time ago and just played b3. His 17… f5 was clearly not the best move and I liked the pawn structure that appeared as a result of the exchanges.
After he took on f5 with the rook I had to decide where to move my bishop. It was a critical moment, I thought that on d2 it has more attacking opportunities. It was a wrong decision, as it allowed him to activate his bishop. He could actually get better after doubling his rooks, as the f2 square was not well covered, computer evaluates it as -0.91. At the same time if I would play 21. Bg3 White would be 1.02. Luckily he played 21… Bf6.
After his 23… Qg6 I realized that he can create a battery with the bishop on e5 and queen on g3, so Bf4 was basically forced, computer approves that as well as bishops exchange. I had a small, ~0.3 advantage before the rooks exchange, then it went to zero. I tried to distract distract/push away his queen that looked too active to me with 30. c5 and 31. g3.
When he played Qe3+ I saw that the pawn endgame should be alright. He queened right after me and did it with the check. I was optimistic, maybe too much, as I played 44. Kg4 without much thinking. Then suddenly I saw 44… Qe4+, it looked very scary, like I can get mated. But when I checked the lines, my king was escaping. At that moment I told myself: “Never again I play such a move”.
Right after that moment he got both my pawns. But one I was getting back right away and my king was too close to another one and his king was far away. In a few moves I won the remaining pawn, we exchanged the queens and shook the hands.
Rolling Pawns 
May 1, 2023 at 10:08 pm
2. Nf3 I think you should try the Grand Prix Attack with 2.f4, but I’m wondering if you have played that before recently, and if you did maybe handled it a bit slowly, can’t recall. Results might suffer initially, but less stale of a game.
24. Bf4 Perhaps 24.Bb4 was better.
25. BxB 25.c4 looks hairy, by trading the d3 pawn for the e5 pawn, but I’d say that that should be your drawing like.
Drawing these queen endings is like one of your true specialties. Nice draw! 🙂
May 2, 2023 at 8:40 am
Thank you!
Right now I feel that I am comfortable with the variations of Sicilian I played for the last dozen of years, my next post will show that. This game could be more interesting if I would play 21. Bg3 as I mentioned, also me trying to play a balanced game after 2 losses contributed to that.
In the line with 24. Bb4 you have to play Rf3 after 24… Be5 to prevent Qg3. If 25. c5 then 25… Bxf4 26. Rxf4 dxc5 27. Qxc5 Qxd3 28. Rxd4 Qg3 exchanging all the pawns in the center with a draw, right, but having c5 passed pawn I had a tiny advantage which I didn’t find a way to use.