One of my best games so far

Here is one of the best games I played so far. It is from my first correspondence chess tournament. Incidently, I lost it. So why do I think it is one of my best games? I did some post-mortem computer analysis using Crafty. To my surprise, I saw that I actually managed to play the first 25 moves without messing anything up too badly (see scoregraph).


Anyway, here is the game with me playing white against "mike1970":

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6?! 4.c3 Bc5 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3

The alternative 7.Bd2 would have been better: 7.Bd2 Nf6 8.e5 Ne4 9.Bxf7+ Kxf7 10.Bxb4 Nxb4 11.Qb3+

7...Nf6 8.e5 Nh7?!

Retreating the N to the corner renders it much less useful; better: 8...Ng4

9.O-O d6 10.exd6?

I clearly did not have enough foresight to see this: 10.d5 Bxc3 11.dxc6 Bxe5 12.Nxe5 dxe5 13.Qf3 O-O 14.cxb7

10...Bxd6 11.Qe2+ Ne7 12.Bd2 O-O 13.Nb5 Nf5 14.Bd3 a6 15.Nxd6 Nxd6 16.Rac1 c6
17.Rfe1 Bf5 18.Bb4 Bxd3 19.Qxd3 a5 20.Bxd6 Qxd6 21.Rc5 b6 22.Rh5 Nf6 23.Rhe5 Ng4
24.Rh5 Nf6 25.Rhe5 26.Qc4 cxd4

See diagram 1.


27.Nxd4?

27.Qxd4 would have been better: 27.Qxd4 Rfd8 28.Qxd6 Rxd6

27...Rac8 28.Nf5?

Fortunately, black missed the reply 28...Qxe5 29.Rxe5 Rxc4 which would have cost me a rook

28...Rxc4? 29.Nxd6 Rc2 30.f3?

I wanted to give my K with some space and prevent ...Ne4 and ...Ng4. In reality, I lost the pawn that I desparately missed in the endgame. 30.R5e2 Rxe2 31.Rxe2 would have been the prudent choice.


30...Rxb2 31.Rb5 Rxa2 32.Rxb6 a4 33.Ra6 Nh5 34.Nc4 Nf4 35.g3 Nh3+ 36.Kh1 Ng5 37.Ne5 Re8
38.h4?

See diagram 2. 38.f4 would have been better as the original move apparently gives black the chance to mate with the combination 38...Rxe5 39.Rxe5 Nxf3 40.Ra8+ Kh7 41.Rh8+ Kxh8
42.Re8+ Kh7 43.Rh8+ Kxh8 44.h5 Rh2#, although I don't really understand Crafty's analysis here.

38...Nh7 39.Kg1 Nf6 40.f4 Ng4 41.Kf1 Nxe5 42.Rxe5 Rxe5 43.fxe5 Kf8 44.e6 fxe6 45.Rxe6 a3 46.Re2 Rxe2 47.Kxe2

White resigns 0-1. Right after clicking the confirm button for move 46 it occured to me that exchanging rooks is not exactly a good idea when there are no other pieces left and one is a pawn behind in the endgame. Hopefully, I will learn from my mistakes.