More action from West Chester
This game is from the first round at the West Chester, PA quads on 08 August. My opponent, who defeated me easily a year ago in a highly theoretical and contentious line of the Sicilian Sveshnikov suprised me by opening with 1.d4. The game started out as a Catalan and then transposed into a Queen's Indian. White opted to pressure c5 with 10.Be3. While I think this idea is playable, It's clear from this game and the ensuing analysis that the idea offers White no advantage. He should just go ahead give Black a set of hanging Pawns and prepare for a complex struggle.
As Black, I got the initiative on the Queenside, however the position was only equal. This game demonstrates how there is a dark side to having the initiative in a chess game. You have to do something, and what you do might be incorrect. This can be said of my choice to play 18...b4. Though that move maintained the initiative, it ultimately ceded the vital c4 square and with it my c Pawn.
In the struggle that followed, I definitely had compensation for the missing Pawn, and arguably it was enough to at least hold a draw. The game ended when my opponent overstepped the time control. He had the wrong number of moves on his scoresheet. The clock and the scoresheet are important parts of OTB chess.
If I'd had to play out that ending I think I would have won it, but it could have easily gone another 30 moves.