A pretty, yet methodical attacking game

I am quite happy with this game, played at 45 45 time controls on ICC. We both had provisional 1600 (where you start off I guess) ratings because this 45 45 game was played in a category exclusive to 45 45 games, where only games with that time control count toward that rating. Anyway, the attack was nice; not spectacular, but I think the most important thing was not only how sound it was but how I got the attacking position I did: with logical strategical play, no gambits! I played a bit more aggressively than I normally would, but when I feel I need to be aggressive, I do it, but I certainly did not force things and instead let my position naturally flow into an attack. Hope you enjoy it.

The only bad part about the 45 45 pool on the ICC is sometimes it takes forever to find an opponent

Yes, I was having some trouble tonight finding a long game, though usually I get one relatively quickly on ICC (obviously most people play blitz, but with so many people there's bound to be at least somebody willing to play standard!), and I just found this special 45 45 category today. What I will do now is not only search for a game with the 45 45 pool, but make regular seeks for standard at the same time, with a much greater chance of getting a game.

Nice game and I enjoyed your analysis...one quibble, you said no gambits?  And the name of the opening is...wait for it... the "Queen's Gambit".  :)

That's correct

Nice catch padman, that does win much quicker!

Great Game!!

But im wondering what if (in the Knight Sac line if black plays h6,g5) black decides to play Qd6 instead of Qe5? Then if Qf3, Ne5 (Attacking the bishop+queen) Not sure if white is still winning but this might just be me b/c im afraid of sac'ing material (unless Im getting a sure advantage or checkmate or something) but I guess this is just one of the many risks behind aggressive play which I need to learn to take. (Im trying to become a more aggressive player)

Somehow I didn't see ...Qd6...

One possible idea is the aggressive f4, threatening e5, practically forcing the knight to move. After ...Nh7 Qh5 white intends e5 followed by Qg6+, very strong. ...Nxg5 e5 Qe7 fxg5 and now ...Nxe5 may look like the perfect centralizing solution, but g6! then seems strong, threatening Qh7 and the pawn can't be taken by anything due to the f7 pawn pin. Instead of ...Ne5 ...Be6 is another idea, but g6 still looks strong, when the only reply seems to be ...fxg6 but Qxg6+ gets the piece back with a very good position.

This analysis may or may not be horribly flawed . I was not so concerned with getting the piece back so quickly but had figured the potential to win the piece back AND the unsafe king, AND the unopposed dark squared bishop would give him too many problems. I don't know, the line seems pretty forced to me, but we'll see. Thanks a lot for pointing it out though, it is much more challenging and instructive. In fact it's really interesting... it would have been fun if this line was the actual game!

Haha, believe me lavarook, I'm no aggressive player myself, and this game just shows me that I've become more well rounded. In fact, I used to be just like you as far as being afraid to sacrifice and stuff. But once you develop more tactical patterns and get some experience with this stuff it's easier to judge if you should have enough attack or not (for example, being able to see the pinned f7 pawn quickly means you can right away see that you'll use g6 as a big focal point for the attack, when if you didn't know the pattern you couldn't plan for it and may only stumble by it when it's too late, or worse miss it completely. If you see lots of tactical threats coming with the opponent having a tough time improving his position without allowing one, chances are you've got compensation!). I am still not 100% sure, but right now it's looking like white has sufficient attacking resources. I certainly did NOT calculate this all out during the game, but isn't it funny how white's attack keeps seeming to work? It's because he has so many tactical ideas, black can hardly unravel his pieces even given some time, and black's king is permenantly loose. I have avoided using computer analysis for now because it's much more instructive that way. Trying to see what happens for yourself helps you much better understand the usually mysteriously complicated and weird computer moves.

Here's the game with the added analysis. Sorry it's extremely dense, but it's complicated. It may well be completely wrong, but at least it's instructive