I think 11.... cxd5 was way better because of White's poor development. I definitely like Black after the exchange (and also the bishop pair).
And if White doesn't want to trade and captures with a pawn, then you are going to have excellent attacking chances.
My first thought was also 11. ... cxd5, with 12. cxd5 to be met by 12. ... Ne8 (intending a6 and Nd6, with b5 and perhaps Bd7 to follow).
Hi kyriazis--definitely some clever ideas in this one, although you wanted to focus your middlegame more towards the queenside. e4/c4 is a bind opening similar to the Stonewall; white's just looking to clamp down on your d5 square with a possible Nc3, g3, Bg2, etc. There's a lot to do against it and you ended up facing the c4-d4-e4 center of a Pirc or King's Indian Defense. No trouble as of yet. Your early ...c6 gave you a choice among ...d5, losing a tempo with ...c5, or breaking with ...e5 like you did. They're all interesting.
9...Nc5? wasn't correct here; white captured and ended up with a monster passed pawn on d5. You needed to shut down his d-file pressure before that with either ...c5 or ...cxd5. You also wanted ...Qa5 first to allow a queen recapture on c5; then your ...Nc5 also threatens ...Nb3 thanks to the a-pawn pin, so your attack gets more oomph that way.
After that you wanted to recognize the theme of opposite-side castling and throwing everything at white's queenside. So your natural break was ...b5, maybe with ...a6 or again a ...Qa5! to prepare it. Then you crash through with ...b4 or you get a rook on b8, uncovering it against white's b2 square. 11...Nh5? just exposed you to an eventual g4, starting a pawn storm that white wanted to play anyhow. 12...Bd7 was your poor bishop not knowing where to go; ...f5! was your other natural break against white's center, giving you leverage on the f-file, that f5-b1 diagonal, and e4 all at the same time. You hit on the right plan with 16...Qa5 and 17...a6, but never found the grand finale with ...b5 and your opponent started distracting you on the other wing. White took over the d-file, you lost control of the queenside after ...a5, and it was all downhill from there.
So this was a rough game where you were teetering on victory so many times. But instead of your pieces reaching good squares, think about pawns: they're the souls of chess, smashing through and exchanging themselves so bigger stuff can get in. White did that to you with his d5 knight and his rooks; if you'd gotten in ...b5 and ...f5 first, opening up your own long-distance pieces, you would've had this one.
12....f5 'cuz 12....Bd7 seems way too slow....
That d5 pawn was an icky permanent anchor and was white's tix to the game. Looking further, this game is like a hybrid KID where your Kn may be better placed on e8 instead of h5....and f5 is absolutely thematic....and their Kc2(?) looks like a panic and crys for your f5 immediately....
....
You made a blunder by rook taking on rook instead of moving your queen!
Okay, thanks all for your helpful posts. I agree now that cxd5 was a good idea - during the game I was just wary of a white passed pawn. But I see now that cxd5 leaves a huge gap on his queenside for me to attack the uncastled king. It also leaves him with a rigid center that is diffucult to push fowards.
pentiumjs - thanks for your post, there are a lot of useful things in there. I'm not sure I ever had time to get in b5, but f5 as you said seems like a very natural break.
Also after seeing my game play out, I'm not sure that I would choose to play qa5 again, it really limited my options later on as I was stuck defending a pawn with my queen and I couldn't push the pawn b/c it would risk trapping my queen.
Thanks!