Escape!

Outside of not playing Qb3 early on, is there anything big I could've changed prior to overreaching with Ne5?  What was funny was I was sure I could win that position and there isn't actually a way.  I blame this on tactics puzzled.  because this looked a lot like one except that it didn't have a solution.  Enjoy the escape into a draw :-0

lol

I don't know if c5 is good or bad.  It just shuts in the dark squared bishop for a while, although the pawn chain could become a weakness.

46. Qxf4 was a bad, bad move. He needed to keep his queen on d2 in order to be able to stop the checks after the second or third by interposing his queen, after which you're simply down a rook. 46. ... Rg4 would probably have been better for him.

14. ... g6?? Why did he weaken his dark squares so badly? What's wrong with castling? It's not like there would be a Bh6 shot, as the queen is blocking its access.

I wasn't thinking too much about Bb4.  I mainly wanted to prevent Qc7 + Bd6.  One of my problems OTB is I become myopic in my thinking.  I think of one or two lines or ideas over the next three or four moves.  What I think I should be thinking is also over the long term.  Where can my pieces go in this structure, where can his pieces go, what weaknesses will I have, which ones I can attack.  6 Be2 is likely quite a bit better than 6 c5 but I was already wrapped up in trying to prevent him lining up his queen and bishop. 

I concur that c5 was not the best move. I would have gone 5. cxd5 ... 6. Qb3, which should give you the upper hand. You needn't be afraid of the black queen moving to c7, since you can always do something like this:

Note that there is one different move in your game (e6 instead of Nf6), but that makes little difference in my opinion.

So taking the best moves (based on resuklts in master games) 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.c5 Qc7

then white gains a tempo since both queens are developed but c5 has been played and it's white's move.  So c5 is not bad if white gets a concession like the extra tempo.  Does that make sense? 

     This was a really interesting game and a nice save.

From what I have read the problem with c5 is it really gives up control of the
crucial d5 square.  As you can see black was able to put his rook there and
really control the center.