Had a look. First off, 9.Bd6 seems to win a pawn, forking the rook on f8 and pawn on c5.
As you said, your move 17 was a blunder. Move 25 was also sub-optimal, maybe you tried to force things a bit too much here.
Move 31 I like Bxd5, and then if he trades rooks you can plant the bishop on e6 and follow up with d5, locking his rook out from your position. The problem with the move you played is that his rook came down the file and became much more active, it tied your bishop down and rounded up your pawns. After that I don't think you had much chance, I agree with you that I don't see the draw in 37.Ra4.
Overall, I thought you played pretty decently in the main, against a strong opponent. Opening was fine, towards the end it fell away a bit maybe.
Hey folks. I'm playing in the NC Sub Masters (my first tournament) right now and wanted to submit my first loss. As an unrated player I am in the rated beginner open division but due to lack of players we have been mixed in with everyone who is 2000 or less I think?
Anyway I came into this round with 3 of 3 points in my division and was tempted to ask for a bye since I was massively fatigued. I decided to play though since I have never played anyone of this strength and seeing as how it's my first tournament I think the experience is more important than the points.
In my previous matches I was always behind on time, so for this one I decided to move a bit quicker and try to put the time pressure onto him. It was great at first and it helped to have the intimidation factor of being unrated, but in the end fatigue and moving two quick caught up to me.
So I was stoked to play a decent game under the pressure but am sure that I was capable of much more than I represented here. I'm hoping to get feedback on my opening, midgame, and endgame, and any critical transition points that you might have seen.
If you're interested, I posted my first three rounds and you can check them out at my blog.