Inching My Way Back

For most of my time on this site, I've been in the top 2% in correspondence ("Online"), 2-3% in blitz, and top 4-5% in bullet.

My correspondence recently became a little inflated as I've refused most team matches and spent an inordinate number of hours finding the right move (a couple of opponent time-outs helped too). Meanwhile my addiction--blitz binges--caused me to drop to my lowest ever rating in that category this past summer. I managed to drop 200 points in a single day!

Now, I'm playing more five-minute than three-minute, and I'm trying to play sober and focused--no more playing while drowsy and seeking sleep at 2:00 am.

Yesterday, I limited myself to four games, and reviewed all of them after they finished: http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/10/limiting-blitz.html.

Today, one game. Reasonably well played (I think). I'll do analysis later when I have more time.

I guess you want us to say "Good job" so here you go :) Good job! :) Really nice game :)

Naw. I want the flaws in my game pointed out. Every game at my level has flaws. Tactical blunders are the norm in blitz. Positional errors characterize play at all time controls.

Oh, well then...
I didn't really do any analysis but I thought that 49. Qc3 would get things done a couple moves faster. Not much of a flaw as things worked out the same anyway.

I was surprised to see that Black made it to the endgame. I thought 29.Rc3 would have probably made your life easier.

i think the playing sober helped the most!  lol!

I think black has more lessons here.  You played well I thought, I liked your solid set up and refusal to offer a trade of dark square bishops... especially in blitz I think I'd have played 8.Be3 or 10.Bf2 just to get that annoying bishop out of my dark squares heh.

So speaking of black errors 11...Bxg1 was nice for white, trades annoying bishop for undeveloped (and hard to post actively) piece.

Not sure how to evaluate the kingside moves (g5 by black and h4 by you).  h4 looks natural enough, I was thinking for black 11...Rg8 or 11...g4 with 12...Rg8 (whether you capture on g4 or not) and the g file does... how much for black if anything?  I don't know.  At least in comparison to the game he has some activity!

Moves 15-19 gave you a gorgeous attacking position with zero black play to boot.  I didn't understand a4-a5, I don't see a defense to 22.Rd3-c3- takes twice on c6.

I'm sure you see move 33 drops the bishop, you had 33.Rae3 to save it.

It seems that my tactical errors were relatively minor, and that I got a nice positional crush in a quick game.

Played no blitz yesterday, and likely will play none today.

Does it really? Looks like it protects the bishop with the queen...

No, because of the ...d6 pin played in the game. After 33.Rae3, the point is that there's Bd4 after ...d6. 

Also 31...Rcxd6.

One last question - surely after move 40 or 41 black had a draw by perpetual check. Why didn't he take it?

I'm guessing that either he disn't see it, or that he thought his a-pawn was somehow a threat. The latter seems unlikely if he has any endgame skill, but I do find a surprising number of players with good enough tactics to beat me in blitz but who falter in every endgame because they are lost when calculation must go deep and positional knowledge is useful.