Dropped Advantage Syndrome

This is the game I played in the Regional League few months ago.


Goran Urosevic - Nenad Radosavljevic
"Radnicki" Cuprija - "Postar" Jagodina

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bf4 Nf6 6. Qd3 Nh5!? 7. Be3
(7. Be5 Nd7 =/+)

7... Qh4+ 8. Bf2 dxe4?!
(8... Qe7 9. O-O-O O-O =)

9. fxe4 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Qe7 11. Nf3 +/- Nd7 12. e5
Grabbing some space on the Kingside and taking away f6 square from Nh5. On the other side, White's center is losing much of its flexibility now (12. Qd2 e5 13. Bd3 Nf4 14. O-O Nxd3 15. cxd3 +/-; 12. g4? Nf4 13. Qd2 e5! 14. de5 Ne6)

12... Nf4 13. Qd2 Ng6 14. h4
Aiming to ruin Black's pawn structure. Also gaining tempo by attacking Ng6.

14... Qa3




A cunning one. Here I realized that my opponent is stronger then I thought. Fritz also chooses this move. Queen looks misplaced on a3 but it does important defending tasks. Having eye on my Q-side weaknesses, Qa3 reduces attacking potential of my pieces.

15. Bd3 b6 16. Ng5!
(16. h5 Ne7 17. h6 gxh6 (17... g6 18. O-O O-O 19. Ng5 +-) 18. Be3 Rg8 19. Bxh6 Ba6; 16. O-O Ba6 17. c4 c5 18. h5 Ne7 19. c3 +/-)

16... Ba6 17. Ne4
(17. c4! was better. Bd3 can be important for the attack 17... c5 18. h5 Ne7 19. c3)

17... O-O 18. h5 Ne7 19. h6 Bxd3
(19... g6 20. Bh4 f5 21. exf6 Nf5 22. Bg5 +-)

20. cxd3 g6 21. Bh4 Nd5 22. O-O c5 23. dxc5 Nxe5
(23... Nxc5 24. Nf6+ Nxf6 25. Bxf6 +- Weakness of the dark squares and f7 pawn are giving decisive advantage to White; 23... bxc5 24. c4 Nb4 25. Qg5)

24. c4
(24. Bf6 Nd7 25. Bg7)

24... Nb4? (24...f5 Only move 25. cxd5 fxe4 26. dxe4 Qxc5+ 27. Bf2 Qe7 +/-)




25. Nf6+ ??
A mistake dropping a great deal of advantage. 25. Qf4 was winning at least a piece. Funny thing is that I played this 23.dc5 combo just in order to remove Nd5 from guarding f4. I went Nf6 without thinking, like "It's the same. Now everything wins". After Nf6 Kh8 White is still much better, but I was in shock because I saw missed Qf4 few mins later. We all know about that psychological U-turn of "dropping a win". At that moment I lost this game.

25... Kh8 26. d4?
Another mistake. 26. Nd5 was still winning. Simple 26. cb6 gives advantage to White. Now the game should be equal but I am still in shock incapable to come back in the game. Last 2 mins on the clock...

26... Nxc4 27. Qg5
(27. Qc1=)

27... Qe3+ 28. Qxe3 Nxe3 29. Nd7?!
(29. Rf2 Nf5 30. Bg5 Nxd4? 31. cxb6 axb6 32. Nd7 +/-)

29... Nxf1 30. Bf6+?! Kg8 31. Bg7?! Nd5 32. Bxf8 Rd8 33. Nxb6? axb6 0-1