Hart House Round 1

In the first round of the tournament I was playing the black pieces against Dalia Kagramanov (1983). This was scheduled to be the longest tournament game I had ever played, with time controls of 90min for 30 moves and one hour sudden death after the 30 moves. Coming into the game I was unsure what to expect, because the environment in the playing hall was very new to me, and I had never been among such a large volume of chess players.

Dalia Kagramanov(1983) - Patrick O'Sullivan (1818)
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 e6?- I cannot believe I played this move. The main line is Bf5, to activate the bishop before playing e6, and my error ended up resulting in an uncomfortable position for the better part of the game. I have played Bf5 in many games before, but I think my inaccuracy stemmed from the fact that I was preparing the Fantasy variation for my last tournament, an opening in which the bishop is locked in with e6. What I have effectively done with this move is transposed into a French Defense Advance Variation, where white has an extra tempo because my c-pawn takes 2 moves to get to c5. Now I have to play resourcefully, and I am in new waters having never been on either side of the French Advance.
4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Ne2?!- Usually solid play, preparing f4 with an attack, but in the line that I managed to stumble into, the light square bishops have not been exchanged. My opening inaccuracy has paid minor dividends with this move. I think better is 6.Nf3, temporarily suspending kingside attacking plans in search of a slow strategic victory based on the advantage in central space.
6....Bd7 7.Be3 cxd4- I do not have to take this awn because my knight is eying e5, but I wanted to attempt to punish the decision to play Ne2.
8.cxd4 Nb4!- I give this an exclamation mark not because it is a very special move, but because after long thought, I saw that I could catch up in development (I am way behind after this move) and it fit my new strategy of counter-attacking on the queenside. When I say counter-attacking, I do not mean an all-out push, but perhaps slowly utilizing that side of the board with my pieces.
9.Nbc3 Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Qb6- I take aim on the queenside, understanding that my queen cannot be harassed by the dark square bishop, permanantley pressuring d4 and attacking b2.
11.O-O Ne7- I cannot take on b2 because Rab1 will hit b7 and suddenly my opponent will be the one controlling the queenside
12.Ng3- If there ever was a time to play f4, this would be it. I believe white is accomplishing her attacking goals with 12.f4 Nf5 13.g4 Nxe3 14.Qxe3 when a rook lift and a pawn push could spell disaster for me.
12....h5!- Very uncharacteristic of me, as I am a defensive player in the truest sense of the word, yet this move preares to jostle the knight and begin my own version of an attack.
13.h4
In this position I hold the queenside and I am suddenly no slouch on the kingside, with plans of potentially exchanging dark square bishops and pushing g5.
13....g6?- A slight inaccuracy. My plan was to play Bh6 to get the bishopps off, but I completley overlooked my opponent's reply.
14.Bg5 Bg7- I must prevent penetration on f6
15.a4!- With my kingside optimism I've been beaten to the punch on the queenside. Now my queen begins to look very bad.
15....a6- I did not like the looks of 15....a5 because I would be creating a major hole on b5, and her bishop may eventually return to d2 to target my a5 pawn. Nc6 seems best here, but I did not want to pull my knight away from the kingside. I knew that by not making this move, I would be surrendering my queenside play.
16.a5 Qa7- I thought of playing Qb4, but I did not want to take on a practically isolated pwan on c4 after 16....Qb4 17.Bd2 Qc4 18.Qxc4 dxc4. I did not feel that the new outpost on d5 was worth the concession.
17.Rfd1 Nc6- It was here that I realized my knight had no future on the kingside, and I did not want to have to be ever-vigilant for the possibility of Bxe7.
18.Nge2 Bf8- Castling was a good possibility here, but I felt my king would be best in the centre and planned for the bishop exchange on e7.
19.Nf4- Sacrifices are now possible on both d5 and g6, so I take the time to deal with both.
19....Nb4 20.Qb1 Rg8 21.Qc1 Rc8- Here I offered a draw because for the most part I have parried the attack and I was down to 14 minutes, while my opponent was down to only 8. I think this was the perfect moment for the draw offer because she is struggling to find attacking options and pondering over my offer would eat up her clock.
22.Qd2 Qb8- Curiously, in the time pressure, I completely forgot about my plan to exchange dark square bishops, and instead opt for a plan involving doubling up on the c-file.
23.Nfe2 1/2-1/2
Draw agreed
I think there must be better in this position, such as Rac1 planning to combat my coming c-file pressure. However this is an excellent move o make in time pressure, because it gives extra support to the bishop via the queen and it waits to see what I will do. If need be, the knight can quickly jump back into f4. This move came coupled with a draw offer, and after brief thought I happily accepted. I was glad to survive a potential opening disaster, and although the computers may not agree with my moves for the most part they were well-reasoned and practical. This was a fun game and I believe it shows that I belong above 1900. Hopefully sometime in the near-future I will assume that position and be a serious threat in upcoming tourmaments.