2017 Crooked Diagonals Round 3 CM Jerry Baker 2135 - Anton Taylor, 1910 Nimzo-Larsen (A01)

2017 Crooked Diagonals Round 3 
Anton Taylor, 1910 - CM Jerry Baker 2135
Nimzo-Larsen (A01)

1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 e6 3. c4 b6 4. Nc3 Bb7 5. Nf3 Be7 6. e3 c5 7. Be2 d5 8. d4 O-O 9. O-O Ne4 10. dxc5 bxc5 11. cxd5 

Yet another position where an advanced knight turns out to have no real squares. It was a theme in this tournament. Here, for example the black knight has nothing better than to be traded for the c3 knight which is a good trade for white as the white knight has made less moves than the black one. White is slightly better. 11. ... exd5 12. Qc2 Nxc3 13. Bxc3 Nd7 14. Rfd1 Rc8 15. Bd3 g6 This was an interesting choice and seemed ironically the safest move in spite of the fact that it creates more holes those holes are less likely to be used to white's advantage. 16. Rac1 f5 17. Qe2 Qb6 18. Qb2 18.Bc4 is the more interesting alternative. It's not winning but presents more problems for black.  18. ... Bf6 19. Ne5 Nxe5 20. Bxe5 Bxe5 21. Qxe5 Rfe8 22. Qg3 Qc7 23. Qg5 Qe7 24. Qg3 Qe5 25. Rc2 Qxg3 26. hxg3 Rc7 27. Be2 Kf7 28. Rdc1 Rec8 29. g4 Ke6 30. Kh2 Kd6 31. gxf5 gxf5 32. Bf3 Ke5 33. g3 Ba6 34. Rd2 Rd8 35. Rcd1 d4 

Be2 is probably the best way to maintain the equality. White finds the worst move to make. It looks so natural too. 36. exd4+?? cxd4 37. Re1+ Kf6 38. Kg2 d3 39. Bd1 Re7? In time trouble I miss the winning idea. The position is drawish but the immediate f4 allows black to fix one weakness (reducing his number of pawn islands). 40. Rh1 Bb7+ 41. f3 Re3?? I played this move thematically in enormous time trouble. It only registered that I had blown a good position after I dropped the piece down on the board. After this black can't recover. 42. Rxh7 Ba6?? 43. Kf2 Rde8 44. Rh6+ 1-0