2017 Red Bull Round 2 Anton Taylor, 1999 - NM Davis Whaley, 2336 Sicilian Taimanov (B44)

2017 Red Bull Round 2 
Anton Taylor, 1999 - NM Davis Whaley, 2336 
Sicilian Taimanov (B44)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Be3 The previous month we played a game with the same colors and I chose the slightly dubious Nb5. This move was my improvement on that game after a little bit of study. 5. ... Nf6 6. Nc3 Qc7 This move in itself is a small sample sideline. My reply then is a sideline of a sideline. There is a ton of theory ... more reasearch will be needed. 7. Ndb5 Qb8 8. Qd2 a6 9. Nd4 Bb4 10. Nxc6 This is an annoyinf choice to make. This is where I diverge from theory. It's a horrible move positionally, it concedes d5 most of all. 10. ... bxc6 11. Bd3 d5 12. exd5 cxd5 13. a3 Be7 14. O-O O-O 15. Bg5 Komodo dislikes this move but gives black only a slight advantage. The alternatives it offers are odd moves like Na4 and h3 that basically just waste time and "pass". For future reference that means that white is probably lost here. 15. ... Bb7 16. f3 Qc7 17. Qf4? This move is a blunder and as it happens neither my opponent nor myself saw the refutation. (17. ... e5! 18.Qf5?? ... the intended move threatening mate and the point of Qf4 ... 18. ... Bc8! a backward move that's difficult to see from the position on the board.) 17. ... Qxf4 18. Bxf4 Nd7 This isn't a very large black advntage after Nd7 but it was an annoying move as I did not see it when I played Qf4 (anticipating the queen trade, which as we saw was a mistake anyway but Davis went along with me). 19. Rae1 Rac8 20. Nd1 Nc5 The rest of this game was played in time trouble ... 21. Be2 Na4 22. Bd3 Nc5 23. Be2 f6 24. b4?? Most of the last moves are bad but this is just a horrible move designed to create a complication and drain Davis' time. 24. ... Na4 25. Bd3 e5 26. Bd2 Rc7 27. b5 Nc5 28. bxa6 Nxd3 29. cxd3 Bxa6 0-1 In a time scramble I manage to salvage the position by trading and get a favorable two pawn ending versus bishop and one pawn. However, through a mistake in calculation (which I cannot seem to reproduce) I lost both pawns and his bishop was of the queening color so I resigned in that common lost position.