Infohunter: <elh: I don't like 4. ... c5 -- yeah, other moves allow the white queen to stay in the center (4. ... Nc6 5. Bb5 ~ Lopez, Old Steinitz Def.), but isn't the d-pawn permenantly weak?? In this game it wound up isolated, doubled, and eaten. To say nothing of the dangerous hole on d5. Taking with the queen instead of the knight never occured to me -- I like it, since it is meets the passive Philidor with raw aggression.>In particular there is the fact that, if White re-takes with 4.Qxd4 instead of 4.Nxd4 he is able, after 4...c5, to continue with 5.Qe3, which has to be a better move than 5.Qd1, as the latter gives away two tempi. If 4.Nxd4 then, after 4...c5 White really has nothing for it but the abject retreat 5.Nf3.
<wolfmaster: Wouldn't 12...Nxf2+, winning the rook, be a better move?>
Not really: After 13.Ke1 Nxh1 14.Bxc5 the Black Knight has no escape; White will in due course end up having won two pieces for a Rook.
<patzer of patzers: why 41...g5? it is may be too late in the game to worry about...but how about 41...h3?>
<patzer of patzers: On second thought, there's no way black could've won at that point...I did not look at 42.g3>
There's no way Black could have drawn, let alone won, at that point. All White has to do is mop up Black's Pawns with his King. Black's King cannot approach the Kingside (e.g. 42...Kxc5? 43.a7 and wins). Nor can he benefit by trying to chase White's a-Pawn by the circuitous route 42...Kc7 43...Kb8 44...Ka7, as 43...Kb8 is answered by 44.c6, and the situation with White's Queenside pawns is even more hopeless. Not to mention the fact that 42...Kc7 is answered by 43.Kxf5.
