Such games can really show you how initiative is more crucial than mere material.

As Eyal said, there's nothing much wrong with 4.d5 - although both 4.Nc3 and 4.Bc4 are also very playable - you could have transposed into a Two Knights Defence, Max Lange Attack (usually reached via 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4) or even the Belgrade Gambit in the Four Knights (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5) - which is very dangerous if Black doesn't know it.

Your c4 was an error, yeah, but not a major one. It just meant the difference between a definite White advantage and a roughly equal game. 7.Nc3 may be best. One slightly crazy possibility is 7.Nc3 Ng6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Bf4 [planning 0-0-0, both for attacking purposes and because the open h-file makes the kingside unsafe] Qe7+ 10.Kd2! Qc5 11.Re1+ Be7 12.d6! cxd6 13.Nb5 Qb4+ 14.Kd1 Qxb2 15.Bxd6! and White is winning.

As Eyal says, 17.Na4 is a killer. It works pretty well on the next move too. In fact the White position is totally winning after Black's blunder with 14...Qf5 -- he had to play 14...Qa3, when I reckon it's about equal.

I *do* recognize the feeling of thinking that you should resign, without realizing that your opponent is thinking the same thing. And with better reason.

White: LL
Black: DD
Ireland 2006.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Ba5
This [C17] doesn’t have an official name, though it should have. It used to be called the Swiss Variation when Swiss players like Hug used it, and then became known as the Armenian Variation because of Vaganian et al. I combine the two and call it The Swarm. There’s often a lot of swarming on one side or the other.

But this was only the 2nd time I’d played it. I lost the first one to a teenager who then informed me where I’d gone wrong in the opening. My opponent here had a slightly lower rating than me, but has about 10 games in the CG database nonetheless.

6.b4 cxd4 7.Nb5 Bc7 8.f4 Ne7 9.Nxd4
White’s play is a bit bland. The challenging lines in this variation are those with Qg4 and Qxg7. Here 9.Nf3 is better, retaining the option of Nxc7.

9…Bd7 10.Ngf3 O-O 11.Bd3 h6 12.O-O a6 13.c4 dxc4 14.Bxc4 Nbc6 With dull equality, but potential.
15.Nb3 Bb6+ 16.Kh1
This causes problems later, but the alternative is a self-pin with Nd4.

16…Qc7 17.Bd3 Nd5 18.Qe2 Nce7 19.Bd2 Bc6 20.Rac1
This pin just helps Black to complete his reorganization.

20…Qd7
21.Nh4
White decides it’s time to attack.

21…Rad8
Black's just-try-something mode is now fully armed and ready.

22.f5?

And here we go.
22…Nf4

click for larger view

Hey, that was fun.

23.Bxf4 Qxd3 24.Qxd3 Rxd3 25.Nc5 Bxc5 26.Rxc5 exf5?
Not actually bad, but 26…g5! Would have won at once – the point being that after 27.fxg6 fxg6 White can’t avoid …g5 being played for a second time: neither his Knight nor Bishop can move. What’s annoying is that I actually saw this idea, but wrongly imagined it was too risky. So I just took the pawn instead: Black still has a big advantage.

27.Bc1 Rfd8
28.Bb2 g5
29.Nf3 Ng6
30.Rcc1 g4

[30…Nf4 might have been stronger – but again this isn’t bad.]

31.Ne1 Rd2
32.Bc3 Ra2

I spent some time trying to decide between …Ra2 and …Re2. I thought …Re2 might be objectively a little better – and Fritz later agreed – but I’d seen the game continuation and had a distinct hunch that White would go for it. This is trappy play, and nobody recommends it, because of what happens when you meet somebody who can see through your little stratagems. Here, I got lucky.

33.Nc2?
Oops.
33…Nh4
Perfectly good, but …Nf4 is more aesthetic – a second knight pseudo-sac on the same empty square.

34.Rf2 Nxg2
35.Rxg2 Rxc2!
This was the reason I’d gone for 32…Ra2.

36.Bd2 Rdxd2
More messing by me. 36…Rxc1+ is mate in two. This is only mate in 4. But White resigned anyway. 0-1.

A melange of second-best moves and dubious traps, but it’s pretty typical, I’m afraid. Typical of my successes, that is. The failures are far, far worse.

I think you are needlessly self-deprecatory about your chess style, though your general self-deprecatory style is of course charming. You've got the goods, man.

No hiding that light under a <bushel>!

Need a few dozen cups of coffee before I hit my board...

Though it is surely more important to analyze one's painful losses than one's victories, I can't help but appreciate the majesty of the <Caesarean> approach:

After <Gergovia>, Caesar said to Marcus Antonius:

<Never mention this battle to me again>

Though <Caesar> lost only one major battle in his career, only <Alexander the Great> succeeded in equalling the titanic achievement of <Dan Marino's> <Miami Dolphins>: The only undefeated season in history.

We've all sinned, surely? Including <Yeshua> Himself?

Because I have quite forgot it.

As for the self-deprecatory routine, hmm. Could be a cultural thing. Round here, if you don't self-deprecate, somebody else will do it for you.

Ditto flagellate. Masochist heaven.

<Drug of choice>

Bill Cosby: "They say cocaine ENHANCES your personality....

I can't think of any really useful comments to make, since you pretty much took care of that yourself, but still, I'd like to compliment you on your great play overall, it was also quite instructive, although I personally don't play the French, but I often have problems against it, especially the Winawer (BTW, didn't Botvinnik play the Ba5 retreat sometimes?).

<Dom> This is a game of rare beauty and skill. Black gives up all the space in the world, but has excellent piece placement, some Dancing Knight shuffling, and you really made him pay for f5 and Nc2...

I don't how on earth you could describe your style as plodding here. Yeesh. I'd give my eye teeth to play a game like this...

I want to name this game the <Deadly Python>. Dom uncoils and all Hell breaks loose!!!

It's my e4 of choice as white, although <Shropshire> slaughtered me with black against the Scotch in a correspondence game.

To me, the move is obviously so different to the usual Winawer with ...Bxc3+ that it should have its own name and ECO code - but it has to share C17 with other odds'n'ends.

I'd always played ...Bxc3+ before, but thought it was about time I branched out. One loss and one win seems OK for a start...

Fashions are funny in the French. The Advance, 3.e5, is pretty popular right now. 3.Nd2 has become much less common than it used to be -- and 3.Nc3 usually leads to the Classical lines with 3...Nf6, with the Winawer out of fashion.