The Lion's Den: Pirc Defence (B09)

This is one of my favourite club games to date! My opponent plays the Pirc Defence. There is much jockeying for position on the Queenside in the early middlegame. I do think though, that Black was too premature with 4. .. Qa5+? 5.Nc3 Qb6 It doesn't seem to be a very economical set of developing moves, because the Queen gets driven back to c7 after 9.Na4 ... but my Knight is also misplaced and ends up back on c3. Comically, a similar thought process must have been going through my head because I played 17.Qa4 Nfd7 18.Qb3 Nc5 19.Qc2 ... I then managed to place the Queen back on a4 on move 22! I gained an important tempo though on move 26 capitalising on my opponent not castling early enough. I castled queenside and gained decisive control of the centre. I then managed to lure my opponents Queen into the Lion's Den!

I allow the capture of a pawn on 34. .. Qxe5 but then 35.Nd6+ Kc7 36.Qd3? Qd4 37.Qg3! wins my opponent's Queen for a Rook (killer discovered tactic). The remainder of the game is simply a matter of trading off all the pieces to reach a won ending. We didn't get that far though. My opponent resigned on move 44 due to my threats down the h1-a8 diagonal ...

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bd3 c6 4. c4 Qa5+ 5. Nc3 Qb6 6. Nge2 Bg4 7. f3 Bh5 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Na4 Qc7 10. Be3 e5 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h6 13. h5 Bh7 14. Nac3 exd4 15. Nxd4 Ne5 16. Be2 a6 17. Qa4 Nfd7 18. Qb3 Nc5 19. Qc2 Qa5 20. Nb3 Nxb3 21. Qxb3 Qc7 22. Qa4 Nd7 23. f4 Kd8 24. Qb3 Nc5 25. Bxc5 dxc5 26. O-O-O Kc8 27. Rhf1 Be7 28. Kb1 Bd6 29. f5 Re8 30. Rd3 b5 31. Rfd1 Red8 32. e5 Be7 33. Rxd8 Bxd8 34. Ne4 Qxe5 35. Nd6+ Kc7 36. Qd3? Qd4 37. Qg3! Qxd1 38. Bxd1 Kb6 39. cxb5 axb5 40. Bf3 Bc7 41. Qe5 f6 42. Qe7 Bg8 43. Nf7 b4 44. Qe4! 1-0

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