Central League Game

Here is a game from the recent Central League match between Stirling C and Badger's Brook B. My thanks to Stockfish 14 for its help with the annotations.

[Event "Central League Div 2"] [Site "?"] [Date "2023.11.13"] [Round "?"] [White "Scott, Douglas"] [Black "McAlister, David"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A05"] [Annotator "McAlister"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2023.09.??"] [EventType "team"] [EventCountry "SCO"] [SourceVersionDate "2009.11.12"] [WhiteTeam "Badgers Brook"] [BlackTeam "Stirling"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d6 3. Bg2 e5 4. O-O g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. e4 O-O 7. Nc3 c6 8. d4 Qc7 9. d5 Nbd7 10. b4 cxd5 11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. exd5 f5 ({I tried (and failed) to find a way to exploit the long diagonal after it was weakened by White's 10th move and here the best way to do that was} 12... Nb6 {threatening ... Bg4 followed by ... e4. Best now is probably} 13. Rb1 ({Both} 13. h3 e4 14. Nd4 Nxd5) ({and} 13. Nh4 e4 14. Rb1 Qc4 15. Re1 f5 {seem to give Black a clear advantage.})) 13. Rb1 Nf6 14. Ng5 e4 15. f3 {There now develops a battle to maintain a Black pawn on e4. White only seems to be prepared to capture on e4 if exchanges on that square lead him to going a pawn up.} Re8 16. Re1 h6 17. Nh3 Qf7 18. c4 b6 19. Bb2 Bd7 20. Bxf6 Qxf6 21. Re3 $2 Qd4 $1 22. Qe2 $2 ({ White had to play} 22. Kf2 {but after} exf3 23. Qxf3 Rxe3 24. Qxe3 Qxc4 { (threatening Bd4)} 25. Rd1 Re8 26. Qd3 ({If} 26. Qb3 {then} Bd4+ 27. Rxd4 Qxd4+ {and it is mate in four)}) 26... Qxb4 {Black is winning.}) 22... exf3 23. Bxf3 Qxe3+ ({I thought} 23... Rxe3 {was probably even better but erred on the side of caution by going a Rook up plus ensuring the Queens were off the board.}) 24. Qxe3 Rxe3 25. Bg2 Rae8 26. Nf4 Kf7 27. Bf1 Rc3 28. b5 Rc2 29. a4 Ra2 30. Rb4 {White's efforts to retain his Queenside pawns allow me to end the game quickly.} Bd4+ 31. Kh1 Re1 {and it is at most mate in three. Black resigned.} 0-1