2026-03-31 The A Team wins away at Dunfermline

   Central League Division 1 
   Dunfermline A              1-4  Stirling A

1. Volodymyr Tushynskyi 2176  0-1  Isaac Browning 2054
2. Ian Robertson        2059  0-1  John Iwuozor   2020
3. Gordon Greig         1560  0-1  William Spiers 1758
4. Gonzalo Forero       1556  1-0  Jim Shemilt    1707
5. Conall McGregor      u/g   0-1  Richard Warcup 1637	

Stirling had white on boards 1,2 and 5

Subject to confirmation, this victory for Stirling A has secured the Central League Division 1 title for the 2025-2026 season.

2026-03-16 Stirling A secure important victory

   Central League Division 1
   Stirling A           4-1  Grangemouth A 

1. Isaac Browning 2054  ½-½  Alan Bell        1948
2. John Iwuozor   2020  1-0  Graham Hamilton  1905
3. Leo Gardner    1889  1-0  Pranav Hariharan 1747
4. William Spiers 1758  ½-½  Duncan Glassey   1722
5. Sean Flanagan  1698  1-0  Alan Petrie      1683

Stirling had white on boards 3 and 5

Alan and Isaac just about to start play on board 1 

Comments from Stirling A captain Isaac:

In a key match at the top of the table, Stirling A ultimately walked away with a convincing win. However, at least four of the five games were in the balance for long periods.

Sean's game was perhaps the clearest, after he played the strong move Nd1 and caught Alan P in multiple pins.

Alan B and I played out a sharp middlegame where I tried to sacrifice a pawn to make his pieces awkward but missed it was possible to give it back favourably straight away, resulting in a position where neither side felt they could make progress and a threefold repetition ensued.

John had arrived a few minutes late but in typical fashion swiftly turned this time disadvantage around against Graham, eventually managing to win an exchange which proved decisive.

Duncan was up a pawn against William but his bishop was badly restricted by his own pawns, which made further progress improbable and a draw was agreed.

Leo and Pranav were both low on the clock when Pranav made an illegal move in an otherwise roughly balanced endgame. The resulting two minute deficit was too difficult to overcome.

2026-02-02 A busy Monday night, home and away

At the first club meeting of the month, our A team were in action against the Grangemouth B team.

Here are Isaacs's comments on the match:

A well-fought match ultimately went the way of the visitors despite Stirling being able to put out our strongest team so far this season.

Boards 3,4, and 5 all came to a conclusion in quick succession. Dougie broke through with a queenside attack against Leo, William steered things and wore down Nicolas. The battle of the two Seans saw an interesting piece sacrifice that didn't immediately break through but the resulting pressure proved too much for Stirling's Sean.

John and Daniel also played out a very interesting game with significant complications. Eventually Daniel's passed d-pawn and kingside initiative outshone John's two queenside passers.

This result clinched the match and, despite my best efforts I was unable to overcome Alan's resistance and had to settle for a draw.

Congratulations to Grangemouth B, a fine win against the grading deficit!

   Central League Division 1
   Stirling A          1½-3½ Grangemouth B

1. Isaac Browning 2054  ½-½  Alan Bell      1948
2. John Iwuozor   2020  0-1  Daniel Kitaev  1927
3. Leo Gardner    1889  0-1  Dougie Will    1839
4. William Spiers 1758  1-0  Nicolas Kitaev 1121
5. Sean Flanagan  1698  0-1  Sean Gray      u/g

Stirling A had white on boards 1 and 4.

There were also games in the internal Lindsay Club. Graham sent in the moves from two games, both wins by our ever-improving juniors.

[Event "Lindsay Cup"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2026.02.02"] [Round "?"] [White "Woodhouse, Chris"] [Black "Pardhi, Rudra"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B23"] [BlackElo "930"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "30"] [GameId "2273968022925344"] [EventDate "2026.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. O-O Nf6 6. h3 Bh5 7. d3 a6 8. Nd5 Nd4 9. c3 Nxf3+ 10. gxf3 Qc8 11. Nb6 Qxh3 12. Qa4+ Kd8 13. Re1 Bxf3 14. Qd7+ Nxd7 15. Nxa8 Qg2# 0-1

[Event "Lindsay Cup"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2026.02.02"] [Round "?"] [White "Liu, Elsa"] [Black "MacPherson, Kenny"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B30"] [BlackElo "1506"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "33"] [GameId "2273968221392932"] [EventDate "2026.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. O-O e6 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nb5 e5 8. Ng5 Nh6 9. Nd6+ Ke7 10. Ngxf7 Qg8 11. Nxh8 Qf8 12. Nhf7 Nxf7 13. Nxf7 h6 14. c3 d6 15. b3 Be6 16. Nxd6 Kxd6 17. Ba3+ {Black resigns.} 1-0

Meanwhile, in Broxburn, two Stirling teams had travelled there to face two from the Badgers Brook club. The out-graded Stirling B team came through some late drama to clinch a win in their match so that the night ended with a match honours even between the clubs.

   Central League Division 1
   Badgers Brook A     2-3  Stirling B

1. Kenny McGeoch 2014  1-0  Brad Duthie	   1552	
2. Stuart Ward   1868  ½-½  Richard Warcup 1637		
3. David James   1517  ½-½  Ross Warcup	   1494	
4. Mark	Brown    1456  0-1  Bill Cook      1544
5. Corey Dolan	 1198* 0-1  Steve Smith	   1549	

* Live Rating		 
Badgers Brook A had white on boards 1 and 4

   Central League Division 2
   Badgers Brook B       4-1  Stirling D 

1. Graham Kerr     1482  1-0  Harry Feather   1461
2. Collin Matthews 1394  ½-½  Tom Wallace     1313
3. Kevin Brown     1318  ½-½  Kai Austin      978
4. David Lawrence  1180  1-0  Victor Liu      951
5. Peter Woollven  907   1-0  William Feather 905

2026-01-19 Three Teams, Two Matches

The third Monday of the New Year brought forward a double-header. The Stirling A and B Teams faced each other, while the E team hosted Grangemouth C.

   Central League Division 1
   Stirling B            1-4  Stirling A 

1. Richard Warcup  1637  0-1  Isaac Browning  2054
2. Brad Duthie     1552  1-0  John Iwuozor    2020 (Default)
3. Bill Cook       1544  0-1  Leo Gardner     1896
4. Douglas Heatlie 1563  0-1  Sean Flanagan   1698
5. Kelechi Nwosu    u/g  0-1  Nathanael Loch  1515

Stirling B were the 'home' team.
The Bs had White on Boards 1 and 2.

Bill provided this report:

Both teams were missing 2 players and the Bs were heavily out-graded but there were no quick games.

Sean won a pawn fairly early on and he converted smoothly in an endgame with rook and bishop each.

Kelechi lost the exchange and wasn't able to recover.

Leo had a strong attack but after I had sacrificed a pawn managed to get a bit of counterplay and then blundered with just a few minutes left.

Board 1 was very close for a long time and Isaac only won when Richard had to sacrifice a bishop to prevent a pawn queening but couldn't prevent a second pawn.

An enjoyable match.

   Central League Division 2
   Stirling E           1-4  Grangemouth C

1. Mick Bloor     1084  ½-½  Bill Gray      1486
2. Mick Murphy    1087  ½-½  Jim Stallard   1330
3. Rudra Pardhi   930   0-1  Crawford Welsh 1243
4. Stewart Cairns 719   0-1  Joe Johnstone  u/g
5. Josh Heesom    u/g   0-1  Sean Gray      u/g

Grangemouth had White on 1,3 and 5.

Graham provided this report

On board 3, both sides started a pawn push that saw Crawford win a rook. While Rudra had some play left, analysis showed that it would have been very difficult to get his a2 pawn promoted.

On board 5, Josh also dropped during Queen exchanges.

I only saw the very end of board 4 when Stewart, already a piece had a defender of g2 distracted then resigned.

I didn't see any of boards 1 and 2, although I'm told Mick M did well to get a draw, and with the match well and truly decided Mick B and Bill agreed a draw rather than grind out a long end-game.

2025-12-01 Match between the Stirling A and B Teams

Central League Division 1

Stirling A             5-0  Stirling B

Isaac Browning   2054  1-0  Richard Warcup 1637
William Spiers   1758  1-0  Brad Duthie    1552
Sean Flanagan    1698  1-0  Ross Warcup    1494
Nathanael Loch   1515  1-0  Steve Smith    1549
Kenny MacPherson 1506  1-0  Bill Cook      1544

Stirling A had white on boards 3 and 4

Stirling A team captain, Isaac reports:

Stirling A had to rely on two members of the C team due to shortages, but neither Kenny nor Nathanael looked out of place. Kenny won in a bishop endgame after the game simplified fairly quickly. Nathanael attacked his way to a position with a queen and extra pawn vs two rooks, the exposed black king tipping the balance in his favour.

I managed to beat Richard after breaking out of a cramped position with an extra pawn. William, playing his fifth black from five games, managed to build up a space advantage in the centre and eventually triumph.

Sean and Ross' game went right down to the wire. Sean had an extra pawn, but Ross' passer on c2 had the white rook locked down. Therefore, it seemed for a while as though white wouldn't be able to escape, but Sean managed to open the h-file and bring his rook across to threaten mate, the possible pawn promotion an irrelevance. Ross, down to his last few seconds, was unable to find the saving tactic in time.

A hard-fought match, again not fully captured by the scoreline, under difficult circumstances for all.

2025-10-10 Two Matches against Dunfermline

Stirling hosted a double-header against Dunfermline, and both home teams ended the evening victorious.

Central League Division 1 Match

Stirling A           4-1  Dunfermline A

Isaac Browning 2054  1-0  Volodymyr Tushynsky 2176
John Iwuozor   2020  ½-½  Ian Robertson       2059
Leo Gardner    1889  1-0  John McBride        1715
William Spiers 1758  1-0  Calum Smith         1599
Sean Flanagan  1698  ½-½  Gregor McCloskey    1571

Stirling had white on boards 3 and 5

The Stirling A team had a strengthened line-up with Leo Gardner winning on his first appearance for the club. Isaac Browning, the Stirling A captain, reports:

A tighter match than the score line would perhaps suggest.

Ian and John Iwuozor (who had arrived ten minutes late) drew what seemed to be a fairly peaceful game; Sean and Gregor likewise.

Leo, Stirling's newest recruit, managed to get the better of John McBride from a position with queens and two minor pieces each.

I beat Volodymyr after emerging from a very complicated opening with an extra pawn, which eventually became two due to white's problematic structure.

William was down a pawn at one point but managed to regain it and ultimately caught Calum's king in a mating trap to round off the match.

Central League Division 2 Match

Stirling D             3-2  Dunfermline B

1. Harry Feather 1461  0-1  Euan Bell        1429
2. David Fowler  1300  ½-½  Douglas Rew      1369
3. Tom Wallace   1313  1-0  Daniel Lynch     1239
4. Kai Austin    946   ½-½  Ali Shuttleworth 1207
5. Victor Liu    928   1-0  Barrie Dempster  896

Dunfermline had white on boards 3,4 and 5

The Junior players for both sides put in strong performance. Tom Wallace reports:

A very close game tonight between Stirling D and Dunfermline B.

Stirling Junior Kai Austin drew with Ali Shuttleworth with a perpetual quite quickly on board 4. David Fowler and Douglas Rew on board 2 swapped off pieces to leave a rook and 5 pawn draw. Another Stirling Junior Victor Liu won on board 5 against Barrie Dempster.

On board 1 Dunfermline Junior Euan Bell beat Harry Feather which left the score 2-2 with my game on board 3 against Daniel Lynch deciding the overall result.

I had black and put a lot of pressure on white until a miscalculation with not a lot of time left on both sides where Daniel had a dangerous passed d-pawn with only the queens and 4 pawns each. I sacrificed a b-pawn and Daniel quickly moved his queen up the queenside to capture more pawns and leaving his King to a back row mate which I gladly grabbed.

27-01-25 Stirling A v Stirling B

Stirling A		v		Stirling B
Isaac Browning William Spiers Oliver Twentyman Richard Warcup Steve Smith	2008 1807 1784 1555 1599	1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1470 1545 1481 1513 1481	Bill Cook Brad Duthie Douglas Heatlie Nathanael Loch Kenny MacPherson
		1½ - 3½

Thanks to the various players for the games below.

[Event "Stirling A v Stirling B"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2025.01.27"] [White "Browning, I"] [Black "Cook, B"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "1470"] [ECO "B90"] [Opening "Sicilian"] [Variation "Najdorf, 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2"] [WhiteElo "2008"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Nbd7 9. Qd2 Rc8 10. O-O-O Be7 11. g4 Nb6 12. Qf2 Nfd7 13. h4 Qc7 14. Kb1 Bc4 15. Bxc4 Nxc4 16. Nd5 Qc6 17. Bg5 f6 18. Be3 Nxe3 19. Qxe3 Bd8 20. Qd2 O-O 21. Nb4 Qb5 22. Qxd6 Nb6 23. Nd5 Rc6 24. Ne7+ Bxe7 25. Qxe7 Nc4 26. Rd7 {Black resigns.} 1-0

 

[Event "Stirling A v Stirling B"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2025.01.27"] [White "Loch, N"] [Black "Warcup, Richard"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "1555"] [ECO "A00"] [Opening "Dunst (Sleipner-Heinrichsen-Van Geet) Opening"] [Variation "1...d5"] [WhiteElo "1513"] 1. Nc3 d5 2. f4 c5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bf5 5. d3 Nf6 6. Bg2 d4 7. e4 Bg4 8. Ne2 Bxf3 9. Bxf3 h5 10. Ng1 e5 11. Nh3 Qd7 12. Ng5 g6 13. Qe2 Bd6 14. Bg2 Nh7 15. f5 Be7 16. Nxf7 Kxf7 17. Bh3 Qd6 18. fxg6+ Kxg6 19. Bf5+ Kg7 20. Qxh5 Ng5 21. Qg4 Qf6 22. O-O Rh3 23. Bxg5 Rxg3+ 24. hxg3 Qxg5 25. Qxg5+ Bxg5 26. a3 Ne7 27. Kg2 Ng8 28. Rh1 Nh6 29. Rh5 Be3 30. Rf1 Re8 31. g4 Nf7 32. Rh7+ Kg8 33. Rxf7 Kxf7 34. Bd7+ Ke7 35. Bxe8 Kxe8 36. Kh3 Ke7 37. Kh4 Bf4 38. g5 b5 39. Kg4 Kf7 40. Rxf4+ exf4 41. Kxf4 c4 42. Kf5 a5 43. e5 c3 44. b3 {Black resigns.} 1-0

 

09-12-24 Stirling B v Stirling A

Stirling B		v		Stirling A
Nathanel Loch Kenny MacPherson Bill Cook Harry Feather Ross Warcup	1513 1481 1470 1464 742	0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1	2008 1807 1784 1555 1599	Isaac Browning William Spiers Oliver Twentyman Richard Warcup Steve Smith
		1 - 4

04-11-04 Stirling A v Grangemouth A

Stirling A		v		Grangemouth A
Isaac Browning William Spiers Oliver Twentyman Sean Flanagan Steve Smith	2008 1807 1784 1575 1599	1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1	2011 1962 1801 1675 1628	John McLay Daniel Kitaev Pranav Ram Hariharan Alan Petrie Martin Moyo
		2 - 3

23-10-24 Grangemouth B v Stirling A

Grangemouth B		v		Stirling A
Alan Bell Dougie Will Duncan Glassey Bill Gray Crawford Welsh	1873 1857 1675 1521 1232	½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1	2008 1897 1807 1759 1599	Isaac Browning Sam Coates William Spiers Jim Shemilt Steve Smith
		2 - 3

07-10-24 Badgers Brook A v Stirling A

Badgers Brook A		v		Stirling A
Kenny McGeoch Mark Cook Stuart Ward Mark Monaghan David James	2029 1908 1810 1798 1500	0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0	2008 1784 1599 1575 1513	Isaac Browning Oliver Twentyman Steve Smith Sean Flanagan Nathanael Loch
		3 - 2

23-09-24 Stirling A v Dunfermline A

Stirling A		v		Dunfermline A
Isaac Browning William Spiers Oliver Twentyman Steve Smith Nathanael Loch	2008 1807 1784 1599 1513	0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½ ½ - ½	2051 1662 1631 1594 1528	Ian Robertson Jamie O'Connor Gordon Greig Calum Smith Gonzalo Forero
		3 - 2

16-04-24 Dunfermline A v Stirling A

Dunfermline A		v		Stirling A
Ian Robertson Gonzalo Forero Dimitris Giannakopoulos Gregor McCloskey Euan Bell	2109 1530 1330	½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1	1988 1771 1755 1635 1542	Isaac Browning Jim Shemilt William Spiers Steve Smith Richard Warcup
		1 - 4

25-03-24 Stirling A v Grangemouth A

The league decider. A win for Stirling meant that a further win against Dunfermline still gave them a chance of winning the league. A draw or a win for Grangemouth would see them take the title.

Stirling A		v		Grangemouth A
Isaac Browning Jim Shemilt William Spiers Graham Anderson Steve Smith	1988 1771 1755 1703 1632	½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1949 1948 1776 1669 1572	Alan Bell John McLay David Wallace Daniel Kitaev Alan Petrie
		2 - 3

Congratulations to Grangemouth!

Thanks to William for this game from board, where William had White against David Wallace.

[Event "Stirling A v Grangemouth A"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2024.03.25"] [Round ""] [White "Spiers, W"] [Black "Wallace, D"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 c5 7. h4 h6 8. Nf4 Bh7 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Bxd4 Nc6 11. Bb5 Be7 12. Nh5 g6 13. Nf4 Bxh4 14. Qf3 Bg5 15. O-O-O Ne7 16. Kb1 a6 17. Bxc6+ Nxc6 18. Bc5 Nxe5 19. Qg3 Nc4 20. Nfxd5 Nd2+ 21. Rxd2 Bxd2 22. Qe5 Bxc3 23. Nxc3 { Black resigns. } 1-0

19-02-24 Stirling A v Badgers Brook A

Stirling A		v		Badgers Brook A
Isaac Browning Jim Shemilt William Spiers Steve Smith Sean Flanagan	1988 1771 1755 1632 1557	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1	2039 1572 1298	Kenny McGeoch Graham Kerr Colin Matthews Angus Dayle James David
		3 - 2

14-02-24 Grangemouth B v Stirling A

Grangemouth B		v		Stirling A
Dougie Will Daniel Kitaev Ian Mason Alasdair Sandham Crawford Welsh	1870 1669 1603 1434 1199	0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1	1988 1771 1755 1632 1557	Isaac Browning Jim Shemilt William Spiers Steve Smith Sean Flanagan
		2 - 3

15-01-24 Stirling A v Stirling B

Stirling A		v		Stirling B
Isaac Browning William Spiers Steve Smith Leyla Kim Richard Warcup	1988 1755 1632 1588 1542	½ - ½ ½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1	1771 1557 1504 1490 1440	Jim Shemilt Sean Flanagan Nathanael Loch Douglas Heatlie Kenny MacPherson
		3 - 2

04-12-2023 Stirling B v Stirling A

Stirling B		v		Stirling A
Graham Anderson Brad Duthie Dave Hewitt Nathanael Loch Kenny MacPherson	1703 1520 1513 1504 1440	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1988 1755 1632 1542 1492	Isaac Browning William Spiers Steve Smith Richard Warcup Bill Cook
		½ - 4½

27-11-2023 Stirling A v Dunfermline A

Stirling A		v		Dunfermline A
Shubham Lakudkar Isaac Browning William Spiers Steve Smith Nathanael Loch	2142 1988 1755 1632 1504	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0	2109 1636 1652 1624 1229	Ian Robertson Scott Kilgour Gordon Grieg Calum Smith Mark McLintock
		4½ - ½

UPDATE: thanks to Shubham for providing the game below, where he had Black against Ian on board 1.

[Event "Stirling A v Dunfermline A"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2023.11.27"] [Round "-"] [White "Robertson, I"] [Black "Lakudkar, S"] [Result "0-1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. Bh6 Bxh6 7. Qxh6 Bf5 8. O-O-O Nbd7 9. h3 Qa5 10. Ng5 Nb6 11. g4 Be6 12. Nxe6 fxe6 13. e3 Kd7 14. Bd3 Rag8 15. Qg5 Qb4 16. a3 Qd6 17. e4 dxe4 18. Nxe4 Nxe4 19. Bxe4 Rf8 20. f3 Nd5 21. Qd2 Qf4 22. Rde1 Nc7 23. Re3 g5 24. h4 h5 25. hxg5 hxg4 26. Rxh8 Rxh8 27. Re1 Qg3 28. fxg4 Qxg4 29. g6 Ne8 30. Kb1 Nd6 31. Qe3 Nxe4 32. Qxe4 Qxe4 33. Rxe4 Rh1+ 34. Ka2 Rg1 35. Kb3 Rxg6 36. Kc3 Kd6 37. a4 Rg5 38. Rh4 e5 39. dxe5+ Rxe5 40. Rh8 a5 41. Rd8+ Kc5 42. Rd7 b6 43. b3 Re3+ 44. Kd2 Re6 45. Kc3 Re5 46. Rd8 Rd5 47. Re8 e5 48. Re7 b5 49. axb5 cxb5 50. Rc7+ Kd6 51. Rh7 e4 52. Rh4 e3 53. Rh6+ Kc5 54. Re6 b4+ { White runs out of time here. I believe Ian played the 20 or so moves with about 3 minutes on the clock. } 0-1

15-11-23 Grangemouth A v Stirling A

Grangemouth A		v		Stirling A
Alan Bell John McLay Graham Hamilton David Wallace Alan Petrie	1949 1948 1936 1776 1572	½ - ½ 1 - 0 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 1 - 0	1755 1771 1703 1632 1520	William Spiers Jim Shemilt Graham Anderson Steve Smith Brad Duthie
		3½ - 1½

Below is my game from board 3, where I had Black against Graham H. It got very complicated in parts, and for the benefit of the juniors (who think this term is hilarious), it includes a majestic Bishop.

[Event "Grangemouth A v Stirling A"] [Site "Grangemouth CC"] [Date "2023.11.15"] [Round ""] [White "Hamilton, G"] [Black "Anderson, G"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 e6 3. e4 Be7 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bd2 d6 6. c4 Nb6 7. Qg4 dxe5 8. dxe5 g6 { Stockfish prefers g5. } 9. Nf3 N8d7 10. Nc3 Nc5 { Heading for d3. } 11. O-O-O Nd3+ 12. Bxd3 Qxd3 { Now that I'm here, I'm not so convinced it's good. The pawn on c4 is hanging - 13 b3 falls to 13 ... Ba3#. } 13. Nb5 { All of the black holes around f6/g7/h6 make this tricky for Black. The next move is an attempt to block White's black squared bishop from getting to them. } 13... h5 14. Qf4 Bd8 { 14 ... 0-0 falls to 15 Bb4 Qxc4+ 16 Qxc4 Nxc4 17 Bxe7 } 15. Ba5 { Analysis after the game found 15 Bc3 - which prevents 15 ... Qxc4 being check. } 15... Qxc4+ 16. Qxc4 Nxc4 17. Bxc7 Bd7 18. Nd6+ Nxd6 19. Bxd6 Be7 { 19 ... Bc6 looks good, but my first priority was to get rid of the strong-looking Bishop on d6. } 20. Kb1 Bxd6 21. Rxd6 Bc6 22. Rhd1 Bd5 { The rook on d6 is now trapped. } 23. Ne1 Ke7 24. f3 { This just seemed like a wasted move. My reply isn't much better... } 24... f6 25. f4 fxe5 26. fxe5 Rhf8 { Stockfish recommends Rad8 instead, but I still think I can win this rook. } 27. Nd3 Rf5 28. Nc5 Rxe5 { 28 ... b6 puts the Knight back in its box } 29. Rd7+ Kf6 30. Nxb7 Rb8 31. Nd6 Re2 32. b3 a5 33. Rf1+ Kg5 34. Nf7+ Kg4 35. Ra7 Rxg2 36. Rxa5 Rxh2 37. Ra4+ Kg3 { Draw agreed, although Stockfish has Black as at least +2 here. } 1/2-1/2