Its been an interesting game.

IMHO the tension somewhat was released when black played 28....gh2. I would prefer 28...Ra7, idea is if white will play h3 i have to sac minor pieces on h3 while i can swing my queen on the queen side via Bd7/Qd8/Qa7 let my minor pieces work on the kingside.

well no longer a draw by force, i'm skeptical of white's decision to play this, but we shall see.

may as well write something.Not really interested in trying to grab blacks Bishop atm.Its obvious really.

interesting fortress for me, didn't really analyze anything beyond here other than don't allow takes h4 in some circumstances.  i thought white would have tried another plan though still drawn. 

drew a 2400 player with Black otb last night, was winning or borderline close to winning most of the game, and then when i was finally winning with a simple plan, which i saw, i force a perpetual , though i had 7 versus 19 seconds w/ 5 second delay, there was very little risk.  it was a good result for me especially since i just made up the opening in a g/30 minute, usually this is a bad idea, but the concept seemed really sound fortunately. it's a great feeling just to play simple, pragmatic and well-grounded chess, and things work out your way, NM approx 75 points away once the TDs submit the crosstables... with a little luck and more good results possibly achieve NM by mid-April

gg Paul, well played (draw accepted - nothing better than a repetition Qc1-Rd1, Qc2-Rd2)

interesting game...i must admit that was interesting

congratulations to both players

Very gg guys, lots of excitement.

Paragraphizenated version:

"thanks guys. i'm pleased with the game, it was a nice creative achievement.  d5, a5, Qe1, b4 and all the White knight moves were interesting choices by white, and g3 and Rg7 for Black in terms of which points of the game I will look at again. i guess a question is whether white would have wanted to play a5 or c4 earlier, the best for white in the latter case that i saw was a transposition to the game line and i don't recall my analysis for the former, it seemed to me that white's queenside expansion was correct as played, but i will have to check this, white's 14th thru 26th moves.

  i enjoyed my knight maneuvers, i'm not sure the first one was completely necessary Nb to eventually e8, but the second one starting with nf8 and eventually to g3 was the point for playing the g3 push, this was risky and i didn't see some things all the way thru although i saw that i was able to get in h4 in at the right time i had not worked out beyond ng3.  i could have played rg8 instead of g3 and white probably has a nominal edge.

paul then consolidated his position perfectly, although there were some moves that were forced so i expected no less, and things got tricky again i found a clever draw line from qh5 to a drawn position, which happened, by fortress or perpetuals.  qg6 instead of qh5 maybe was possible, with sac options on e4 or d5, and many tricks, but white comes out better there, so i thought, i didn't work out qg6 lines.  a few other tricks were possible to play for g3 and fish for bxh3 but white should have some advantage with best play in that case.

for my first 20 moves, it was very quick analysis, black has a clear plan, and there were a lot of hidden resources for black --- to go for the race position is white's best try after Pd5/e5 locked structure was set.  i'm going to check the xb5 sac again, my analysis thru 18 moves, most of it was erased at some point, but i did a lot of it again, i was sure the sacs don't work, i know black draws but i had analyzed a win too in that case.  white's development of the knights seemed to me exactly right, but again i will need to check this again.

not sure if a5 a move earlier makes a difference in the position, c4 a move earlier than played did not change the position in my analysis.  an interesting plan i thought white could implement was to play rd1 and walk the king to c1, instead of blasting open the queenside, but this too seemed equal and double-edged. 

probably the most complicated game i've played in term of the sheer number of white options, although probably not the most difficult to play as black as a KID player, black's lines were clear, i think the pressure is on white to find the right way in more instances. i don't think i've ever had a full board of pieces in a real game after 40(!) moves!  glad to break new territory on this line with such a great opponent!!  -Cheers, "Matt

thanks.  glad you appreciated the game.  who knows about my play otb bc in rated games drew a 2400 friday with black, beat 3 1900s saturday, and lost to 3 1900s sunday - in part too much chess and i didn't play pragmatically, the one loss affected my mental approach to the next game, so my rating back to about 2100.

did you check 22...g3!?  It's difficult to see what White plays on that... [Edit:  By the way, 22...g3 seems to fail given White best play.]