Kesti-Pearson Match Game 3, 1-0

I lost a tough fight last night in my match for the Reno CC Class B Championship, as Steve Kesti took a 2-1 lead in our six-game match (Game 1, Game 2).

IMPRESSONS: In a type of Queen Pawn Game (I offered to play the black side of a Fianchetto Gruenfeld, but he wouldn't take on d5), I laid a little trap and he went in for it, ending up two pawns down, but with some attack on the open e- and f-files. I think I could have ended up in almost the same position but without queens, which would have severely limited his counterplay, but I'll have to check it out when I have the time and the game score in front of me.

I did my best to defend, but missed something (I'll figure that out later, too), and after plenty of excitement we ended up in a position where he had queen and passed g- and h-pawns versus my rook, bishop and knight, with symmetrical queenside pawns. But when I blundered a knight around move 40, it was all over.

Now I'm not going to cry over the result, because he probably "shoudda" won last week, and I probably "shoudda" won this one, and the score would still be 2-1. There's justice and fairness in chess results, if only in the long term. In individual games, there's a certain wackiness factor...

I'll post the game ASAP, probably tomorrow, for my readers' viewing pleasure.

UPDATE: Here's the game--complicated, interesting and..full of mistakes, especially mine!



[Event "Reno CC Class B Ch. (Match)"]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2007.03.01"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Kesti, Steve"]
[Black "Pearson, Robert"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1764"]
[BlackElo "1600"]
[ECO "D74"]
[Annotator "R. Pearson"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. Nf3 O-O 6. b3 c6 7. O-O Na6 8. Nc3
Bf5 9. Nh4 e6 10. f3 h5 11. e4 dxe4 12. fxe4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Bxd4+ 14. Kh1 Bxe4
15. Bxe4 Bxa1 16. Ba3 Bg7 17. Bxf8 Bxf8 18. Qf3 Qe7 19. Nxg6 fxg6 20. Bxg6 Bh6
21. Bf7+ Kh8 22. Qxh5 Qg5 23. Qe2 Rf8 24. Qxe6 Qg7 25. Rf6 Kh7 26. Bg8+ Rxg8
27. Rf7 Qxf7 28. Qxf7+ Rg7 29. Qf5+ Kg8 30. g4 Rf7 31. Qe6 Kg7 32. h4 Bf4 33.
g5 Nc5 34. Qh6+ Kg8 35. Qg6+ Kf8 36. b4 Nd7 37. Qe4 Ne5 38. g6 Ng4 39. Qd4 Rf6
40. h5 Be3 41. Qxg4 Rf1+ 42. Kh2 Bf4+ 43. Kg2 Rg1+ 44. Kxg1 1-0