I think this whet his appetite for revenge in future games: I was .5-1.5 in the balance. ...Bb4 wins the exchange.

Despite thinking that there should be something there, I missed 24.e6! winning the exchange, and the game was soon drawn.

Out of the opening, I thought my position was much better, and slowly realized how wrong that assessment was over time. Castling loses to ...Bg4! but White's position has already drifted to somewhat worse even before that.

I entered a long forcing line out of the opening, giving up a piece for some pawns. Probably the entire idea is just losing. Here I found ...Nc3!? which at least makes White find some moves. Black's problem is that White is going to be winning in all lines where he keeps pawns on both sides of the board...

wlrs joked that this time (compared with the round 1 game, earlier) he had the better opening preparation. White's play was pretty compelling; I bought the book. Despite the loss, this was one of my favorite games from the tournament.

Incredibly, Noir_Desir lost only this game in his 22 in the tournament. The opening went badly for him (I followed a line from a book which he related he owned, but didn't check), but I got a little sloppy a couple of moves prior, thinking that 30...Bf6 would hold the material advantage here and so not thinking hard about the obvious 27.Rxe6. After, I realized that Bf6 would lead to a draw, as Black can't avoid the checks after moving the rook and I needed a win.

Actually, 30...Bf6 might even lose...White can hunt the king very effectively with bishop and queen. One too-long line showing how White separates the king from his defenders is 31.Qe3+ Kd6 32.Bxf6 Rc8 (for example) 33.Qe5+ Kd7 34.Qe7+ Kc6 35.Qe6+ Kc7 36.Be5+ Kd8 37.Qg8+ Kd7 38.Qf7+ Kc6 39.Qe6+