This was my second round game in the 2008 Great Lakes Open against the section's highest rated player, 10-year old Epiphany Peters.  How good is Epiphany?  She is the first tournament game that I have analyzed on ChessMaster R10 where the computer agreed with 100% of her moves.

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7.  As pointed out by one of the past blog replies, the Austrian Attack is a very effective line against the Pirc.

5.Nf3 Bg4.  I'm almost always weary about playing my white bishop to g4 in this opening because I don't feel comfortable replying to h3.  I thought it might be effective here to keep the queen on the defense of the knight... which of course was countered on the very next move.

6.Be2 O-O 7.Be3 c6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 a5 10.h3 Bxf3. Was not happy about this exchange, but didn't want to lose  tempo with e5 looming.

 11.Bxf3 Nbd7.  Okay, so I just played this whole line to prepare for e5, and I knew that playing Nbd7 will weaken my pawn structure to allow a win on e5, but I still played it.  CM10 does not call this a big blunder, but I believe this lapse in my concentration is where I lost the game.

12.e5 Nd5.  I was searching for how to limit my loses to just one pawn, and this is the best I could find.  Anyone see something better?

13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.Bxd5 Rc8 15.e6 Nb6 16.exf7+ Kh8 17.Be6 Nc4 18.Bxc4 Rxc4. In my post-game analysis I wondered if I should have taken with the b-pawn instead.  What do you think?

19.O-O Rxf7.  20.c3 d5 21.Rae1 Qb8 22.Rf3 Bf6.  CM10 kept waiting for me to play b4, which I never did.  I didn't really consider this move during the whole game, and I think this might be a weakness in my game.  I am going to start looking for these type of pawn moves.

23.Bf2 Rc8.  In retrospect, Rc6 saves me a tempo.

24.Re6 Qb7 25.Qd3 Rc6 26.Rxc6 Qxc6 27.f5 g5 28.Re3 Qc4 29.Qxc4 bxc4.  Epiphany traded queens quite quickly here, and I didn't think it was that easy of a decision.  She may have felt that her Queen had limited range, and this was a good way to stay ahead.  I think this gave me some real chances on the b-file, but she defended this very well.

30.Re6 Rf8 31.Rb6 a4.  I was so impressed by Epiphany's play in this game.  Time and time again she shows an understanding on what the real weaknesses and threats are in the position.  She could easily win a pawn here, but she carefully first protects her weakness on b2.  She knows she can win another pawn at any time.

32.g4 h5 33.Bg3 h4 34.Bh2 Ra8 35.Kf2 Kg8.  I was worried about something really small here.  I wanted to make sure that my king did not block my bishop to move back, but had I calculated a little deeper, I should have seen that staying on the back rank gave Epiphany a chance to defend the b-pawn.  If I play Kg7 instead, I think I have much better chances for a draw.

36.Rb5 Ra7 37.Rxd5 Rb7 38.Rd8+ Kf7 39.Rb8! Rxb8.  Beautifully played by white, and it is all but over now.

40.Bxb8 e6 41.Kf3 exf5 42.gxf5 Ke7 43.Be5 Kf7 44.Bxf6 Kxf6 45.Kg4 ... and I resigned since I can't protect my remaining King-side pawns.

This was typical of all my games at the Great Lakes Open this year.  I was never down by more than one or two pawns in any of the games, but I could only muster one win and a draw.  I have another very complex and interesting game in Round 4 that I will try to post later this week.