This is a league game from the 12th of Feburary 2023 and was my first OTB game for over two months. The time control was 90+30 with 30 minutes extra after move 40. I felt quite good going into the game and was very happy to play again.
1.d4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Bd3
White can usually delay this move with 7.Rc1 or 7.Qc2. An example line would be 7.Rc1 O-O 8.Qc2 Re8 9.a4
7...dxc4 8.Bxc4 b5 9.Bd3 Bb7 10.O-O a6 11.Bxf6!?
I thought for nearly 10 minutes over this move. During the game, I tried to prevent c5 and I didn't see another way. White could have also started with Rc1 and black cannot play c5 easily: 11.Rc1 c5 12.Bxf6 gxf6 (12...Nxf6 13.dxc5 Bxc5 14.Nxb5 +/-) 13.Be4 Qc7 14.Bxb7 Qxb7 15.d5 +=
11...Nxf6
11...Bxf6 12.Ne4 (Black has to deal with the threat of Nd6+) 12...O-O 13.Nxf6+ Qxf6 14.Qc2
11...gxf6 12.Qe2 Qb6 13.a4 (Black cannot get c5 in because white can play Be4 in response)
12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Bxe4 f5 14.Ne5?!
Black to play
This was the first move that came to my mind and I played it after 7 minutes. I wasn't sure if the sacrifice was sound but I didn't see a clear refutation and I wanted to play an active move instead of retreating the bishop. 14.Bc2 (In order to play Bb3 later) 14...c5 15.dxc5 Bxc5 16.Rc1 Qf6 17.Bb3 +=
14...O-O?
This move just loses the c6-pawn and white can also trade off the black bishop pair. After the game, my opponent told me that they thought that taking the pawn would be too dangerous for black but white is actually worse and has to be careful since black gets a lot of counterplay with the bishop pair and the open files pointing at white's king
14...fxe4! 15.Qh5+ g6 16.Nxg6 hxg6 17.Qxh8+ Kd7 18.Qe5 Qh8 19.Qxe4 Qh5 20.h3 Rf8
White to play
White has to be very careful here since black has the bishop pair and open lines towards the white king. Black is better here but it's not so easy because their king is in the middle and white can break open the queen side with a4 at some point.
15.Bxc6 Bxc6 16.Nxc6 Qd6 17.Nxe7+ Qxe7 +/-
White is a pawn up, has the better structure and black cannot get counterplay.
18.Rc1 Rac8 19.Qb3
I played Qb3 in order to pin the e6-pawn.
19...Qd7 20.Rc5 Rc6 21.Rfc1 Rfc8 22.h3
I thought about whether I should play h3, h4 or g3. If the queens were off the board, I would want to play h4 but during the game the following line bothered me: 22.h4 Rxc5 23.Rxc5 Rxc5 24.dxc5 Qe7 But white wins here after 25.c6. So I could have also played 22.h4 but this doesn't make a big difference.
Black to play
22...Kf7? 23.Rxf5+ Kg6 24.Rfc5 Kf6
This allows me to exchange pieces and get a passed pawn on c5.
25.Qc3 Rxc5 26.dxc5+ Kf7 27.b4 Qd5 28.a3
Keeping control of the position. My plan was to take control of the d-file while not allowing black any counterplay.
28...Rc6 29.Qc2 g6 (29...Qf5 30.Qd2) 30.Rd1 Qe5 31.Qd2
Here I saw that the resulting rook ending is easily winning.
31...Rc7 32.Qd6 Qxd6 33.Rxd6 a5 (33...Ra7 34.Rb6) 34. Rb6 1-0
The game was a smooth win after black declined my sacrifice. If they had taken the bishop, we would have played a completely different game and who knows what would have happend then.