White: GM Alexander Ivanov
Black: Peter Bereolos
Middle Tennessee Open, 1997
Round 3 Board 2

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5

I once drew a blitz game with Ivanov back in Boston with 6...exd4, but decided to play sanely here.

7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Qe2 Be7 10.Rd1 0-0 11.c3 Qd7

A careless slip. Black should have kicked the bishop first with 11...Nc5

12.Nd4 Nc5

[12... Nxe5 13.f3]

13.Nxe6 fxe6

An unfortunate recapture, but the d5 pawn had to be guarded. Now, Black's knights lack good squares and white has a free hand to build a kingside attack.

14.Bc2 Qe8 15.f4 Rd8 16.Be3 b4

Trying to fight for the c4 square, but now the a6 pawn becomes weak as well

17.g3 bxc3 18.bxc3 Na5 19.Nd2 Ra8 20.Qg4 Qf7 21.Rf1 g6

trying to hold up f5.

22.f5

anyway

22...exf5 23.Bxf5 Kh8 24.Bd4 Qxf5

Desperation. Not even Ivanov's habitual time trouble helped me here.

25.Rxf5 Rxf5 26.Rf1 Raf8 27.Rxf5 Rxf5 28.Qe2 Nc6 29.Kg2 Nb8 30.e6+ Kg8 31.Bxc5

[31... Bxc5 32.e7]

1:0