Analysing a losing middlegame

Link to the game

I decided it wasn't really worth analysing most of this game, as I dragged it out for a while in a losing position with no real chances. So instead of doing a full study on the game, in this post I am just going to study the sequence of moves where the game went from a normal opening to a disaster.

I have the White pieces - here is the position after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bc4 e6 6. Nc3 h6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Qf3 Be7 9. Qg3 Bf8

White has most of the space, although his pieces lack obvious forward motion, and the better developed pieces and his King is safer, but he has only one central pawn and may struggle to break through.

I'm looking at a few candidate moves (10. Be3, 10. Rd1, 10. Nf3, 10. Bb3)

Be3 is just a general developing move, getting my last piece forward. I don't think it offers anything very concrete right now, but it's fine on general principles. It offers some support to my d5 knight, but I'm not sure it does much there as the knight is likely to be attacked by pawns and thus will have to move rather than trade.

Rd1 is intended around playing e5 and launching a discovered attack on the Black queen. Of course, my opponent will see this so I don't know how much use it is, and it doesn't offer much else. Even if the opponent doesn't move the queen and allows me to open the file and move the knight to create the discovered attack, the knight has nowhere good to go - no checks, no captures etc. - and so the queen will just move later (SF actually disagrees - if my opponent doesn't respond to Rd1 with Qc7 it's good to great for me - but the follow-ups mostly involve Nxe6 which I wouldn't want to play unless I was certain).

Nf3 is OK overall but reduces the evaluation from good for White (+1.5) to about even (+0.7). The idea for me would be to take the knight away from what feels like a vulnerable position, and to help support e5. It is quite passive though.

Bb3 is also designed to remove a potential target from the centre of the board, and has the same drawbacks as Nf3.

I didn't play any of those

10. e5? dxe5

I've included Black's response because it's the only move that makes much sense - moving the knight is an option but not a good one, or one Black is likely to take. It gives up too much space to White's attackers and White has many lines that overwhelm Black quickly (like 10...Nfd7 11. Nxe6 fxe6 12. Qg6+ Ke7 13.Qxe6# or the slightly less disastrous 10. ... Nfd7 11. Nxe6 Qa5 12. Nxg7+ Bxg7 13. Qxg7)

White's knight is attacked and so he must either move it or capture the attacker. Either of the retreating moves is about the same (Nf3 or Nb3). I would argue Nf3 makes more natural sense, as b3 looks a useful square for the lsb. One possible problem after Nf3 is e4 - stockfish says Rd1 to buy a tempo by attacking the queen then Nd4 is the best way to go. I'm not sure I find that, so if I don't like either of the knight moves, I must play

11. Qxe5 Bd6

Black's follow-up seems obvious here, and the queen does not have many squares available to go to. I picked the worst one, e3, because it looked more active and helped defend the knight on d4. However I needed to recognise that the knight can attack it from g4 and the Black dsb is aimed at h2 - allowing them to sync up is giving away a pawn and weakening my king. Qe1 is also no good as it allows Qc7, threatening the dsb and piling up on h2 (12. Qe1 Qc7 13. Bb3 Bxh2+). Qe2 is best, although stockfish takes the h2 pawn anyway (12. Qe2 Bxh2+ 13. Kxh2 Qxd4 14. Kg1 0-0)

12. Qe3 Ng4

Now I see the threat on h2 but it's not clear what I can do about it. SF thinks that the position is pretty even (-0.5) and plays 13. Qe4 to harass the knight and defend the castle, getting away with only the loss of a pawn and continuing a strong attack (13. Qe4 Bxh2+ 14. Kh1 Nf6 15. Qh4 Be5 16. Nf3 Bd6 17. Bg5). I chose to try to defend my pieces instead, but the Black attack is too strong

13. Qd3 Bxh2+ 14. Kh1 Be5

Black has two attackers on my d4 knight so I either have to move it or defend it. Nf3 is the obvious move to move it - defends h2, threatens the bishop, exposes the queens to each other (which is useful because if I trade off the queens Black's attack on the White king gets a lot weaker). Instead I played

15. Nce2 Qh4+ 16. Qh3 Nxf2+ 17. Rxf2 Qxf2

And White's position is completely destroyed. Down a rook and two pawns for a knight and with his king wide open.