Combinations

I just had a fun game in which I had a nice tactic to stop my opponent's counterplay and then win the exchange. What followed was a really bad king hunt on my part, since I had about 5 minutes on the clock and couldn't find the best moves to put the game away. I ended up with two queens and 4 pawns versus one queen and 1 pawn, but the game was about 30 moves longer than it should have been. Since there are so many beautiful variations from Rybka, I'm going to just talk about a few key points during the games and show the crazy computer combinations that I would never have found, as well as a few combinations that I should have found. [Event "rated standard match"] [Site "Free Internet Chess Server"] [Date "2009.01.31"] [Round "?"] [White "waparker"] [Black "----"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1582"] [BlackElo "1576"] [ECO "A20"] [TimeControl "900"] 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Qf6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Ne4 Qe7 ({Ne4 which I thought was a resourceful move, stopping the mate and winning the bishop pair, turns out to be a blunder because of ...Qc6 pinning the knight to the rook} 4. ... Qc6 5. f3 Nf6 6. Nxc5 Qxc5 ) 5. Nxc5 Qxc5 6. d3 Qc6 7. Nf3 f6 8. Bg2 Qb6 9. O-O Nh6 10. h3 d6 11. Qc2 Nc6 12. Bxh6 gxh6 13. e3 Be6 14. a3 O-O-O 15. Rfd1 Rhg8 16. b4 Ne7 17. Rac1 h5 18. h4 Bg4 19. c5 dxc5 20. bxc5 Qc6 21. Nxe5! Qe6 22. Nxg4 Rxg4 23. Bh3 Rdg8 24. Qe2 {A waste of time. I can't move the f-pawn because of Rxg3+ breaking the pin} f5 25. Bxg4 fxg4 26. d4 Rf8 27. Rd2 Nd5 28. Rb2 b6 29. Qa6+ Kd8 30. cxb6 Nxb6 31. Qxa7 (31. Rxc7 Kxc7 32. Qxa7+ Kc8 33. Rxb6 {black must give the queen for the rook because white is threatening mate by Qc7 or Rb8} ) Qd6 32. Qa5 Kd7 33. Rc5 (33. Rxc7+ Qxc7 34. Rxb6 Qc1+ 35. Kg2 Rh8 36. Rb7+ Kd6 37. Qe5+ Kc6 38. Qb5+ Kd6 39. Qd7# {just amazing} ) Ra8 34. Qb5+ Ke7 35. Qd3 Na4 36. Re5+ Kd7 37. Qxh7+ Kc6 38. Rc2+ Kb6 39. Qxh5 c6 40. Rc4 Qxa3 41. Qg6 (41. Rxc6+ Kxc6 42. Re6+ Kd7 {here black would have to give up the queen or face checkmate as follows} 43. Qf7+ Qe7 44. Qxe7+ Kc8 45. Rc6+ Kb8 46. Qc7# ) Rc8 42. Re6 ({42. Qb1+ is the move I should have seen} 42. Qb1+ Ka6 43. Re6 Nb6 44. Rcxc6 Rxc6 45. Rxc6 Qa5 46. Rxb6+ Qxb6 47. Qxb6+ Kxb6 48. h5 ) Qa1+ 43. Kg2 Kb5 44. Rcxc6 Rxc6 45. Rxc6 Qd1 46. Rf6 (46. Qc2 Qf3+ 47. Kg1 Qxc6 48. Qxc6+ Kxc6 49. h5 {The pawn can't be stopped.} ) Nc3 47. Qf5+ Kb4 48. Rb6+ Kc4 49. Rc6+ Kb3 50. Rxc3+ Kxc3 51. h5 Qe2 52. h6 Kd2 53. h7 Ke1 54. h8=Q Qf1+ 55. Kh2 Ke2 56. Qxg4+ Kd2 57. Qhh3 Qxf2+ 58. Kh1 Ke1 59. Qg2 Qf1+ 60. Qxf1+ Kxf1 61. Qf3+ Ke1 62. Kg2 Kd2 63. d5 Kd3 64. d6 Kc4 65. d7 1-0 Once again, the best way to view this is probably to paste it into a PGN viewer and read the comments as they come up. Too much to really write in depth about, but the moral of the story is I need to work on combinations! I am only seeing good one or two-move tactics right now, which are giving me winning positions, but I am having trouble capitalizing on those positions because I need to work more still on tactics.