I appreciate opponents who don't make you go all the way to a routine mate, but wow: There were stretches of this game (extended entry) in which I thought my position was way worse than the other guy's position is as of the end.
At least once I thought, "should I resign here? Well, there's this... we'll see what happens." Then things inexplicably happened, not even blunders per se.
I scoffed at his 6th move when I saw it -- but his 10th move and follow-up expose a deep flaw in my 7th-9th moves. The exchanges on move 12 just make a bad situation worse (lose a pawn instead of just two tempos), and yet his 17th move onward just showed a complacent lack of purpose. My counterplay seemed to come out of nowhere.
[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.07.07"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Akira S."]
[Black "Matt B."]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1586"]
[BlackElo "1598"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. g3 e5 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. Bg2 Bg4 9. O-O Qd7 10. Bg5 Nd4 11. Bxf6 gxf6 12. Nd5 Nxf3+ 13. Bxf3 Bxf3 14. Qxf3 Qd8 15. Nxf6+ Ke7 16. Nd5+ Ke8 17. Qc3 Rc8 18. Qb3 b5 19. f4 h5 20. fxe5 h4 21. Ne3 Qc7 22. exd6 Bxd6 23. Nf5 Bc5+ 24. Kh1 hxg3 25. Qxg3 Qxg3 26. Nxg3 Bd6 27. Nf5 Rxh2+ 28. Kg1 Be5 29. c3 b4 30. Rad1 bxc3 31. bxc3 Rxc3 32. Ng7+ Kf8 33. Ne6+ Ke7 34. Nd4 Rxa2 0-1