Interestingly, I had played Prashantha at Nationals earlier this year. I was actually up a pawn and two pieces for a rook before making a big mistake then, so I wasn't too psyched out by his rating

1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 c5 7. c3 Nc6 8. Na3 a6 At Nationals he had played 8... Bf5?!, which gave me a really good game after 9.Nh4. This time he played one of the main lines 9. Nh4 d4 I'm skeptical about this move. It's occasionally played on move 8 and white can get a small advantage, but here Black's played a6, which doesn't help him at all, and White's played Nh4, which gives better control over e4 and a possibility for supporting f4-f5 10. e4 dxc3 11. bxc3 Ne8 12. Bb2 Eventually White will shoot for pawns on c3, d4, e5, f4, g3, and h2, which will really cramp Black up. I do need to wait for the right moment to play e4-e5, just because the knight on e8 will be headed to d5 12... Rb8 13. e5 It was worth stopping b7-b5 to give the knight his home a little early I think 13... Be6 14. Qd2?? Completely stupid. I wanted to connect the rooks and give my center as much suport as possible before d3-d4 was necessary, but this is not the way to do it. I pin my d pawn so that my e5 pawn can;t get enough support, and my center collapses 14... f6 15. f5 gxf5 16. Nxf5?! Flustered after my blunder, I moved too quickly. 16. Bxc6 bxc6 17. Nxf5 Was what I calculated over the board. It actually doesn't look too bad, I may still be equal here. Unfortunately in my mind my position was already losing because I had made a mistake, so I beatmyselfnow 16... Bxf5 17. Bxc6?? Trying to transpose to my calculations, but it doesn't work now 17. Rxf5 Nxe5 18. Qe3 I'm still worse, but I may get a small amount of compensation. Also, there's a cool trap 18... Nxd3?? 19. Bd5+ e6 20. Bxe6+ Kh8 21. Rd5 17... Bxd3 18. Rf3 bxc6 19. Rxd3 Qb6 20. Nc4 Qb5 21. Qf4 fxe5 22. Qg4 At this point I've just given up altogether 22... Nd6 23. Qe6+ Kh8 24. Nxd6 Qxd3 25. Nf7+ Rxf7 26. Qxf7 Qe3+ 27. Kh1 Qe4+ 28. Kg1 Rf8 29. Qh5 Qe3+ 30. Kh1 Rf2 31. Rd1 Qe4+ 32. Kg1 Qg2# I need to take a crucial lesson from this game. First of all, pay attention to simple things like pins, but also, I could still have played a good game even after my blunder, but I need to be able to take a step back and calm the heck down 0-1