What would Anderssen do?

My wacky Wednesday entry today:

I was black this week at the club and happened upon this horrible position that had White's bishops coming down on my kingside like a meteor shower. I was impressed with the Lasker like Bishop sacs to open my position which was reached via a Blackmere gambit gone wildly like a Caro-Kan:

1.d4 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Be3 Bd6 9.Bd3 0-0 10.Qe1 Qc7 ( better would have been a Nbd7. I totally underestimated the power of Qh4) 11.Qh4 h6 12.Bxh6 Nbd7 13.Qg5 g6 14.Bxg6

(for easy viewing click here)

I was in a tight spot and by rights I should have given him the point. But being who I am and the tenacious personality in a seemingly lost position... I played:

Kh8 15.Bh7 Nh5 This was a hard one to see but I figured exchanging the bishops was necessary. Time to liquidate the forces and bear down for a endgame with a rook versus minor piece.... I hoped.

16.Qxg4 Ndf6 17.Qh4 Kxh7 18.Bxf8 Rxf8 19.Ng5+ Kg6 20.Nge4

I thought about this awful predicament I got myself into knowing my opponent was 200 points lower rated than I but tactically sharp and more awake than I.

I bucked up and figured what the hell, " What would Anderssen DO?" I could liquidate even more but at the cost of a bishop and be a whole rook down. However, my opponent's second rook isn't active yet and I would have my minor pieces all over on the exposed king. He may have some tactical acuity, but I had TIME and calculation skills that were this shy of mediocre. ( duelling patzers). I played the following moves:

Bxh2+ 21.Qxh2 Qxh2+ 22.Kxh2 Ng4+ I calculated up to this juncture and saw that if the king tried to attack my knight on g4 I had f5 and could now set up a mating net!

Ilya Krasik of the Boston Blitz, during post game analysis, humbled me by saying " What are you so excited for? You are down a rook and should lose! All White should do is Play Kg1. Otherwise he loses."

Since I wasn't playing Ilya ( rated 2100+), the game went according to plan:

23.Kh3 f5 24.Rae1 Rh8 25.Rxf5

He panicked. This was not a Greek gift this time. This just gave me back the game. It happens to all of us. He was running short on time. exf5 26.Nd6 Nf2+ 27.Kh2 Nf6+ 28.Kg1 N6g4 29.Re6+ Kg7 I can't go to g5 because of the forking checking on f7.

30.Nxf5+ Kf7 31.Re2 Rh1# *

A wild ride indeed. As ugly as this duckling was... here was the swan that got me the point: