Gettin' better all the time

My chess chops are steadily improving and so too are the quality of my matches. Case in point: this game that wrapped up today with my opponent resigning at the 45-move mark. I played with my usual aggressive style and was able to force much of the game.

The opening was quite interesting and untypical for me. I played white and tried to open with Queen's Gambit but it was declined. The opening went:

1. d4 c5

Rather than take the free pawn I used the Benoni Defense with 2. d5. My opponent responded with 3...Nf6. The rest of the opening went like this:

2. d5 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. e4 Bg7 5. e5 Nh5

So after the first five moves I had both centre pawns at the 5th rank, a knight developed, and my opponent with his knight shunted off to the side.

Moving to the middle game, we exchanged queens at the 17 move mark. The game settled into a real battle of wits after that with high density play on the king side. Lots of threatening pins and skewers and their corresponding actions and reactions. I managed to trade my bishop for a rook at the 25th move and worked to exploit the advantage for the rest of the game.

This was an intense match that required lots of concentration -- any false move would have resulted in catastrophe. The entire match went like this:

1. d4 c5
2. d5 Nf6
3. Nc3 g6
4. e4 Bg7
5. e5 Nh5
6. Nf3 O-O
7. Bc4 d6
8. e6 fxe6
9. dxe6 Qa5
10. O-O Nc6
11. Ng5 Bd4
12. Bd3 Ne5
13. Be3 Bxc3
14. bxc3 Qxc3
15. Be4 Nc4
16. Qd3 Qxd3
17. cxd3 Ne5
18. Nf3 Ng4
19. Bg5 Bxe6
20. Bxe7 Rf7
21. Bxd6 Rd8
22. Bxc5 b6
23. Ng5 Rf6
24. Be7 Re8
25. Bxf6 Ngxf6
26. Nxe6 Rxe6
27. g4 Nf4
28. g5 Ng4
29. Bg2 Re5
30. h3 Ne2+
31. Kh1 Rxg5
32. hxg4 Rxg4
33. Bf3 Rh4+
34. Kg2 Nf4+
35. Kg3 g5
36. Rh1 Rxh1
37. Rxh1 Nxd3
38. Be4 Nb4
39. Rxh7 a5
40. Kg4 Nxa2
41. Kxg5 Nc3
42. Bg6 Ne2
43. Rf7 Nd4
44. Kf6 Nc6
45. Rc7