Over the board games

Sorry for another study thread - I'm going to play around 12-13 over the board games this season, I'm planning on putting them all in a single study (one chapter per game), updating as soon as I can after the game so I can get my thoughts down straight away.

My first game of the season was tonight the time control was all moves in 80 minutes, and my opponent's FIDE rating was 2163.

He surprised me in the opening, but I managed to get to a playable position. I was pretty happy with the way I played, until we ended in a massive time scramble - where fortunately
a) I managed to find a way to win, and
b) I didn't record the moves for posterity...

Here's the game, with my instant post-game analysis:

nice nice! keep em coming. c4 was explosive btw

@MorningCoffee Thanks, and good point! Have added a comment...

Played a solid draw as Black tonight against someone rated around 2000 FIDE. Not the most exciting game ever but both players played some reasonably good chess. (EDIT: the standard analysis engine here in Lichess gives it 0/0/0 6 plays 0/0/0 4 which is pretty decent...)

oh man just give me your position at move 16 in a standard time control. I would play it out till my opponent was begging on his knees for a draw :)

I thought that when I got there, but I can't find an obvious way to improve my play over the following few moves, and the final position looks very drawish. Maybe 22...Be8 is slightly better as it keeps the bishop pair - but even that doesn't look very convincing.

there is no need to find any special move.You have the 2 bishops!
just improve slowly a6,b6, Kb7,f6,Nd8 etc...

@morningcoffee #6 I've put a sample line in - can't White basically just do nothing? Maybe I wasn't (and am not) in the right frame of mind but I don't see how I've got anywhere after playing all those moves? I see if the queens come off that I can press, but there's no obvious way to force them off, and with them on, I don't see how to make much progress?

One key point is that there's no entry square on the h-file after White plays his bishop back to g2, so I can't even throw my queen over that way and try and cause problems.

Interested in your thoughts (or anyone else's!).

the thing is you have easy moves to make but white doesn't. Since you have the 2 bishops you have the plan of taking more space but white lacks a clear plan.
The moves I suggested are a bit random, there could be much better but let's say starting from move 17 you play all these moves I mentioned and white does nothing then you can continue with Nf7,c6, Bd8, e5. If white still has done nothing then you have a winning position. But white can't do much tbh, he has to stick to passive and reactive play. And even if he forces the trade of all the heavy pieces somehow , the nature of the game won't change.

I totally agree with you that my moves are easier, and clearly this is the sort of thing to play to put White under some pressure - but White still does have some tricks of his own.

For example in the line I've put in the study after move 17, if I ever play Nf7 can't White just play Nf4 hitting e6?