Box Hill Autumn Open - Round 2

Round 2 of the Box Hill Autumn Open was another successful venture to the South-Eastern suburbs for me, though not without a fight! I played another junior (as seems to be the standard thing at Box Hill with so many juniors playing), John Ni (ACF 1484; FIDE 1559) & played a 'Sniper' as black (g6, Bg7 & c5 being the key opening moves for black) & managed to get a fairly level position once John turned it into a type of English. I wasn't really sure how to proceed & ended up playing a Hedgehog-style setup, which turned out OK, though it did require a few poor moves from John later in the game to secure the win. The computer liked John's position after the bishops were exchanged & he was able to play 18.d5, although I was still reasonably happy with my position at that point. The tables began to turn when John allowed me to play 27...e4, which game me a protected passed pawn, which would be a constant headache for John if too many pieces were exchanged. Although I though my 43...Nxf4+ tactic was good, the computer preferred the simple 43...Ra2, which looks like it just wins a piece because of the pin on the second rank. Having said that, the unintentional rook maneuvering in the rook ending was quite geometrically pleasing, with the moves Rg3-d3-g3-g6-g3-d3 being a key to winning John's final pawn. The other thing that occurred to me during the game was the similarity to the Philidor position (AKA the Third Rank Defense), but in this case it was an attacking technique to round up the final pawn of John's.
Full results for the round are on OzChess.