Chess Blues

Well, after a nasty blunder, I managed to scrape a draw in the chess club championship, tonight, by complicating the position. I got absorbed in the position below (me, White to play), thinking:

1. Nfxe5, because 1...Nxe5 2. Nxe5, Qxe5 almost wins the enemy Queen with 3. Bf4.

Alas, Black still has one square 3...Qh4. However hard I tried to mix the move order or lay a trap, I couldn't make anything work.

With a sigh I made another move literally without thinking, assuming it was the obvious play (namely 1.Be3), but in so doing I simply dropped a pawn to 1...Nxe4! I tried to keep a poker face, but my opponent played the best moves.

My response to his 1...Nxe4, namely 2.Nfxe5!?, lead to a position with active play, even though I was a pawn down – i.e. perhaps something close to so-called “dynamic equality”? After another ten or so moves, because my opponent was running out of time calculating the consequent mess on the board, he offered a draw which I gladly accepted.

But in this position, what would you play? Houdini 3 (x64) comes up with a nice plan, 1.Nfd2 followed by 2.f4!