When I asked Yaacov if he was intentionally provoking me to get aggressive, he smiled and said "put it this way. I wasn't provoking you to do it, but I knew you would do it." 18.Bf3 Bxf3 19.gxf3 Leaves things quite equal, according to my opponent. To me, this looked like a concession (I have doubled pawns), but FM Steve Stoyko agreed with Yaacov's belief it was irrelevant. My belief that trading the bishops would be a concession partially reflected the misguided "battle of majorities" idea. It also may be related to something like reverse egoism! Rowson describes egoism in chess as being so focused on your own ideas that you ignore those of the opponent. Here, when thinking (barely) about the possibility of the bishop trade, I disproportionately worried about the isolated h-pawn. But this pawn is not everything! If a black rook is over onthe h-file, Rd1-d5 will be an idea; if black then trades rooks, maybe c7 becomes a weakness. c4-c5 may also be dangerous at some point. The position is more than just the weak pawn on h2!
18...Kf8
A good improving move, playing the king closer to the center.
19.f4
Ambitious, though not necessarily bad. But without this, my opponent indicated there is no way for either side to create winning chances without undue risk. When I asked what White should do, the response came, "wait!" Interesting. 
19...Ree8 20.Kf2 a5 21.b5
Now the position is a bit more imbalanced, in that I have a backwards pawn on c4. Yaacov also pointed out an imbalance resulting from b4-b5 that can favor White in the long term: Some king and pawn endings may be difficult for the second player if White can walk his king to d5. I still don't totally understand this; he may have made the point in conjunction with a line where the bishops were traded, when it's a bit clearer. Still, what just happened favors Black: His queenside pawns are now all on dark squares, while my c4/b5 pawns are fixed on light. I think it might have been best to sit tight with 21.Rd2; although black can open the a-file, it's not clear how he makes progress.
21...Bd7 22.g4 f6
I didn't appreciate this move at the time. In addition to restraining g4-g5, Black also has ideas of playing ...g5 himself (as happened in the game!) It is easy to imagine a scenario where, after a couple pawn trades on g5, white's g4 pawn is fixed on a light square. Yaacov had ideas like this in mind when he said that "this is actually a very sharp position". The point is that superficially simple-looking situations have many hidden ideas and subtleties. By disturbing the equilibrium, I have given Black a very clear improvement plan when earlier it was very difficult to see one.
23.Bf3 Rad8 24.h4 Ke7
Critical moment: Black is preparing ...g5. Having gotten his king out of the way, he will be able to play ...Rg8 at the right moment to recapture the g-pawn, after which g4 will be isolated on a light square. Having started the plan of kingside expansion, it should be consistently pursued with 25. g5! with a perfectly ok position. So, it seems that the real mistake was not beginning a kingside advance: It was starting but failing to implement it consistently. Leaving the pawn on g4 just left it vulnerable to the ...g5 plan. I suspect I would have realized this against a weaker opponent, so what accounts for the sudden timidity? I'm not sure I really believed I could win against this opponent, especially in an endgame. This is a self-defeating consciousness; nobody is unbeatable in any stage of the game, not even close! 
25.Rd4
Vague. Now Black gets in his pawn break and takes the initiative.
25...g5!

In time pressure I defended weakly, and Black won with ease:
26.hxg5 fxg5 27.Kg3 Kf6 28.Rd5 Rg8 29.fxg5+
Why? White should keep the tension.
29...Rxg5 30.Rxg5 Kxg5 31.Rd3 Re8 32.Rd5+ Re5
Now things are very bad.
33.Rd3 Be6 34.Rc3 Rc5 35.Be4 h6

and Black went on to convert his advantage. Lessons:- This was not inevitable! g4-g5 would have been completely fine for White. Beginning to advance and then stopping was a fundamental strategic error, since the pawns were just left as targets. Playing g4-g5! would have gained space and stopped Black's ...g5 idea.- Always know you can and must compete for ideas with any opponent. Titled players must be beaten, and beating them starts with letting yourself persistently search for good moves. 0-1

Photo Betsy Dynako Atlantic City 2010

The Final Push
A good result in the Atlantic Open in DC put me within touching distance of my goal, but there was a missing ingredient: Improved play in g/30 events. Enter semi-retired International Master Alan Stein. As a strong chessplayer interested in pedagogy, Alan generously offered to spend time analyzing positions with me and assisting my improvement process. Looking at tactical situations with him has been a highly instructive experience. It has nudged me away from "this has to win" obsessiveness toward broader thinking in the search for ideas. Our work has made me keenly aware of my tendency to spend my thinking time OTB hitting the same nail with the same hammer, trying to force the first line I looked at to work. Watching how he approaches these positions has improved my ability to order candidate moves (for that matter, LIST candidate moves), allocate time, and generally think more practically. This was well complemented by an unorthodox suggestion of his: That I memorize the solution to every single problem in Ray Cheng's Practical Chess Exercises (nobody said improving was always fun!) and develop the facility to repeat them in 1-2 seconds per problem. Immediately after doing this, I played a fast game that bore out Alan's prediction: I ‘saw more' at the board.

Hoffman - Prilleltensky [A45]

5245

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 c5 4.f3 Qa5+ 5.c3 Nf6 6.d5 Qb6 7.e4 Qxb2 8.Nd2 Qxc3 9.Bc7 Na6 10.Ne2 Qxa1

An intuitive queen 'sacrifice' (the idea of 9...Na6) which worked well in the game. It enabled me to bring out my pieces and play chess rather than mine my way through possible preparation. 
11.Qxa1 Nxc7 12.d6 exd6 13.Ng3 b5 14.e5 dxe515.Qxe5+ Kd8 16.Be2 d6 17.Qb2 Bd7 18.0-0 Ne6 19.Nb3 d5 20.Na5 Nd4 21.Rd1 Rc822.Nf1 Rc7 23.Ne3 Bd6 24.Bf1 Re8 25.Nc2 Nxc2 26.Qxc2 c4
This unremarkable little tactic, keeping the knight sidelined on a5, is straight from the book. 
27.g4 h6 28.h4 Be6 29.g5 hxg5 30.hxg5 Nh5 31.g6 f632.Re1 Bb4 33.Rxe6 Rxe6 34.Qb1 Bxa5 and Black went on to win. My apologies for showing a very strong player and nice guy obviously having an off day. 0-1

I should add that Alan is interested in doing this type of coaching with other motivated, hardworking chess players.

Finally, I have come to the game that pushed me over the edge. To be perfectly honest, it was a product of a strong player avoiding an opening repetition at enormous risk to his position. Like Evan Rosenberg and Daniel Gurevich before me, I offer it for the record.

Prilleltensky - Bonin [D15]

5246

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 g6 6.Bf4 Bg7 7.e3 0-0 8.Be2 Nbd7 9.0-0 Re8 10.b4 Nh5 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 g5 13.Bxg5 hxg5 14.Nxg5 Nhf6 15.Bh5

Quite frankly, a draw with this difficult opponent (and splitting first place with him in our quad) suited me just fine. Alas, IM Jay Bonin, carrying a 5-0 record against me into this game, had other ideas.
15...e5
I was shocked, but quickly saw I would be doing very well in the resulting positions. The draw would result after 15...Rf8 16.Bxf7+ Rxf7 17.Ne6 Qe8 18.Nc7 Qd8 19.Ne6 White could also grab the rook on a8 and play for an edge, but that was not my intention.
16.Bxf7+ Kf8 17.Ne6+ Kxf7
Another big surprise. My opponent may have been aiming to outplay me in the materially imbalanced middlegame that arises. But objectively, this is excellent for White.
18.Nxd8+ Rxd8 19.a4 exd4 20.exd4 Nf8 21.Ne2 Bf522.Ng3 Bh7 23.Ra3 Ne6 24.Nh5 Bg6 25.Nxg7 Kxg7 26.Re1 Re8 27.Rae3

and White went on to win after all the rooks were traded. I overheard TD Steve Immitt's characterization of the ending. "Jay had the Bonin knights protecting each other! But the other guy had a queen and three connected passed pawns." 1-0

As a reminder of how much hard work awaits me in 2011, the International Master efficiently took revenge when we met at the National Chess Congress. I look forward to more battles with this warhorse of northeast chess!

So there is my journey from 2100 to 2200. It benefited from a combination of hard work, prioritizing, and excellent advice. There is plenty of analysis and suggestion here, but no magic elixir. Many of our habits are so deeply entrenched that serious re-learning, pattern accumulation, and p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e are required to break them. So shake off that silver bullet mentality, grab your scorebook (you do own one, right?) and spend some quality time with your games. You never know what you might find.  

See Matan's previous contribution to CLO, A Disney Chess Weekend: Matan on the K-12 Nationals and watch a US Chess Scoop video with him.