Back On Top

I WAS back on top board, having been upfloated to play the sole leader, in round eight of Bad Wörishofen U2000.
Spanton (1837) - Wolfgang Müller (1823)
French Rubinstein
1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6!?
More popular are 4...Nd7 and 4...Bd7, but there are well over 4,000 examples of the text in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
5.Nxf6+
This is generally considered best. The idea is Black has to either damage his kingside pawn-formation or prematurely commit his queen.
5...gxf6 6.Nf3 b6 7.Bd3
I rejected the most-popular move, 7.Bb5+, because I thought 7...c6 8.Bd3 Bb7 did not especially help White, and anyway Black could play 8...Ba6!?
7...Bb7 8.Qe2 Qd6
WM at first placed his queen on d5, but did not let go, eventually releasing it on d6.
9.Be3 a5?!
Presumably designed to dissuade long castling by White, but reducing the chances of the black king finding safety.
10.0-0
The engines do not like 10.0-0-0!? but it seems playable.
10...h5?!
The engines prefer 10...Rg8 or 10...Nc6, but with advantage to White.
11.c4
The engines at first prefer 11.d5!?, and if 11...Bxd5?, then 12.Rad1, eg 12...Qe7 13.Bb5+ c6 14.c4 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 with a strong attack.
11...Nd7 12.Rfd1 Bh6 13.Rac1
I had been looking at the stronger move 13.c5, but for some reason I cannot recall, I did not play it.
13...Bxe3 14.fxe3?!
This restricts the activity of the white queen and removes the possibility of the protective pawn-move f3, so probably better was 14.Qxe3.
14...c5 15.a3!?
Planning to blast open the queenside with an immediate b4 if Black castles long.
15...Ke7?!
The engines prefer 15...h4, but still like White.
16.d5 Rag8 17.dxe6?
Good is the engines' 17.Be4.
17...Qxe6 18.Nh4 Rg5 19.e4 Rhg8 20.Rf1 Ne5 21.Rf5??
21.Bb1 is level according to Komodo10, but Stockfish10 much prefers Black.
21...Nxd3 22.Qxd3 Bxe4 23.Rxg5 Bxd3 0-1