Special Mates

 

 

I had outplayed black in a Ruy Lopez, and at move 17 I mated with Rxc8 - both the queen and the knight are pinned, leaving the bishop unprotected.

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A race against the clock

Me (2039*) - Cureton (2100), 5+4 Blitz game

Sicilian Defense (Grand Prix Attack)

1. e4 (only now I realized that I accidentally started a game while logged in instead of in anonymous mode - oops) c5 2. 2. Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 e6 4. Nf3 Nge7 5.Bb5 a6 6. Bxc6 Nxc6 7. O-O Be7 8. d3 d5 9. Kh1 O-O 10. b3 b5 11. Bb2 d4 12. Ne2 b4 13. Ng3 Bb7 14. f5 Qd7 15. Bc1 Bd6

So far both sides had made reasonable moves in this opening (another one I borrowed from the twitch streams of IM Eric Rosen). However, as the computer points out in the post mortem, Bd6 is a blunder, allowing white to take the advantage with 16. f6! I did not see it.

16. fxe6 fxe6 17. Qe1 Rf7 18. e5.Be7 19. Ne4 Raf8 20. Qg3 Qc7 21. Bg5 Qxe5

I had slowly improved my position, and now black blundered - and I saw it. After the coming exchanges, white gets a winning position (the computer gives 6-7 pawn equivalent advantage). However accurate play is still required and both sides had just over a minute left (of course there is a 3 second increment er move, but that is less than it sounds....).

22. Qxe5 Nxe5 23. Bxe7 Ng4 24. Bxf8 Rxf8 25. Nfg5 Re8 26. Rf3 h6 27. Nh3 Ne3 28. Rc1 Kh7 29. Rg3 Rf8 30. Rf3 Rxf3 31. gxf3 e5 32. Nd6 Bxf3+ 33. Kg1 Bd5 34. Ne8 e4 35. dxe4 Bxe4 36. Nf4 Bxc2

That was a decent series of moves from both sides, no blunders, not even inaccuracies according to the computer. This is still won for white but time was going to play a major role from now on (we were down to 7 and 11 seconds). My next move throws away the advantage completely, and the remaining moves were full of time pressure blunders resulting in a continuous seesaw between drawn and winning for white.

37. Ne6 (Ng2 wins) Bf5 (d3 draws) 38. N8xg7 (Nxc5 wins) Bg6 (Bxe6 draws) 39. Re1 (Rxc5 wins). After my move, we both had just over 3 seconds on the clock (I had come within one second of flagging) and that turned out to be insufficient for black who flagged in a drawn position. 1-0.

My rating went up from 2039 to 2082 (still provisional).

 

Full game.

A nervous game of six queens

Garexy (2118) - Me (1988*), 5+3 Blitz game

Italian Four Knights game

 

I had a fairly large amount of bad experiences this year so far playing anonymous chess game at Lichess, so I decided to go back to playing logged in as myself.

1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. Bxf7+ (the Alekinhe declined transposed into an Italian Four Knights. This bishop move does not have a good reputation). 5. ... Kxf7 6. Nxe4 d5 7. Ng3 Bc5 (returning the favour, as white can counter with the same trick by playing Nxe5+ - but white declined) 8. d3 Rf8 9. Bg5 Qd6 10. Qd2 Kg8 11. 0-0-0 Be6 12. Rde1 d4 13. Kb1 

Black has a strong position, the bishop pair looks menacing at the king, and white is about to sacrifice the exchange to get rid of one bishop.

13. ... Bb4 14. Qe2 Bxe1 15. Rxe1 Rae8 16. Nxe5 (white may have overlooked the pointe of Rae8 - it protects the pawn at e5 by the tactics of Bxa2+) Nxe5 17. Bf4

White now relied on this pin to regain some material. I had seen a refutation, and played it - completely overlooking that black can simply score a free bishop with Rxf4. Oh well. In my line black ends up a full rook ahead, which should be sufficient.

17. ... Qd5 18. Bxe5 Qxa2+ 19. Kc1 Qa1+ 20. Kd2 Qxb2 21. f4 Qb4+ 22. Kd1 Qc3 23. Ne4 Qa1+ 24. Kd2 Qa5+ 25. Kc1 Bd5 26. Rd1 BBxe4 27. dxe4 Rxe5 28. Qc4+ Kh8 29. Qxd4 Rb5 30. g3 Qb4 31. Qd3 Re8 32. e5 Qb2+ 33. Kd2 Qb4+ 34. Ke3 g5 35.Rf3

 

 

This is mate in 10 starting with Qe1+, which I did not see. The position is of course completely won for black, but I was down to 50 seconds while white still had over 4 minutes. Even with increment, that made me nervous. Anyway, play continued.

35. ... Qc5+ 36. Kd2 Qd5 37. Ke3 Qxd3+ 38. cxd3 Rb2 39. h3 Rd8 40. Ke4 Rb3 41. f5 a5 42. f6 Rb4+ 43. Kf5 Rf8 44. Kxg5 a4 45. Kf5 a3 46. Ke6 Rb6+ 47. Ke7 Ra8 48. f7 a2 49. f8=Q+ Rxf8 50. Rxf8+ Kg7 51. Rf7+ Kg6 52. Rf6+ 

Stuff had happened. I managed to get the queens off the board, had to sac one of my rooks to eliminate white's new queen, but a new black queen is ready to materialize at a1. The Stockfish programme in the post mortem rather annoyingly points out that this position is mate in 14, which of course I did not see.

 

52. ... Rxf6 53. exf6 a1=Q 54. f7 Qe5+ 55. Kf8 (now it's mate in 3 starting with Qe6, and that I should have seen....) b5 56. g4 b4 57. h4 h5 58. gxh5+ Kxh5 59. Kg8 Qe6 60. Kg7 b3 61. f8=Q+ Qg6+ 62. Kh8 Qh6+ 63. Kg8 Qxf8+ 64. Kxf8 b2 65. Ke7 b1=Q (the sixth queen in the game) 66. Kd7 Qxd3+ 67. Kxc7 Kxh4 and white resigned.

My rating went up from 1988 to 2039 (still provisional).

 

Full game.

A rare mate indeed

Let's kick off 2022 with a casual anonymous blitz game (5+3) I won. I was black, my opponent fooled around in the opening (1. h3, 2. a3), but then won a pawn, only to let me trap and win a knight, and then allowed a rare type of mate I had never had on the board:

 

23. ... Qd6+ 24. f4 (only move) exf3 # en passant checkmate.
 

Full game.