Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Strong Start, Gimpy Finish

Check out this game, with me playing the black pieces. I started strong and defended the center, but took too long to close out my opponent.

The awesome knight fork (of the white king, queen and rook, plus double check) in Move# 19 should never have happened. I had a check mate there (19. ...Qh5#) and missed it. I then went on to miss 4 - count'em - 4 more chances to checkmate (20. ...Qg4#, 21. ...Ng2#, 22. ...g5# and 23. ...h6#) before finally closing the deal with 26. ...Rxg6#.

Pathetic. Lesson as always: there's always a better move if you're patient enough to search for it.