Monday, December 24, 2012

Mate in Fourteen Moves

In a game of speed chess, I mated my opponent in fourteen moves.  My opponent was Robski424 of the USA.  In this game I played black.  Here are the moves of the game along with my commentary:

1. e4 c5
2. f4 d5
3. e5 f6

If black plays exf, I can reply with Nxf6.

4. Bd3 fxe
5. fxe Nc6
6. Nf3 Bg4
7. h3 Bh5

I decide to maintain the pin on the knight.

8. g4 Bg6

White breaks the pin but seriously weakens his kingside.

9. Bxg6+ hxg6

My rook now targets the pawn on h3.

10. 0-0 Qd7

White decides to castle, but his king is very exposed.  In this position, kingside castling is risky.

11. Ng5 0-0-0

The white knight can fork my rooks on the next move, but I decide that white's weakened kingside offers good compensation.

12. e6 Qc7
13. Nf7 Qg3+

White decides to gain material, but he needs to protect his king.

14. Kh1 Rxh3#

White's move is forced.  I mate with my rook.

My opponent decides to play aggressively by breaking the pin on his knight by my bishop and later forking my rooks with his knight.  The problem, though, is that his king is too exposed on g1.  His decision to castle queenside proves to be a serious blunder.

No comments:

Featured Post

Finding the Proto-Form

Related languages have a number of words which are similar to one another. In the branch of linguistics known as historical linguistics, the...