It's been a long while since I posted one of my chess games on this blog. Years ago I switched from FICS to Lichess, and it took me this long to figure out how to cut and paste the moves from a Lichess game.
And even now it's somewhat difficult, because this cut and paste results in a continuous stream of numbers and letters with no spaces and no periods. Spaces and periods are important sometimes. I had to put them all back in manually.
There may well be a much easier way to do this, and I may eventually find it. People ask about this in the discussions on Lichess, and the answers typically contain 5 words of IT jargon in every 10 words. Eh. Anyway, on to the game. 5-0 blitz, I played White:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Bc5 6. c3 O-O 7. b4 Bb6 8. Bb3 h6 9. h3 d6 10. a4 Be6 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. Qb3 Qe7 13. Nh4 Nxe4 14. Nf5 Qd7 15. Ng3 Nxg3 16. Kh2 Nxf1+ 17. Kg1 Rxf2 18. d4 Nxd4 19. Qc4 Ne2+ 20. Kh1 Nfg3+ 21. Kh2 Rf1 22. Qxe2 Bg1+ 23. Kxg3 Rxc1 24. Qd2 Rf1 25. c4 Rf2 26. Qe1 Qf7 27. Qxg1 Qg6+ 28. Kxf2 Rf8+ 29. Ke2 Qe4+ 30.Qe3 Qxc4+ 31. Qd3 Qxd3+ 32.Kxd3 Rf2 33.Nc3 Rxg2 34. Ne4 Rh2 35.b5 Rxh3+ 36. Ke2 d5 37. Nf2 Rh2 38. Kf3 g5 39.bxa6 bxa6 40. Rb1 Kg7 41.Rb7 Kf6 42. Rxc7 Rh1 43.Nxh1 e4+ 44.Ke3 Ke5 45.Ng3 d4+ 46. Ke2 g4 47. Rc5+Kf4 48. Nh5#
Another come-from-behind win for me, another illustration of why you shouldn't resign unless you and your opponent are both rated much higher than I am. And even if you don't win as I did here, the experience of fighting every move to the end is educational.
And earlier on this bog I said that, unlike fictional depictions of chess in movies and TV, only very low-level players don't see checkmate coming on the very next move. I need to qualify that. This changes, of course, when a player is under time pressure. I don't remember how much time I had left at the end of this game, but my opponent was under 10 seconds and I was moving as fast as I could, and I wasn't sure whether the last move was checkmate.
It has recently become more clear to me how powerful a line of Pawns on the same rank can be. I first noticed this technique about 12 years ago in a chess club, watching a chess Master destroy all comers and frequently lining up two, or three, or four Pawns next to each other on the same rank to extremely good effect.
A mere 12 years or so later, and it occurred to me that I, too, might be able to use this technique. I'm becoming a better chess player. Very, very, very gradually.
Anyway, in this game, I was down severely, but didn't give up, and my opponent may have become overconfident toward the end. This allowed me to trap his King with a Pawn wall on one side and checkmate him with my Knight from the other side.
You can also, either instead or in addition, link to the game, which is publicly viewable on Lichess to guests.
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