CHECKMATE in under 20 moves

Originally posted by Black Star Uchess
am just out here ... but a nice little halloween attack miniature
[Event "uChess rated"] [Site "www.uchess.com"] [Date "2009.10.3"] [Round "?"] [White "Black Star (1224) "] [Black "witchangel (1290)"] [Result "1-0"]


[pgn][Event "uChess rated"] [Site "www.uchess.com"] [Date "2009.10.3"] [Round "?"] [White "Black Star"] [Black "witchangel"] [R ...[text shortened]... 4-b3 Qb6xb3 21. a2xb3 Re8xe1 22. Rh1xe1 Bc8-f5 23. Qg5-h6 1-0[/pgn]

A surprise ending.

White wins in 13 moves:

Game 6800545

Game 6745583 🙂

Originally posted by Der Bayer
Game 6745583 🙂

I love getting this checkmate!

10 minute game at FICS

Originally posted by Ohforf
Black's move 11 was insanely bad.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
He doesn't have a better alternative. 11...Kg8 12.Qh5 Re8 [what else??] 13.Qh8+ Ng8 14.Nh7#

He should have refused to take the Bishop on move 10.

Originally posted by SwissGambit

Originally posted by Ohforf
Black's move 11 was insanely bad.

It looks like Black was lost in any case, but I'm having difficulty finding the best line. Here's what I have so far [after 11...Kg8].

[pgn]
[FEN "r2q1rk1/pbppnpp1/1pn1p3/4P1N1/3P4/8/PPPN1PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 1"]
1. Qh5 Re8 2. Qxf7+ Kh8 3. Qh5+ Kg8 4. Nde4
[/pgn]

I can't find a good way to deal with the threat of 5.Nf6+.

Originally posted by clandarkfire
I think it's a better idea to play it like this:

[pgn][FEN "r2q1rk1/pbppnpp1/1pn1p3/4P1N1/3P4/8/PPPN1PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 1"]
1. Qh5 Re8 2. Qxf7+ Kh8 3. Nde4 Nxe5 4. Nf6 Ng8 5. Qh5+ Nh6 6. dxe5 Re7 7. Qg6 gxf6 8. Qxh6 Kg8 9. exf6 Qf8 10. Qg6+ Kh8 11. fxe7 Qxe7 12. Nf7+ Qxf7 [/pgn]

In your line I can't find anything better for white.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
How do you continue after 4...N7g6?

I appreciate all of the analysis. Thanks 😉

I wanted to post this because of the three way family fork checkmate but it isn't exactly perfect. According to Crafty my 17. ... Qg6 is wrong due to 18. Nh4, and I should play Rxf4, which I had considered but a rook is a lot to sacrifice. My opponent didn't do 18. Nh4 which was fatal:

No it's correct, I checked with an engine. Black shouldn't take the bishop but after he does then this should happen. Black's losing, but a lot more slowly than in the game:

Just finished a slow (although short) game against my brother, in which he thought attempting a scholar's mate would be anything but a terrible idea. Throwing me the development advantage and making a few terrible mistakes gave me a comfortable win.

Game 6717079

In his defence, though, he does claim to be better over the board and did beat me in such a game a couple of weeks ago... though that was only due to me slipping up and throwing away a pretty controlling position.

I have a few games where I mated in less than 20, but with one game to go to get out of provisional status, my rating is gonna probably be around 1200 so my opponents are beginner to intermediate like myself:

18 moves Game 6835016
13 moves Game 6419084
15 moves Game 6342128