Game 16477984, me White (1200 provisional) vs Hanzii (1393). Correspondence. Key lines engine-checked (Stockfish 18).
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nb3 a6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Bxf6 Bxf6
The ...e5 push on move 5 leaves d6 backward forever. I took the bishop trade because his f6 knight was the only piece covering the d5 outpost and pressing e4.
9. Qd3! O-O 10. O-O-O!?
Qd3 is the engine's top move: the queen stares down the open d-file at the backward pawn. Castling long puts the rook behind her.
10... Bg5+ 11. Kb1 f5
His bishop goes hunting and ends up stranded on g5. The f5 break is the thematic try, but it opens his own king.
12. exf5 Rxf5 13. Nc5! Rxf2?! 14. Ne4! Rf5 15. Nxd6
His rook spends three moves (f8-f5-f2-f5) to win a pawn it can't keep, and my knight lands on d6. He never could take it: first my queen on d3, then my rook on d1, stood behind it. Every piece I hung had a defender behind it.
16. Qb3 Kh8 17. Nf7+!
The fork that decides it. The knight hits h8 and d8 at once. His queen sat on d8 the whole game and can't take f7. 17...Kg8 loses the queen to 18.Nxd8. The only move is:
17... Rxf7 18. Rxd8! Bxd8 19. Qxf7
Deflection. His rook left f8, so my rook takes the queen with tempo on his bishop.
19... Nd7 20. Qe8+ Nf8 21. Qxf8#
The detail I like most: f8 would have been defended by his a8 rook, but the line is blocked by his c8 bishop, which never moved a single time in 21 moves. The whole army watched the queen walk in.
Lessons I'm taking: a backward pawn is a permanent target; a rook that goes pawn-hunting usually pays more than the pawn was worth; and a knight on f7 against a castled king is never just a fork.
I review correspondence games like this one on request: engine-checked, plain English, no jargon. Message me here or email alex-126@ilands.app.
Game 3, annotated: don't hand me free moves.
Game 2 (above) was a queenside dissection. This one ended in resignation on move 20. Full PGN first, notes under it.
1. e4 c5 2. h3 g6 3. a3 Bg7 4. Bc4 d6 5. Nge2 Nf6 6. Nc3 O-O 7. Nd5 Nxe4 8. d3 Nf6 9. Nxf6+ Bxf6 10. Nf4 e6 11. Ba2 Nc6 12. O-O b6 13. Bd2 Bxb2 14. Rb1 Bg7 15. Bc4 d5 16. Ba2 Bb7 17. g4 c4 18. dxc4 dxc4 19. Bxc4 Nd4 20. Be3 Nf3+ 0-1
Notes:
- 2.h3 and 3.a3 are two waiting moves. Friendly advice: waiting moves let me set up my Dragon for free. By move 7, White's d5 knight is the only piece he has that's really doing anything.
- 7...Nxe4 grabs the loose e4 pawn. After 8.d3 Nf6 9.Nxf6+ Bxf6 I'm a clean pawn up with the bishop pair, about +1.3 by engine count.
- 12...b6 and 13...Bxb2 win the second pawn. 14.Rb1 is the best try; Bg7/Be5/Bd4 all hold around +3 for Black, so I put the bishop back and kept it simple.
- 17...c4 is the fixer: one pawn break and his bishop gets dragged to c4, where nothing lives but trouble.
- 20...Nf3+ and he resigned. Knight next to his king, bishop pair raking, pawn up, zero counterplay. About -6 for White on the engine's count.
Same offer as last time: I annotate games in this style (yours or mine), engine-checked, plain language, small fee. Mail me: alex-126@ilands.app
Game 5 is live right now, and it's uglier for the other guy: I'm up a full queen and his king is stuck on d8. Writeup when it ends.
AlexAtTheTable@AlexAtTheTable
@AlexAtTheTable
Hi Alex,
Just giving the bare score you are trusting that the reader can follow
the game in their head. Some can but most here I guess cannot.
Luckily Red Hot Pawn does have a PGN game display.
Do a 'Quote' and look at my post to see how it is done. It is pretty easy
and you put the notes inside {}
StockCom - AlexAtTheTable RHP 2026
- Joined
- 10 Jan 08
- Moves
- 24309
@greenpawn34 saidDid It for free and a better job 😄
@AlexAtTheTable
Hi Alex,
Just giving the bare score you are trusting that the reader can follow
the game in their head. Some can but most here I guess cannot.
Luckily Red Hot Pawn does have a PGN game display.
Do a 'Quote' and look at my post to see how it is done. It is pretty easy
and you put the notes inside {}
StockCom - AlexAtTheTable RHP 2026
...[text shortened]... 20. Be3 Nf3+ {White resigned. A possible finish is.} 21. Kg2 Nd2+ {Followed by 22....Nxc4.} [/pgn]