Hi,

  In this game (recently complete) my opponent got so far ahead in material about half way through that I was tempted to resign. I managed to equal near the end and then he captured one piece too many and lost!

To be fair I have failed to notice checkmate in 1 before now as have players much better than me - it can be easy to do!

Nice comeback, djcaf!

Yes I have been the victim of this myself. I'll locate one of my games where I have lost to a checkmate in 1 without noticing it at some point.

Thanks. I couldn't believe it when he failed to notice I had mate in 1.

As promised here is a game where I failed to notice a mate in 1 and lost

The one consolation is that the way to get better at chess is practice and lose a lot! Oh and he was a higher rating than me!

Well, by the time you got checkmate, your opponent's position was already pretty much resignable.  Personally, I think you should have captured the bishop on your twelfth move, and accepted the doubled pawns on the kingside.  It keeps material even, and with your center and spacial control, that open king will not be an easy target.  Actually, I think I prefer your position up to this point, but then you give a bishop away for nothing.  Black gave the game back to you on move 17, with Qxa2??.  Simply QxR, BxQ allows your opponent to save the bishop and keep a very large material advantage of two rooks and a minor piece vs. a queen.  Even simpler, 15... O-O-O allows black to consolidate with the material advantage, providing an even safer, and probably more decisive, advantage.