Offhand Brilliancy

The following game was played in Hagerstown (Maryland) City Park, once voted the "second most beautiful city park in America" (I presume Central Park in NYC is first).  I was visiting relatives there, and we decided to go for a walk in the park.  As we were walking back to the car, we happened upon three people playing chess on a park picnic table.  As one of them was watching the other two and not playing, I couldn't resist asking him if he wanted to play.  I assured my relatives it would not take long, since I assumed he would most likely not be nearly as strong a player as I.  (See if you make a guess as to this player's rating.  I never did ask him.) Much to my surprise, he trotted out 10-12 moves of theory.  Perhaps this would take longer than I had anticipated.  Perhaps not.

Luckily, I have a good memory, so as soon as we got home, I was able to write down all of the moves of the game.  I don't remember ever playing a game where I sacrificed a whole queen without having seen the end all the way to mate first.  It was also lucky that my relatives were there to pressure me into looking for such a quick end to the game.  I wonder how many brilliant games I haven't played because I wasn't looking for them?  Perhaps we should all get in the habit of looking a little longer, a little deeper, and being a bit braver, even when the game does count.  Fortune favors the brave, as they say.