Montana Open 2014, Round 5

The tournament thus far had been a case of strikes and gutters for me, with satisfactory results from uninspiring games on the first day followed by a bad result from an interesting, tough fight on the second. The last round would define my tournament.

I was surprised when the pairings were posted. Being that I had lost in the previous round I was expecting a decent, but tractable opponent. Instead I got Mo, a strong player who last year at the same event had taken the field by storm, winning all but his last game and finishing clear second (equal first?).

The opening went very well, and for the first time in the event I managed to get the kind of position I like (relatively open and tactically rich) against a good opponent with the white pieces. There were mistakes big and small on both sides, and my opponent fought hard, generating threats well past the point where I thought the game was decided.

After 45.Qd5+ I had about two minutes on my clock to his seven, and I stopped recording moves (The rest of the game is produced from memory so there might be some slight innacuracies.). Mo reasonably decided to test my blitz technique (gamely giving me every opportunity to stalemate him) and forced the game all the way to checkmate.