WHAT A MEMORABLE CHECKMATE! - Evjenth vs Sabiotecastle92

WHAT A MEMORABLE CHECKMATE! - Evjenth vs Sabiotecastle92

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This is the final position of my game against Evjenth. Can you spot anything remarkable?


If you possess a great attention to detail you will surely have looked at the top-left corner. The white king went out of the castling while, incredibly, the queen and both rooks trapped themselves in there. Such advantages were impossible to waste and I eventually delivered checkmate with Qh5. 

We all know that Daily games allow plenty of time to calculate moves and lines, thus there is little room for surprises. On this one in particular, the feeling of having outplayed my opponent is what makes it absolutely memorable. Now I am so delighted to review it with you here. I hope you enjoy it. 

GETTING THE JOB DONE IN THE OPENING

This was the position after the first 12 moves:


The game started with the Zukertort opening (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3) to which I responded with 2...e6. I castled at move 5, pushed some of white's pieces back and settled my middle pawns quite high in the centre of the board. Practical rather than brilliant, but I was happy with this position overall.

With all my pieces working together, well coordinated, the next part of the plan was trading on f3 (forcing white to double pawns) and playing Rb8. 

A SUDDEN CHANGE OF PLANS

At this stage, Evjenth decided to castle queenside:

I was not expecting that move, but several reviews later I think it was perfectly sensible. Pawn to h3 would not have stopped my plan of forcing double pawns on f3. Another possibility, perhaps, would have been that the knight on that square had retreated back to g1-despite the loss of tempo. 

Nevertheless, I felt there was no point in sticking to my plan because the target was now on the opposite side of the board. Luckily, my queen and the dark-squared bishop were already in a good position to attack the weak b2-pawn. I played 13...Nb4 followed by 14. a3 Na2+ 15. Kb1 Be6. Perfectly calculated, but rather harmless. Maybe Be6 directly was a better choice. 

The game moves on and Evjenth plays the inexplicable move 17.b4. Now I could gain an important advantage through a knight sacrifice, which he declined by the way. It did not matter much, though, because the game was already in my favour.

Note that both of his rooks are cornered and the king is totally out of place:

All I needed was to remain calm and make wise choices. 

CHERRY ON TOP AT MOVE 32

And here we are with the defining moment. After 32...Rfe8, white hid his queen behind the pawns wall. This meant that his most powerful pieces had no chances of re-joining the game, paving the way for a checkmate that arrived three moves later. 

If I had been my opponent, I would have accepted the rook-queen trade and played the rest of the game with the pair of rooks. No player likes to engaged in such business, but sometimes there is no other choice if one wants to maintain some degree of hope in a game like this one.