16. Qh6+ Ke8 17.Qg7 Rf8 18.Qxh7
I'm curious why you chose not to trade your 2 rooks for black's queen, you still would have been up a pawn.
I like the fact that you chose to play Re1 instead of the more popular d4. 6...f5 is a move I've never seen before in this line. It looks interesting, sort of like a Schliemann Defense.
Bulla,
Thanks for answering my question as to whether or not 15. Qh5 was premature or not. I see now that after the line you suggested, 15. Qh5! was the right move all along :) I think I retreated the Queen after 15. ... g6 because both A. I felt like I wanted my dark Bishop on h6 for some reason, and B. because I didn't see that my light Bishop controlled the a2-g8 diagonal thus preventing 15. ... Kg8 that I didn't want. Now that I see that the line you suggested makes a lot of sense.
When did I miss an opportunity to trade Rook(s) for a Queen?
And as for the opening, yeah, I like 6. Re1 because it always reminds me of the way Fischer played this opening to perfection. 6. ... f5 is a move that is near and dear to the computer's heart. I like how aggressive it is, but it's so sharp because it weakens the Kingside pawns soooo much, and it makes a future Qh5 very powerful.
This is another game with Little ChessPartner taking up the Black pieces in the Spanish Opening Morphy Defense with 4. Nf6, which is the most popular defense to the Ruy Lopez and one of most people's favorite opening. Although, it may have fallen slightly out of vogue with the rise and resurgence of the Sicilian Najdorf.
Black comes out guns blazing and just throwing pieces out there, falling to 8. ... Bb4? 9. c3! and down a piece in what was otherwise an aggressive and pretty good defense. The computer was also able to play 13. ... Kf8! which I thought was a very good move that most human players wouldn't consider. After 13. Re1 I thought Black was out of good moves for the rest of his pieces, and it was very clever of the computer to move the King.
I do question my move 15. Qh5!? as I think, ultimately, my Queen wants to be on this square, however, I question whether the move was somewhat premature. I was up a piece, but because my Queen was ineffectively placed behind pawns in the middle game, Black was slowly regaining some ground. I decided to play 25. Bxf5!? sacrifice a piece for two pawns in order to open up the position and get my Queen back in the game where it belongs: attacking the uncastled King!
In the end, the computer put up a nice defense, with the surprising 32. ... Qf2+ threatening to pin my Queen in order to avoid mate, but fortunately, I saw the mate in 3. What would you play to improve the middle game?