Always look at the check first. Sometimes forcing moves win by force! Bg4 was a very nice move by black after you missed your chance.
Missed win - mate in 4
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I think I found the pattern to mate here: 1. Qh5+(check) Kg8(forced move) 2. Qxe8(Capture the rook) Kh7(Again a forced move) 3. Qh5+(Same check as the fist time) Kg8(Same forced move as the first time) 4. Either Rf8# or Rd8# both ways you achieve checkmate. I would understand that you might not have seen this in a bullet or blitz game, but if you were playing a 10 min or higher game, you should evaluate each position, I just started playing chess again around a month ago, and when I started I continuously lost games, but as soon as I started carefully evaluating every position for checks, forks, hanging pieces, mates etc. I almost doubled my Elo, I was about 400 before, Now I’m rated almost 800, so just evaluate positions in games as if they were on a board you’ve never seen before, and though you should have a plan you shouldn’t always be committed to it. As long as you react to every position, you’ll gain elo extremely fast and improve as a player. Good luck in future games!
The idea is to capture the rook with a check... How do you do that? You force your opponent's king to the back row with Qh5+ and after Kg8 (forced) you continue your plan Qxe8+ but why did we capture the rook with check?? We did not do it for material otherwise we would have simply chomped it two moves earlier, IT'S TO CLEAR THE BACKROW!! Kh7 (forced) Qh5+, you may say "what? are we repeating moves??" NO! the difference is that the rook is no longer defending the back row because you captured it and now your rook comes! Rd8# and # notates mate, the final blow the game is over... GG!
Hope my Gothamchess like commentary helped you
Playing tactics helps. Even if you don't understand. Play through the solution. Use an engine to help you understand the right moves.
This is a fairly common pattern. Like it was mentioned above, if in doubt, go for a check, especially if it forces a king move. Checks that allow the opponent to bring in a defender to block aren't necessarily ideal. Checks that force the king to move are generally good candidates.
Feb 27, 2021
0
#7
This is a very reasonable but instructive mistake. His bishop g4 move after ur blunder was amazing haha.
Yeah as strange said, if u keep the rule of always looking at checks in ur mind, u might find urself doing more of these 4 move checkmates than u think, provided u have the time to calculate. if its in shorter time controls don't kick urself over missing it too much.
I was White, my next move lost me the game. After-game analysis says this position is a mate in 4. It was very confusing, I had to go over it several times before I got it. Too tough for a 900.