Checkmate Next To Rook and Queen??

Really proud of this game! I've been experimenting with some different openings and trying to make better use of the bishops as I increase in rank (unsuccessfully most of the time 😅). I decided to play fairly normal classic opening and castle king-side early as I was playing white.

The key moment was bishop to H4 on white move 26. I initially did it cos I needed to defend king from the queen after most of my defenses were... well.. shredded. Then I realised I could place him in check.

I feel this is a very interesting close, because no-matter how he defended, he was practically forced into an unconventional (at least for me) checkmate. There was a bishop sneakily hiding in the corner eyeing down a line, the black bishop was now pinning the rook, and a checkmate right in the open field; next to both a queen and a rook 😲.

Even if he moved the queen to block the black-square bishop (either one of the vacant positions,) I could still mate him in the same way. Would've been especially juicy if he moved queen to E7, but alas, I have to make do 😄

Opponent played well. He did have to make me think and I missed taking the knight at one point.

The vast majority of this game, I was patiently waiting for him move his queen, whilst trying to keep the pressure on the diagonal lines.

Game link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/93556784557

when they got too excited and ended up not seeing an obvious checkmate. 🤟🏼👀👌🏼 https://www.chess.com/live/game/93615032185 https://www.chess.com/live/game/93598153753

😄 Yeah, bishop and queen mates can be real sneaky, especially during "mid-game.". I've lost games to that same setup in your first match, but I feel I'm a lot more alert to that sort of thing now (I say -- probably to get checkmated this exact way the next game. Place your bets.)

The bishops have become by far my favourite pieces, but it can be difficult to keep them safe and accessible to the board in the early game.