Big Dog 2 --- landontu vs captaintugwash

There wasn't even a trade yet!

holy crap 

well played landontu

THIS IS NOT CHECKMATE

BUT SINCE TUG SAID IT IS, HE LOST

it's not because

wait, it is

lol i thought tug could just capture the witch, but he would still be in check

last time, everyone except for holo missed that its not a mate in my game

Wow. I didn't actually see the checkmate when I glanced on the position after Wd4.

But yes, it does resemble my win against evert a bit.

Nope, this wasn't a dream.

Obviously I was expecting Wb5 to save the queen, and from there I pick up the witch and proceed in very good shape. I'm completely oblivious to the smothered mate threat, and it's a very nice opening trap.  I was only looking at what I could do. I did take a look at Bxd7+ to make sure there weren't any problems, but there was nothing there worth giving up the bishop for and I thought I had won the opening exchanges and this would be a relatively simple win for me.

How wrong I was.

Very impressive opening.

I guess my best move is 6... We6, but that's potentially witches and bishops traded off and not an advantage for me by any means. I could play Bxd3 but I'm basically trading off witches while giving up a bishop for knight, probably giving landontu an edge.

5... Qg8 is probably good enough for me to maintain an edge. My king now has room and the checkmate threat is gone, while landontu's witch, queen and king all occupy the same diagonal as my bishop, hardly comfortable for him. I would be happy with that position, assuming I haven't missed something.

Actually he has the same threat, but instead he grabs the queen.

I don't think I can say I had an advantage here, it seems he can refute.

Obviously I can trade the bishop for witch early on, and maybe I can plan to blockade the position while keeping the heavy hitters on the board. But it's really hard to say if the witch is worth a bishop, which is why I wanted to pile up the pressure on the witch instead of simply grabbing it.

I'm not the most concrete analyser, especially in the opening.

But yes, missing a mate in one is still shocking. I guess it's easy to overlook the power of a pinned piece. I was under the impression his witch was crippled, but of course it was doing a very good job despite the pressure it was under.

I mean honestly, I find it incredible to think that his position is sound, with the witch pinned to both the queen and king.  But I can't seem to find a way to take advantage. I'm crippled by my own positional flaws, more so than he is. 

When I saw Qe2, I thought it was crazy. But it attacks my bishop, and I don't have a good way to defend it and then fend off the knight attack on the witch. So it does indeed appear sound.

I'm stunned, to be honest. This is a really sharp opening trap.

Ouch!

Out of all threads, why would you bump this one

Nobody is unbeatable. Don't forget I dumped my queen in one game (and recovered to win), and got soundly beat my Martin, twice.

Yeah I'm following