On a side note, the following position from the above game appeared earlier on move 15, I will leave it to the readers to guess White's 16th move in the actual game; it may or may not be the best possible legal move available. Please do not post your guesses here, I intend to keep it a secret for other readers! EDIT: I gave up on keeping it a secret as I have posted my game below.
I got it right in the third attempt. I fumbled twice at the pentulimate move. This was one heck of a puzzle.
When I played Rh4 I thought white's queen was lost (Qg3, Rg4). But my opponent was of a different level and proceeded to crush me with ease.
Curious. What were the time controls for this game?
P.S. I solved it, and it's a very enjoyable puzzle.
The time controls were 10 minutes per side with no increment. Here is the link to the game https://www.chess.com/live/game/2074751471 which also details how long each side took to make moves.
The actual game went like this:
@SeniorPatzer
Congratulations on solving it correctly! It shows the high level of tactical vision that you possess. In the actual game I only found my individual saving moves on a move by move basis. I did not anticipate the move Rh4 from my expert-level opponent (his playing strength is much more superior to mine), which had almost led to my resignation of the game. I discarded the only saving move initially as I thought it would not work, only to realise the idea behind this saving move just seconds before I decided to resign.
As you can see, because I played it move by move, I am playing at a relatively beginner level as I failed to anticipate and calculate the whole series of moves before committing myself to capturing the hanging knight. It was simply fortunate to me, and unfortunate to my opponent, that I had defences to my seemingly undefendable positions. Had I been the player playing Black here, I would not even be able to conjure the difficult move Rh4. Rather than slowly succumbing to a loss by defending all the way to the end (which is no different in score, 1-0 from simply resigning), my opponent was very brilliant to come up with this Rh4 resource to try and fight for a win despite having a deficit in piece count. I was very impressed with this fighting spirit from my opponent (and that is why he is much stronger than me). After this unfortunate incident, in the days following up to today, my opponent has won me in almost every game that we faced.
Had I anticipated the Rh4 move from my opponent, I would have not gone for the free knight and played simpler moves which is still winning for White. There is that big risk associated with capturing the knight (the higher the returns, the higher the risk similar in idea to purchasing market stocks). However, the chess program Stockfish rates the immediate capture as the best available legal move for White.
@Mrmath
That is correct, but unfortunately I missed it in the actual game while being stuck with stopping the passed a-pawn (sometimes my play do not reflect well on my rating). I was bent on stopping that passed pawn (by first forcing trade of queens) and the mate in one escaped my mind for some reason. Sometimes players do miss obvious things like this in a game.
I am honoured to play with fellow Chess.com player Franklin21 who has impressed me with his near-flawless counterplay skills to nearly swindle a win out of a losing game. Being a piece down, Black seeks active counterplay and White's king was facing execution by the enemy pieces. Fortunately, White had a saving resource, so that White's king was glad to escape with no more than 'minor scratches'.
At the start of the following position, White did not calculate fully the possible series of moves to a reasonable depth and nearly surrendered the game to his opponent. Consider the following position very carefully and determine what White actually played, and predict what happened subsequently that almost cost White the game. Notice how Black played actively to nearly obtain a win. EDIT: The in-puzzle comments that I have included have somehow vanished into thin air, so the reader must figure out by himself/herself why Black played those moves in the actual game; I do not wish to spoil the fun for other readers!
White went on to win the game. However, as he did not anticipate the strong counterplay from Black, White was very thankful to have saved his king from an immediate execution.