1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 {Yuck ... The MacCutcheon is mostly fun for black. Let's ham it up a little.} 5.Bd3 {I smell bacon.} h6 {At least he didn't play c5. I feel better now.} 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e5 Qd8 8.Nf3 c5 9.dxc5 {More ham ... Bxc3+ looks great, but maybe I can make something wild out of it.} Nc6 10.O-O Bxc5 {I'd still probably take on c3 and play Qa5.} 11.Ne2 a6 {Way to slow ... White's dream is to make an outpost square on d4. Black should remove any such notions with f6 as soon as possible.} 12.c3 b5 13.Re1 O-O 14.Ned4 {With an ideal tempo on c6!} Bb7 15.Rc1 {Standard tricks here ... Bb1/Qd3/Qh7 mate} Rc8 16.Bb1 Ne7 17.Qd3 Ng6 {White to move and win ... Yep, I missed it.} 18.h4 {? I should have taken on e6. Duh ... Late night chess is for fun only, I guess.} Re8 19.h5 Nf8 {Now, he's snug as a bug in a rug. The whole kingside "attack" must be restarted.} 20.Rcd1 b4 21.Re3 {Forget the structure, move the castle to the kingside! on the double!} bxc3 22.bxc3 Qa5 {If black had a threat, he'd be dangerous.} 23.Nh2 {Rook to the kingside ... on the double!} Bxd4 24.cxd4 Bc6 25.Rg3 {Feel better now} Ba4 {D'oh! I had all my pieces ready for the go, and now he uncoordinates them. Here, I decdied to gamble and just go for it.} 26.Ng4 {Loading Torpedo ...} Bxd1 {This turns out to be a losing blunder! I'm as surprised as you are.} 27.Nxh6+ {Fire} Kh8 28.Nxf7+ {I saw the perpetual and wondered if there was more.} Kg8 29.Nh6+ Kh8 30.Nf7+ Kg8 {At this point, I used 9 of my last 39 seconds and decided to go for it.} 31.h6 {The cute mate Kxf7 32.Rxg7 got my attention. I'm down material and position. I might as well throw time odds into the mix. Can this be won with 30 seconds?} Qe1+ 32.Kh2 g6 {They'll be none of that.} 33.Rxg6+ Nxg6 34.Qxg6+ Kf8 {So where's my mate? Actually, it's 35.Qg7+ Ke7 36.Nd6+ Ke8 37.Nb7 ... missed that last check on b7!} 35.Qf6 {Luckily, this mates too, but it has more variations. ... Just what you'd want with seconds on the clock ...} Bh5 36.h7 {He's dead meat, but there are a lot of spite checks in the position.} Qxb1 {Hurray!} 37.h8=Q# {With 8 seconds to spare!!! After 26. ... Bxd1, I believe white mates by force in all variations! I lucked into another great variation.} 1-0
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 {Yuck ... The MacCutcheon is mostly fun for ...[text shortened]... iations! I lucked into another great variation.} 1-0 [/pgn]
After some horrible play by me, I managed to get this position with white:
This is one time where the best move in the position may actually be resigns.
For some reason, I thought I got two minor pieces for the queen, not realizing that I had already sacked one.
By pure luck (or miracle), I turned it into this:
Black has just played Qf1??, and now white mates by force.
To be fair, both sides were in extreme time trouble.
I didn't even see the mate at first, repeating the position.
For completists, here is the game, but be warned: it is bad!
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 {The beginning of white's downward spiral. hehe} g6 3.h4 {Not particularly good ... A sort of Accelerated Barry Attack ... There white plays Nf3-e5 and Be2 before launching the h pawn.} Bg7 4.e3 d6 5.Be2 Nbd7 6.h5 Nxh5 7.Bxh5 gxh5 8.Qxh5 Nf6 9.Qh2 {I kind of liked this. Black didn't go for e5, and white has an open h file.} Bf5 10.Na3 {10.c3 Bd3 may be annoying} c5 11.Ne2 Qa5+ 12.c3 {Now, he can and maybe should play Bd3 to exploit the really weak white squares. Ne4xc3 ideas also seem to spring to mind for black.} cxd4 13.Nxd4 Bg6 14.O-O e5 15.Nc4 {Going for a sac ... Nb3 would have saved the piece.} Qc5 {was hoping for Qc7 Nb5 which wins} 16.Nxd6+ Qxd6 17.Bxe5 Qe7 {I must now watch out for Ng4} 18.Bd6 Qd7 19.f3 {If I had time for e4, to stop Nd5, I'd be ok with my sacrifice. The way it plays, I seem just a move or two short.} O-O-O 20.Be5 Rhe8 {Ng4 is back, and I blunder.} 21.f4 Ng4 {There goes another pawn, and my only active piece- the bishop on e5} 22.Bxg7 Nxh2 23.Kxh2 {Thought I had two pieces for the queen ... D'oh} Rxe3 24.Bf6 Rg8 25.Rae1 Re4 26.f5 {Qd6+ tricks are in there now too, but it doesn't reall matter at this point. It's all about the swindles.} Rxe1 27.Rxe1 Bxf5 28.Kh1 {to avoid checks} Be6 29.Re5 Qa4 {Maybe Bd5 ... He certainly should not take the pressure off my king. This is the time trouble stage, however.} 30.Rc5+ Kb8 31.Nb5 Qd1+ {Naturally heading for the weak g2 square} 32.Kh2 {I half expected Qh5+ Rxh5} Qf1 {A game losing blunder ... I guess it's never over until it's over.} 33.Be5+ {White has 11 seconds left after this. Black has 21.} Ka8 34.Nc7+ Kb8 {Here, I saw the idea of blocking the rook from the back rank to play Rc8 mate. I then noticed that the bishop also covers c8 and decided to just check.} 35.Na6+ Ka8 36.Nc7+ Kb8 {Here, it occured to me that I could eliminate both back rank defenders, all with checks!} 37.Nxe6+ Ka8 38.Nc7+ Kb8 39.Ne8+ Ka8 40.Rc8# {With 5.9 seconds to spare! ... Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I see these things so fast. I think at some point instinct just kicks in. I kind of felt like my only chance was the e5 bishop bearing down on the king, when I sacked my queen. It's funny that the final blow is a result of that very idea.} 1-0
Here we have it again. I'm down material, I go for at least a perpetual in severe time trouble, and in the end, a nice mate pops up. That's twice in this thread that this has happened!
