GM Ben Finegold said...

...I won because I'm patient.
And I want to post this game of mine just to warn you against playing in a hurry. My opponent was rated 140 points higher, he had a better position, and his win was undoubted.
But he got no patience, and blundered a rook on move 12.
Then he continued with a fierce attack, something I could never do on my own, and I had to recall all my (very little) chess player ability to defend and, finally, win.
Enjoy.



P.S.: I don't want to play jokes on my opponent: I consider the way he attacked me after his blunder the best thing of the match

What's the thought behind 31. Rd1 ? The knight is protected. He has 0 threats. Ra3 eliminates all threats and the game didnt have to last as long as it did.

I think what happened is with Qa2, your opponent hoped that you would miss the weakness at f7 because of the free rook but it might've slipped in his calculations that its free rook + check. None of this gambitry makes sense in classical time controls though.

You could've finished things off more quickly with 28.Qc6+ :)

I don't exactly see the fierce attack. Looking at analysis, he never had a significantly better position. However, kudos to you for winning against a higher rated player!

Well, missing 28. Qc6+ and playing 31.Rd1 isn't that good I know...I saw 28. Qc6+ half a second after I moved 28. Qa5+ and 31. Rd1 is just...fright.
My thought: I want to get rid of the a pawn, but I'm not willing to move the rook from the rank where it protect my king from annoying black queen checks. So I'm gonna take with the queen but...ehm, the Knight needs to be defended. Poor thought, perhaps, but yet sensed, at least for me.
@ArnoldTheChicken : I saw the analysis, and stockfish too sees no fierce attack.
Unfortunately, I'm no stockfish... ;)
I'm a rook ahead against a player quite better rated than me. I can smell victory, but I know I must play at my best to achieve it, because my opponent is good and won't forgive any mistakes / blunder. So, any piece pointing at my king or infiltrating my queenside looks worrying...

That makes sense. But, I get what you mean. No one can really diagnose a position and say, "Hey. White's winning with +0.6." I can see that positionally it would be scary. Heck, it even scared me too the first time I saw it. I'd never want an opponents major piece on my second rank while playing white. It's good that you're careful, even though you have a huge material advantage. In my first year of chess, I nabbed my opponent's queen, leaving them with a rook. They were older and more experienced. I was younger and greedy. I ended up losing! :D. Always be careful!

Qxh8+?

I hate when that happens.

Well why don't you just mention @ccscatl

I don't see the fierce attack either... he used his bishop and queen to attack your rook, nothing else...

also this should be in game analysis not general chess discussion...