Lichess Game of the Month May - Contest

There are some pretty cool games here, thanks for the initiative Lichess and thanks for sharing everyone :) My personal favorite is @achja's queen sacrifice in #23

I'd like to share two fun games, not sure if they're worthy but they were pretty fun to play. The following has a pretty crazy and intense position and variations, especially after the rook sacrifice in move 23.

sgtlaugh

#63

Here is one more with my personal favorite opening, The Duras Gambit :)

Some fun statistics regarding it:

1. First move of white is pawn to e4
2. Last move of white is king to e4
3. The only blunder for black is on the first move
4. Ends with a nice rook sacrifice and checkmate in the middle of the board with 3 minor pieces

Metagross31

#64

A game I had with a buddy from my chessclub recently.
The opening was a Wolga gambit by black. He delayed playing d6, so I tried to take advantage of it by playing it myself, trying to establish a thorn pawn or opening up black's position while he is still uncastled.
A few moves later, black gained back the gambit pawn, but at the cost of giving white some active play in the center. White eventually goes for a risky maneuver, sacrificing the h1 pawn in the process to get an attack against the still uncastled black king going. Another misstep by black and suddenly his position is hopeless.
In the final position, white has way to mate in at most 2 moves against each of black's 4 responses. The final white move was crucial to achieve that, as it takes away the f7 square. Nf6+ would have lead to a winning position as well, but wouldn't have been as concise.