Game of the Month, June 2021 – 2071

With this game Brandon joined the top 1000 classical players on all registered players on lichess.org, with his highest rating thus far on the site,

As well as playing in the high 96th percentile of classical players;

And being another milestone and facing off against an opponent over 2050, Brandon played a quiet, positional game throughout the opening and towards the middle transition. Though white blundered a piece, the final assault of the pagan, when it came, must have put the fear of God into Bran’s opponent.

A strong positional behind shows blacks absolute dominance of defensive entry points and a structure which makes whites pieces stupider and stupid by the move.. Already by here, at move 19. h5 white is just losing a piece and about to suffer for a long time if he needs to untangle.

In such circumstances, white plays correctly; giving up the bishop for two pawns and some counterplay:

Now, what would the pagan do?

You should see it …



And if he takes the rook, he’s getting mated …



Move 24 and the 2040 opponent blunders into a forced mate. Can you find it?





You want to bring another piece in without giving up the coverage of pieces you already have on good squares; so, though. Therefore, rook f8 check, though still winning, loses the forced mate.

In more honorable times, he would have resigned immediately after Rxf2.



Now, I’m pretty sure Helen Keller could find the mate here in the dark …



Only one move and …

Pull the dark squared bishop back now and that’s it,

a demonstrative game where black’s better piece placement allowed for him to sacrifice the rook to destroy white’s king safety and, after a slip, white finds himself mated before move 25 with an entirely undeveloped queen side and no pieces with chances to do any damage to black’s position. Tactics from from a superior position, and here Brandon’s coordination and keen tactical awareness was a clinic on proper development, timely trades, and how no matter how off beat your opening, by following the fundamentals of development and principles of piece coordination one can get into a comfortable position with almost any opening — as long as one knows what the point of the opening is.

And mate # GG wp ttyl thx

For more commentary check back tomorrow, to watch the game live — replayed at actual speed – with running move analysis check out the following video:

Move 24 and the 2040 opponent blunders into a forced mate. Can you find it?

You want to bring another piece in without giving up the coverage of pieces you already have on good squares; so, though. Therefore, rook f8 check, though still winning, loses the forced mate. Only one move and …

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