White, 472 vs. Mark Bliss, Unrated

Date:
Event: 2021 West Michigan Championship U1200
Time Control: G/90;d5
Result: 1-0 (win)

The fourth game took place the morning of the second day. From my perspective, the pressure was off (to whatever extent it had ever been on); thus far, I consider it a success if I manage one win per event, and I achieved that with game 2 the previous day.

Even so, I thought it would be nice if I could win at least one of my two games the second day, and luckily this game went rather smoothly for me. After 10...h6? (which, I assume, was intended to prevent Ng5) opened a diagonal into Black's castle which my bishop was already controlling, I started thinking about a queen checkmate on h7, though I didn't particularly believe my opponent would allow it. Then, when 15...Nd5?! forked my other bishop and my c2 pawn—itself an important defender of my b4 and d4 pawns—I saw an opportunity. 16. Qd3 obviously protected the pawn, but left the bishop as a tempting target; fortunately, Black failed to realize that I didn't have to defend the bishop, as taking it would lead immediately to checkmate.

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