White, 479 (Q) vs. Thomas Hales, 1222

This was the fourth and final game of the 2021 Holiday Action. It started off on bad footing when I outright surrendered a knight with 14. Nh4??. However, my opponent soon blundered in kind with 20...Bc7??, losing the bishop to a queen fork against Black's king. I subsequently eliminated Black's queenside pawns and achieved a solid advantage, with a peak evaluation of +11.2.

Alas, with Black putting pressure on my f2 pawn, I lost track of Black's rook and made the colossal mistake of 29. Qb8+??. The idea was to fork the threatening f4 pawn against Black's king, allowing me to eliminate it and save my bishop without leaving f2 under-defended; instead, it gave up my queen without compensation. 29. Qa8+ instead would have safely forked Black's knight, and I probably would have won from there.