White, 872 vs. Richard Bickerstaff, Unrated

This was my third game in the 2023 US Open. My opponent this time was unrated; indeed, this was his first tournament, and he told me afterwards that he had only really started playing chess a month or two prior. I thought he played extremely well, considering—at least by comparison with my own class-F skills—and while I remained confident throughout that I could win, it was by no means easy.

Lichess’ evaluation has my performance pretty consistent with the last two games, at 84% accuracy and with three blunders.

What I consider the first turning point in my favor, Lichess classifies as a mistake, reducing the evaluation from -0.6 to -2.2:

8. Bxf7+ Rxf7
9. Nxf7 Kxf7

From my perspective, the material trade was even (two pieces for a rook and a pawn), and the exchange shattered Black’s castle.

The second turning point encompassed two blunders for my opponent and one for me:

15. Qe3 Nxc2
16. Qxc5 Nxa1
17. Nxd5 Bxd5
18. Bg5 h6
19. Bxf6 gxf6
20. exd5

Seeing the knight about to threaten my a1 rook—but knowing it would become trapped afterwards—I chose to position my queen to take out his undefended bishop on c5 rather than attempt to save the rook. I then proceeded to trade off my own knight and my heretofore useless c1 bishop for his other minor pieces, whose pressure against my castle had been a source of ongoing tension for me. This also shifted the evaluation back in White’s favor, going from -4.2 up to +0.5.

Finally, I managed to fend off his last attack on my castle and push not one, but two pawns to promotion, sacrificing one new queen to eliminate his rook and delivering checkmate with the other (after our original queens were traded off).

It’s possible the endgame could have gone very differently if not for time pressure. While (as I said) I thought my opponent played well, he used a lot of time to think through each move, and I was able to do most of my own thinking on his clock. By the end, he had barely a minute left while I still had more than an hour, and he was forced to move quickly as we were still some ways short of the 40-move threshold that would have unlocked more time.