White, 872 vs. Raymond Lebeau, Unrated

This was my sixth game in the 2023 US Open and my second win. It was also my first game to cross the 40-move threshold, adding 30 minutes to both our clocks, although time was never a significant factor in this game.

Hot on the heels of my worst game of the tournament, this one was my best: Lichess gives me 94% accuracy, with no mistakes and no blunders. Meanwhile, my opponent played with 87% accuracy and only one blunder, but that blunder made all the difference.

Despite no mistakes per the engine, I did experience a couple of “oh shit” moments. The first came after 18. Rd1: focused on a potential rook trade, I failed to consider the response …f6 (forking my rook and bishop) until after I had made my move—and then, of course, he played it just after it occurred to me. Regardless, I managed to trade off a pair of rooks anyways and escape with my bishop intact. After that, my opponent offered a draw; per Lichess, the position was approximately even at the time, but I felt I had an edge, and in any case there was enough material still on the board that I felt a draw would be premature.

Black’s one blunder, 22. …Be4, came just two moves later and allowed me to win his knight for free. 23. …Bc6—attempting to fork my knight and rook in reprisal—was in my opinion ill-considered, though the engine doesn’t even consider it to be inaccurate. The rook could easily move elsewhere, and the knight was defended by a pawn; trading Black’s bishop for the knight gave up an active piece for one on the sidelines, and also permitted me to un-double my queenside pawns.

My second “oh shit” moment came after 30. Bd4. “Oh, clever me,” I thought to myself, “the bishop and pawn he threatened defend each other now, plus his rook is temporarily cut off from the other side of the board.”

Well.

The in-hindsight-obvious 30. …Rd2 threatened to allow his b-pawn to promote, with my pieces in no good position to do anything about it. After flailing for a few moves, I was able to distract his rook and eliminate the pawn by threatening a promotion of my own.

The remainder of the game was fairly straightforward.In the excitement of the moment, I neglected to record Black’s 38^th move. I know it must have been either …Kd7 or …Ke7, as his next move was …Kd6. I guessed …Kd7 for the PGN and embedded board below, since that avoids exposing his king to any potential attack from my bishop. Either way, it doesn’t really affect the rest of the game.