White, 872 vs. Joseph Ross, 1433
This was my eighth game in the 2023 US Open, and my third and final win. I played just slightly less accurately than round 6 (my second win), but this one felt more momentous for two reasons: first, because I had set a goal for myself to achieve three wins during this tournament, and this game fulfilled that; and second, because my opponent was rated much higher than me, whereas my other two wins were against unrated players.
Per Lichess, the only blunder of the game was my opponent’s 40. …Ke7, which allowed me to capture the only pawn of his that had any real chance at promotion and, subsequently, to advance my own pawn with little chance of him being able to stop it. However, in my opinion, the fundamental mistake of this game was allowing the pawn structure to become so totally closed after trading both his knights for both my bishops. My knights, while constrained, could still maneuver; his light-square bishop was fully trapped behind his own pawns, and his dark-square bishop was similarly idle except for the (honestly, kind of cool) queen-trade sequence:
- …Qf7
- Nxf6+
With the knight forking Black’s king and rook, and the g-pawn pinned by White’s queen, Black’s best option was
- …Qxf6
…even though I could take the queen with
- exf6
…because moving that pawn unleashed Black’s dark-square bishop on my own queen, ultimately resulting in a materially-equal exchange.
- …Bxg3
- fxg3