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Today I played a really enjoyable game against the London system. In this game, I managed to win with the elusive pawn checkmate!

The London system often results in closed and positional games. Meaning that pawns tend to stay on the board, and there is a lot of positional manoeuvring, with an eye perhaps on longer term strategy. I made a massive blunder on move 11 by playing f6 allowing for a potential mate in 2. Luckily, my opponent didn’t see it either! And perhaps fitting from the perspective of thematic symmetry, my opponent’s loss was from the playing of a3 on move 38, another pawn betraying the defense of their king! I hope you enjoyed the video, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/35768260503

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ben7020"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[WhiteElo "1198"]
[BlackElo "1177"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "15:57:03 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Nh4 Bd7 5. h3 h6 6. Bh2 g5 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. e3 e6 9. c3 Bd6 10. Ne5 Ne4 11. Qf3 f6 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. Qh5+ Kd7 14. g3 Qe8 15. Qe2 f5 16. Rg1 h5 17. f3 Nf6 18. Nd2 g4 19. O-O-O e5 20. Qf2 Qe6 21. h4 a5 22. Bd3 b5 23. Nb1 b4 24. c4 dxc4 25. dxe5 cxd3 26. Rxd3 Qc4+ 27. Kd2 Ne4+ 28. fxe4 Bxe4 29. Qf1 Bxd3 30. Qxd3 Qxd3+ 31. Kxd3 Bxe5 32. Rd1 Rad8 33. Kc4+ Kc6 34. Rc1 Bxb2 35. Rc2 Bc3 36. Kb3 Rhe8 37. Bg1 Kb5 38. a3 a4+ 39. Ka2 b3# 0-1