---

Sometimes in chess, you get into a situation where you deliver a stunning and beautiful checkmate. This is especially the case when checkmate comes after a smooth dominating game of the Grand Prix Attack, with a deliberate queen sacrifice prior to the fatal blow. Even more beautiful still is when the checkmate comes from a knight and pawn! Amazing!

And so, it’s a special type of ugly when you screw this up. This was the case in this game where I didn’t see the beautiful mate in 1, which would have made me look very clever, until AFTER I made another move. The chess.com Stockfish robot ruthlessly judges us all, but even it seemed disgusted. Usually, it would rate moves like this a “missed win” as although I missed a mate in 1, I was still in a completely winning position. In this case, it called the move a straight up “blunder”! Even worse still, my opponent soon resigned before I could redeem myself.

I won, but it felt unclean and unsatisfying. There was no glory in this victory.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/46490391163

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.16"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "js21i2045"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "1243"]
[BlackElo "1303"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "19:00:27 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 e6 4. Nf3 d6 5. Bb5 a6 6. Bxc6+ bxc6 7. O-O Nf6 8. d3 g6 9. Qe1 Bg7 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Nd5 12. Bg5 Qb6 13. Na4 Qb5 14. b3 Nb4 15. Qd2 Qb7 16. Bf6 Bxf6 17. exf6 Qa7 18. Kh1 Nd5 19. Ne5 Qc7 20. Rae1 Nb6 21. Nxc5 Rf8 22. Rf4 Nd7 23. Nexd7 Bxd7 24. Rd4 Rd8 25. Nxa6 Qb6 26. Qb4 Qxb4 27. Rxb4 Ra8 28. Nc7+ 1-0