My New Best Game!

As part of Chess.com's "My Best Game" series, I previously shared my win against IM Daniel Fernandez from back in 2005. Since I've played it, that game has always been my go to answer to the "What is your best game?" question every chess player may get from time to time. It's quite a nice game featuring a double bishop sacrifice, a persistent heavy piece attack, and it was my first win again an IM. I've also had some recent games I'm very proud of, including my first win against a grandmaster. Those games aside, I think this game I won last week is now my best game. Game Review gave the game a 99.2 accuracy and five brilliant moves! That's a bit generous (partly because the rook on g7 was a "brilliant" sacrifice for multiple moves), but it is truly quite an accurate move, and I think it really does have several nice and accurately calculated sacrifices.

This game was played in the US States Chess League, a daily chess league for state federations. I was representing South Carolina against New Mexico, and I played "javablanca" - a player with a USChess rating of 1950 - an "A" player. I shared the game on social media and saw many interesting comments from strong players about how dangerous was the opening variation for Black. In Daily Chess games, one has access to the Chess.com Explorer, and I suspect my opponent (like me) was following the explorer for some time. Unfortunately, he did not find the right time to play on his own as the variation he pursued allowed me really nice attacking chances.

I think the attacking themes here are very instructive, and the finale and queen sacrifice is unique and aesthetic. This is the kind of game that would not be out of place in a game collection from Morphy (except for the theoretical Sicilian), Alekhine, or Fischer. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I did!