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I finally got a Brilliant move in an actual game vs someone with 11. Nxb5!! If you don't take back with axb5, there's Nxc7+ forking the King and Rook but not only that, if they don't play Qxc7 and just move the King to e7 or d7 after getting checked, it's a forced mate (I definitely didn't see that though). All I saw was a big attack and chance for a nice fork. The other point is that after they take with 11. Nxb5!!, axb5, their Knight is trapped in our corner and we can take it back whenever we need to. I chose to wait and play 12. Ne5 threatening Nc6+ which forks the King and Queen. The computer prefers12. Qc1 instead, threatening Qc5+ and forcing their Queen to block or their King into a mate in 4. Luckily for me, my opponent completely missed the King/Queen fork and played 12... Nf6Either way, this was one of my most thought through games and I'm super proud of how far I've come

Starting a mini series called: Patterns you NEED to know and here's the first one.Middle Pawn + King end game!This will work with ANY Pawn on the b, c, d, e, f, and g files Actual Patterns to memorize:Opposition - When their King is on the same file as your Pawn, you must block with your King by putting it in front of theirs.How to make forward progress - After opposition, their King needs to go left or right, that's our cue to go up one square and the in the opposite direction of their King. If they go left, we go up one and right one.Making a Queen - after these two patterns, your King will land on e6 and we can finally start pushing our Pawn up. Once we get behind the King, we can push the King to d7 or f7 which protects the Pawn the rest of the way