The Queen and the Rook

Hey guys, here is another game I've played.

My favorite pieces are the rooks.  The queen's okay, but she's not everything.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I don't use her.  I've been learning to play without her though.

This is game ended in a rook and queen checkmate.

I played as white and I won.  Have a look and tell me what you think.

You played well.

Thanks.

Very nice win.

A few thoughts

Some good things:

You saw the pawn fork on move 7

You saw that your opponent trapped his own bishop on move 18

You grabbed the center in the opening

Some mistakes to consider:

Move 13 Bh7+ gives away a piece for free since the square was protected twice by his knight and king.  Just because you have a check doesn't mean you should use it.

3 a4

I don't see the point of move 3, I'd just pull out a piece instead.  

In response to the bishop and knight trade starting at move 13 Bh7+, I did that to strip his defenders away.  His options for defense were limited and I had reserves to follow up with a second, stronger attack.  So in a way, that bishop wasn't free.  It cost him his first defensive line.  If he had played Kh8 in response to Bh7+, then that would have made some problems and could well have prolonged the game.

I really think his 18th move g5 is what cost him.  If he had moved the bishop back up to where he had it when he first attacked my queen, then I would have had to think of something else.  Instead, he blocked the check with the g pawn and it cost him his bishop.

One more thing, I don't see why he didn't develop his queen.  If he had brought his queen out then that would have caused serious complications for my attack plan and it could have foiled it altogether.

So, I really think I won this game because of a couple of major blunders on my opponent's part.  He still did a great job and I realize that it takes skill to notice mistakes when they are made, but still, my subsequent attack definitely wasn't foolproof.