Fear the Bishops

Here is a game that ended in a checkmate I never thought I'd pull off in a million years.  I was impressed with myself that I managed to think up this sequence and I was also amazed that my predictions on my opponent's moves near the end of the game were mostly correct.  This checkmate was achieved with the two bishops and a pawn.

I know my opponent made some bad moves, but I'm sure I made some mistakes too.  It's like that one guy said, "The winner of a chess game is the one who makes the second to the last blunder."  I'm 100% sure that I made at least three mistakes here.  Please take a look and tell me where I messed up.

Now, most of these moves are going to seem like huge mistakes, but I was trying to open up files for my rooks and elimintate his defenders in the process.  It wasn't until deep into my strategy that I saw this possible sequence with the bishops, and my exchange strategy for clearing out pieces for the rooks worked out pretty well for the bishops too.  All of the squares I needed them on were either completely open or poorly defended.

I also admit that I was fortunate that I was able to slip my e pawn past the others.  If it had been taken, this checkmate wouldn't have been possible.  So yes, there are a few places where I got lucky and slipped past my opponent's defenses.

I'm fairly new to chess as well, so this is a game that I thought was well beyond my level of play.  I was truly amazed at myself.

The funny thing is, I planned to use rooks for the endgame pieces and they ended up being distractions for the bishops!

I played as black.  Enjoy!

Bd5 is a mistake because of Bxd5 Nxd5 and Qxd5

a6 is a mistake because of Nxc4 and the best move was most likely b4 after Nxc4

Ne4 isn't the best move Bxc4 is before Nxc4 and bxc4

Why Bh6?

e5 is terrible your opponent can do dxe5

jerry2468, I said I was lucky that my opponent didn't take the e pawn and I managed to slip it up there.

why Ke7 and Raf8?

jerry, can't you put all that in 1 post?

Rg7 would have stopped the mate and is better than Rg8

I was planning on pinning his bishop to his king because I knew that he could have brought him out and ruined the whole thing for my bishop plan.  He only had one rook over there, so if nothing else, I could have burned him out.

yes but i'm going through the game and posting together

I'm a little surprised he didn't see the mate coming with the pawn though.  Bad placement with his rook.

the pin means nothing if you don't have more pressure

I said up there I'm sure I blundered like he did.  The first half of the game as you saw was me trying to pin down his queen.  I finally got him to go for a queen trade.  Then, I knew I would have an easier time because his only pieces left are his dark bishop and his two rooks, and one of them is holed up in his corner.

Bd2 before fxg6 stops all the pressure on his king

wow the first 12 posts are almost all mine

does this answer where you slipped?

well?

And to answer your question about Bh6, jerry 2648, f4 wasn't a better choice for two reasons.

1.  My bishop could have still been threatened by his.

2. My bishop would have blocked my rook.