CHESS: An Unlikely Win

Visiting chess.com for the first time and registering, I was tinkering around the site when I accidentally found myself in a 5 minute game against a human. I thought I was playing against a chess engine. I wasn't familiar with the interface and so I was only aware of my opponent's remaining time, which I thought was referring to me. It was only as a time flashed in red at the bottom of my screen that I realised I had only seconds remaining. Luckily and remarkably I managed a checkmate. My opponent still had over two minutes remaining on the clock. It's not a great game and the checkmate could have been easily averted had my opponent blocked with the Knight and not the Bishop. Nonetheless, it boosted my meagre confidence as my rating soared from the default starting value of 1200 to 1362! I'm inclined to take on some more human opponents and see if I can further improve my rating.

The chess.com website stores your games and allows for the game to be downloaded as a PGN file. It's remarkable to think how much chess has changed since I played correspondence chess by mail in the late 60's and early 70's. I used to receive a chess magazine in the mail and that was my sole source of information about what was happening in the world of chess. Now there is live streaming of every major tournament and there are hundreds of chess sites to choose from. Here is the game:

hite "michaelgould321"] [Black "voodooguru23"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "1038"] [BlackElo "1362"] [TimeControl "300"] [EndTime "4:26:10 PST"] [Termination "voodooguru23 won by checkmate"] [CurrentPosition "r4r2/pp3ppk/2p3b1/n3p3/4P2P/q2P4/2PNQP2/1BKR3R w - - 0 22"] 1.e4 {[%clk 0:04:58]} e5 {[%clk 0:04:57]} 2.Nf3 {[%clk 0:04:56]} Nc6 {[%clk 0:04:54]} 3.Bc4 {[%clk 0:04:49]} d6 {[%clk 0:04:45]} 4.d3 {[%clk 0:04:39]} Nf6 {[%clk 0:04:37]} 5.a3 {[%clk 0:04:38]} Be7 {[%clk 0:04:31]} 6.Be3 {[%clk 0:04:36]} O-O {[%clk 0:04:28]} 7.Nbd2 {[%clk 0:04:33]} Bg4 {[%clk 0:04:14]} 8.h3 {[%clk 0:04:30]} Bh5 {[%clk 0:04:10]} 9.g4 {[%clk 0:04:25]} Bg6 {[%clk 0:04:07]} 10.Qe2 {[%clk 0:04:22]} h6 {[%clk 0:04:00]} 11.O-O-O {[%clk 0:04:21]} Na5 {[%clk 0:03:34]} 12.Ba2 {[%clk 0:04:14]} c6 {[%clk 0:03:20]} 13.Rhg1 {[%clk 0:04:10]} d5 {[%clk 0:03:00]} 14.g5 {[%clk 0:04:04]} hxg5 {[%clk 0:02:50]} 15.Nxg5 {[%clk 0:04:00]} Nh7 {[%clk 0:02:08]} 16.Nxh7 {[%clk 0:03:50]} Kxh7 {[%clk 0:01:55]} 17.Rh1 {[%clk 0:03:36]} d4 {[%clk 0:01:34]} 18.Bxd4 {[%clk 0:03:16]} Qxd4 {[%clk 0:00:44]} 19.h4 {[%clk 0:03:06]} Bxa3 {[%clk 0:00:13]} 20.bxa3 {[%clk 0:02:56]} Qa1+ {[%clk 0:00:08]} 21.Bb1 {[%clk 0:02:54]} Qxa3# {[%clk 0:00:05]} 0-1