I looked at the board from here perspective and expected a possible attack on my Key d pawn. A pawn that was very important in my other games played with this opening. This to keep the black e pawns for passing and/or giving cover for major pieces to attack my king side.

I din,t want my postion to change. So a passive move to give the ball to black, this to see if here next move gave me some opportunity to exploit.

In other words, a waiting move.

Why not d4? White is supposing to attack... and the black queen's move, earlier, gives a welcomed protection on the important c5. Note that if the black bishop can reach the king's diagonal, things are tought again for black.

A rethink indeed i wanted to trigger blacks attack on my d pawn or protect here e pawn. I needed blacks pieces to move around.

Indeed the wrong pawn, this opens doors to get the active black queen out of the equasion. The black queen was the driving force behind blacks position.

The queen traded was the downfall of black. the only piece that made the differance is out of the way.. I am free to control blacks moves and come down for the kill.

I think i found a mate in 13 or 14 moves here i add details later

I did consider resigning before I played 27. ... Na4. However, I decided to sleep on things before making a decision to resign the game. I then played 27. .....Na4 because I noticed my knight was en prise. Unfortunately it opened up the b file for Freddy's rook with disastrous effect. Freddy then announced mate in 5 and asked me to play it out. I went along with it because I did not see the mate until Freddy was about to take my rook as the result of a double check. I wanted to resign then as losing the rook without counterplay was ruinous as my opponent was 500 points north of my rating but a promise is a promise. This is the first time I have been checkmated on gameknot and indeed since an OTB game in March 2004. Before the mate I chose the move g6 because I had been longing to play that move for the best part of the game to free Fou Lenoir. What a pity I took the wrong pawn and lost Glenda. In retrospect it was a good thing that I did play it out to mate because at least I had a mating pattern to learn and hopefully that knowledge may come in useful later on and I may inflict a similar fate on someone else. As for the mating motif itself, if your opponent's king is stranded on the edge of the board and short of moves look for a snap mate. If it is your king on the edge do try and get him off it! Anyhow Freddy, well played. Joanne

I really like it wen people play to the last move. (as long as the keep moving and not just stalling) there is much that can be learnt from those final moves.. If you only look at the puzzles a matre in 4 can be very hard to find but they are there. if not seen it can become a draw or a mate in 20