Annotated chess game

That's not safe. The ending after 42. fxe5 would be a very bizarre one. White should be winning, but with the king in the wide open, Black may be able to get perpetual check.

?? Michael's right, and it's another sequence that you overlooked, Erika. Best was 41...Qb5+, forcing 42.Kd6, and then black could continue because either 42...R8e6# or 42...R4e6# are mate.

(??) Extremely careless, Erika: White has three ways of capturing this rook, two of them win for White, and one (42.Qxe5?) leads to a draw! Instead 41...Qc4ch 42.Kd6 R4e6# OR ...R8e6#. Just as quick would have been 41...Qb5ch 42.Kd6 R(either)e6#.

Having said that, white should've played 42.fxe5, as Michael mentioned, or 42.Nxe5. Both would've won back the R. Yes, you'd still be winning, but it would've been a lot more difficult for white to do. By doing this, you can still finish off white quickly.

If 42. Qxe5? then the zwischenzug 42... Qa8+ before recapturing might win for Black.

(27 Nov 2019) Best was 42.Nxe5, winning easily. Next best was 42.exd5. Third best was a bad move, 42.Qxe5, but after 42...Rxe5 43.Nxe5 it is unlikely that the Queen can do anything more than draw against Rook, knight and three pawns. +++++++ (28 Nov 2019) Response to nuntar: interesting notion! Let's see: 42.Qxe5(?) Qa8ch 43.Kc5 Rxe5 44.Nxe5!! Qxh1 45.h7! Qxh3?? 46.h8=Qch Qxh8 47.Nf7ch ... 48.Nxh8 and White wins! White is probably winning after 44...Qxh1, so Black should probably go after the perpetual check instead.

Good!

(??) No. Much stronger was 43...Rc5ch, with a 'lawn-mower' mate: 44.Kb4 Qb6ch 45.Ka4 Ra5#.

Like before, it's mate in 2. Can you find it?

White ought to have tried his luck with 44.Nd4, after which there is no forced checkmate. Black would still have the better of it, but would just about have to begin all over again.

It would've been with 44...Rb4+, and after 45.Ka5 45...Qb6#

Yep - the 'frog-march' mate - short version.

?? This is another mistake for the same reason. 45...Qb4+ was better, and likewise, white also misses the opportunity to grab the R.

This has to be tunnel vision by both sides. Again, this should win for White.

But, this sealed his fate.

There were so many mistakes in this game between the blunders early on where he also had chances to win material. And, then came the mate where he even had the chance to pull a swindle and not just a draw, but a win, in 2 variations as Michael pointed out. And, on top of it, when missing the mate, you gave the opponent 2 chances to win back a R. Missing the opportunities as white did, allowed you to checkmate. But, both sides need to take longer before making a move. I don't know what's going on but it could even be internal distractions. But, it's just as important to concentrate on the, overall picture, the entire board. And, it's important to think about what's attacked and then in the endgame. As this is a game that could've gone either way, so either one could've won, and with the missed opportunities it was then a question of who would make more blunders which was white in this case. That is something that both sides need to take note of, as this will help you and white improve, Erika.

Some very strange finishing, which rather spoiled what early on was quite an interesting game, with some good moves by both sides. At the end Black had so overwhelming a position that I can understand why it was so hard to latch on to a plan to end the game quickly, even though there were plenty of forced checkmates available. A couple of lessons might be taken from the end game: 1. Keep your focus clear on the primary objective, and don't be distracted by irrelevancies (Of course, that supposes you can distinguish between what is and what is not 'relevant', and that isn't always easy); 2. On a king hunt, drive the king into a smaller and smaller area. This doesn't always involve successive checks, but in THIS game, the checks were necessary, to keep White busy and unable to use the rest of his army. Black presented White with several chances to turn the tables, on account of losing her focus on the main objective, and keeping White busy moving the King.