Lichess Game of the Month August 2026 - Contest

This game has a rook sacrifice and a bishop sacrifice:

Probably one of the games that I’m proud of the most! :)

@jeffforever

If I were to submit a correspondence game would it have to have started or ended during the month?

This is mine. It has a nice mate.

[Event "rated bullet game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/IaSQ9VR6"]
[Date "2026.09.07"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Toadddddddd"]
[Black "TaoBaiBai"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "IaSQ9VR6"]
[UTCDate "2026.09.07"]
[UTCTime "11:33:51"]
[WhiteElo "2387"]
[BlackElo "2364"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+5"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-5"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "60+0"]
[ECO "B15"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann Defense: Tartakower Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ exf6 { B15 Caro-Kann Defense: Tartakower Variation } 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Qc2 Re8+ 9. Ne2 f5 10. Be3 g6 11. O-O-O Nd7 12. h4 Nf6 13. h5 Ne4 14. hxg6 fxg6 15. Rh6 Bf8 16. Rh2 Be6 17. Rdh1 Re7 18. Nf4 Bxa2 19. b3 Qa5 20. Bc4+ Kh8 21. Nxg6+ Kg7 22. Nxe7 Qxc3 23. Rxh7+ Kf6 24. Ng8+ Kg6 25. Bf7# { White wins by checkmate. } 1-0

I like this game because the sack on move 16 is based on a pressure building long term attack built around a monster knight with no clear win in sight (The position after is pretty much equal with perfect play and I often find sacs that result in equal positions more beautiful than straight up winning tactics). White also defended very well but cracked under pressure at the very end. Highlights are the relative strength of the black knight on f4 which basically cannot be challenged (no pawns and the white knights are tied down to defending the king) and the, in my mind, poetic ending where black fumbles the beautiful attack due to a gorgeous tactical defense coming out of nowhere (26... Bxf3, 27. Nxf4!), but white is under too much (time) pressure to see it. The interesting thing is also that because 26... Bxf3 is not sound the path to continue for black is, in practical play, very slim (the computer shows many lines but the ideas do not look clear), the only 'practically realistic' way I found post-game was this crazy relatively forcing 'only-move' sequence 26... Ng2!, 27. Kxg2 Bxf3, 28. Kxf3 f5, 29 Ng3!! f4, 30. Nf5 fxe3, 31. Qg1 (31. Kxe3 transposes) Rxf5+, 32. exf5 Qxf5+, 33. Kxe3 Qf4+ 34. Kd3 Qf5+ 35. Kd3 which ends in a very pretty perpetual with the white king tied down to the defense of the bishop.