Lichess Game of the Month August 2026 - Contest

Novelty / rarity: 5/10

The Queen's Pawn setup with an early g3 and Bg2 is a common flexible structure, but Black's early ...Bf5 and White's Nh3/Nf4 maneuver produce an unusual middlegame. The game then evolved into a highly tactical queenless middlegame and pawn race.

Educational value: 9/10

• White's 16.Qxd7+?? shows the danger of exchanging queens when the resulting king position and material balance are unfavorable.
• Black's 33...c6?? and White's 34.f3?? demonstrate how quickly an apparently stable endgame can swing through pawn-race tactics.
• Black's 34...gxf3?? misses the decisive passed-pawn breakthrough and turns a potentially favorable position into a losing one.
• White's connected passed pawns on the queenside ultimately become the decisive strategic asset.
• The final queen-and-pawn phase illustrates the importance of coordinating promotion threats with forcing checks.

Key lessons:

• Do not simplify automatically: evaluate the resulting king activity, pawn structure, and material before exchanging queens.
• In pawn endings, calculate races concretely rather than relying on general positional principles.
• Passed pawns must be assessed by promotion speed and the opponent's available counterplay.
• When ahead, forcing checks and promotion threats can convert a complex position efficiently.

Critical turning points:

Move 16: 16.Qxd7+?? unnecessarily gives up White's queen advantage and reduces a strong position to an approximately equal endgame.
Move 33: 33...c6?? fatally weakens Black's position and allows White's queenside pawns to become extremely dangerous.
Move 34: 34.f3?? briefly throws away White's winning advantage, but Black immediately fails to exploit it.
Move 34...: 34...gxf3?? misses the critical defensive resource and allows White's b-pawn to promote decisively.

Overall: 8/10

A chaotic strategic battle that transformed from a middlegame advantage into a fluctuating endgame before White's passed-pawn promotion and mating attack secured the win.

Hello, Lichess and other respected members,
This is my game

The start of a masterpiece...

The start of the game was rather a bit bad because I lost a pawn and, black had a fianchetto bishop on g7 which had an entire diagonal. After some time of fighting, black did a mistake and I captured black's knight with my queen, then black captured my queen with their pawn, then I captured black's queen with my rook, black captured my rook with their rook, and then I captured black's knight where at the end I had a Bishop and Knight for a Rook and Pawn (it went from -5.0 to +1.0 for me!)

Then we started trading our pieces and it went to an endgame with Knight vs Bishop. There started a race, who was first to the pawn on d5: White king (attacking the pawn) or Black King (defending the pawn). I started my march first with 33. kd2 where black then played 33... kg8, 34. ke3, kf7. Then I brought my knight to d4 where I attacked black's pawn on g5 which was un-defendable so he had to capture my knight with his bishop which gave me an extra tempo to go closer to the d5 pawn when I captured back with 36. kxd4. Then, black defended the d5 pawn with 36...ke6. Is it over? NO. Now I went KC5!!! IT'S A ZUGZWANG FOR BLACK! He had no other moves other than to give up his pawn on d5. If he moved his king, I would take his pawn on d5 but if black played 37... d4 (the game ended before black did), I would take on d4 with my king, and then, wait... BLACK HAS THE OPPOSITION IF I TAKE ON D4! IT'S ZUGZWANG FOR WHITE! No it isn't... then I would play the wonderful resourceful move of... 38. g3!! Now, White has the opposition and will win the game. Although there were other moves other than 38. g3 (like 38. a4). Sadly, after 37. kc5, black left the game and therefore WHITE IS VICTORIOUS!

THANK YOU FOR SEEING MY GAME!

[Event "Hourly Blitz Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/GVChpV5i"]
[Date "2026.09.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "CHESSY0912"]
[Black "vectorial"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "GVChpV5i"]
[UTCDate "2026.09.04"]
[UTCTime "03:10:27"]
[WhiteElo "1931"]
[BlackElo "2259"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+11"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-10"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "300+0"]
[ECO "D10"]
[Opening "Slav Defense: Exchange Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. d4 { [%eval 0.15] [%clk 0:05:00] } 1... d5 { [%eval 0.27] [%clk 0:05:00] } 2. c4 { [%eval 0.22] [%clk 0:04:57] } 2... c6 { [%eval 0.21] [%clk 0:04:58] } 3. cxd5 { [%eval 0.15] [%clk 0:04:55] } { D10 Slav Defense: Exchange Variation } 3... cxd5 { [%eval 0.19] [%clk 0:04:57] } 4. Nc3 { [%eval 0.07] [%clk 0:04:53] } 4... Nf6 { [%eval 0.26] [%clk 0:04:56] } 5. Bf4 { [%eval 0.17] [%clk 0:04:49] } 5... Nc6 { [%eval 0.21] [%clk 0:04:55] } 6. Nf3 { [%eval 0.1] [%clk 0:04:47] } 6... e6 { [%eval 0.25] [%clk 0:04:52] } 7. e3 { [%eval 0.25] [%clk 0:04:44] } 7... Be7 { [%eval 0.34] [%clk 0:04:51] } 8. Bb5 { [%eval 0.19] [%clk 0:04:40] } 8... O-O { [%eval 0.16] [%clk 0:04:49] } 9. a4 { [%eval -0.32] [%clk 0:04:37] } 9... Nd7?! { (-0.32 0.30) Inaccuracy. Nh5 was best. } { [%eval 0.3] [%clk 0:04:45] } (9... Nh5 10. O-O Nxf4 11. exf4 Bd7 12. Ne5 Be8 13. Bxc6 bxc6 14. Nd3 Qb6 15. Ne2) 10. O-O { [%eval 0.26] [%clk 0:04:34] } 10... a6 { [%eval 0.35] [%clk 0:04:38] } 11. Bd3 { [%eval 0.27] [%clk 0:04:31] } 11... b6 { [%eval 0.52] [%clk 0:04:32] } 12. Qc2 { [%eval 0.27] [%clk 0:04:17] } 12... Nb4?! { (0.27 1.23) Inaccuracy. Nf6 was best. } { [%eval 1.23] [%clk 0:03:49] } (12... Nf6 13. Na2 Bb7 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 Bd6 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Bxh7+ Kh8 18. Bd3) 13. Bxh7+ { [%eval 1.24] [%clk 0:03:58] } 13... Kh8 { [%eval 1.19] [%clk 0:03:48] } 14. Qb1 { [%eval 1.13] [%clk 0:03:55] } 14... g6 { [%eval 1.25] [%clk 0:03:42] } 15. Bxg6 { [%eval 1.22] [%clk 0:03:52] } 15... fxg6 { [%eval 1.18] [%clk 0:03:42] } 16. Qxg6 { [%eval 1.26] [%clk 0:03:49] } 16... Nf6? { (1.26 3.12) Mistake. Qe8 was best. } { [%eval 3.12] [%clk 0:03:41] } (16... Qe8 17. Ne5 Bf6 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. Ng4 Bg7 20. Qh4 Rf5 21. Bg5 Bb7 22. f4) 17. Qh6+?! { (3.12 2.38) Inaccuracy. Ne5 was best. } { [%eval 2.38] [%clk 0:03:33] } (17. Ne5 Bd6 18. Qh6+ Nh7 19. Ng6+ Kg8 20. Bxd6 Qxd6 21. Nxf8 Qxf8 22. Qg6+ Kh8) 17... Nh7 { [%eval 2.32] [%clk 0:03:37] } 18. Be5+?! { (2.32 1.34) Inaccuracy. Ne5 was best. } { [%eval 1.34] [%clk 0:03:22] } (18. Ne5 Bf6 19. Ng6+ Kg8 20. Nxf8 Qxf8 21. Qg6+ Qg7 22. Qe8+ Qf8 23. Qxf8+ Nxf8) 18... Bf6 { [%eval 1.31] [%clk 0:03:36] } 19. Ng5? { (1.31 0.00) Mistake. Ne2 was best. } { [%eval 0.0] [%clk 0:03:11] } (19. Ne2 Nd3 20. Nf4 Nxf4 21. exf4 Ra7 22. Nh4 Kg8 23. Ng6 Bxe5 24. dxe5 Rf5) 19... Qe7?? { (0.00 7.15) Blunder. Ra7 was best. } { [%eval 7.15] [%clk 0:02:43] } (19... Ra7 20. h4 Rg7 21. Ne2 Kg8 22. f4 Bxe5 23. dxe5 Nc2 24. Nxh7 Rxh7 25. Qg6+) 20. Nxh7 { [%eval 7.16] [%clk 0:02:57] } 20... Qg7 { [%eval 7.09] [%clk 0:02:40] } 21. Bxf6 { [%eval 7.02] [%clk 0:02:46] } 21... Rxf6 { [%eval 7.5] [%clk 0:02:40] } 22. Qxg7+ { [%eval 6.19] [%clk 0:02:42] } 22... Kxg7 { [%eval 6.27] [%clk 0:02:39] } 23. Nxf6 { [%eval 6.27] [%clk 0:02:41] } 23... Kxf6 { [%eval 6.31] [%clk 0:02:39] } 24. Rac1 { [%eval 6.15] [%clk 0:02:33] } 24... Bd7 { [%eval 6.11] [%clk 0:02:36] } 25. e4 { [%eval 6.1] [%clk 0:02:26] } 25... Nd3 { [%eval 6.03] [%clk 0:02:27] } 26. Rc2 { [%eval 6.25] [%clk 0:02:20] } 26... Nf4 { [%eval 6.17] [%clk 0:02:23] } 27. g3 { [%eval 6.43] [%clk 0:02:01] } 27... Rg8 { [%eval 6.25] [%clk 0:02:16] } 28. Kh1 { [%eval 6.08] [%clk 0:01:54] } 28... Nh3 { [%eval 6.24] [%clk 0:02:08] } 29. exd5 { [%eval 6.23] [%clk 0:01:51] } 29... b5 { [%eval 6.74] [%clk 0:02:07] } 30. axb5 { [%eval 6.41] [%clk 0:01:47] } 30... axb5 { [%eval 6.88] [%clk 0:02:05] } 31. dxe6 { [%eval 6.78] [%clk 0:01:44] } 31... Bxe6 { [%eval 6.71] [%clk 0:02:04] } 32. Nxb5 { [%eval 5.95] [%clk 0:01:29] } 32... Bd5+ { [%eval 6.61] [%clk 0:02:03] } 33. f3 { [%eval 6.68] [%clk 0:01:25] } 33... Ng5 { [%eval 6.87] [%clk 0:01:56] } 34. Rc3 { [%eval 6.28] [%clk 0:01:16] } 34... Re8 { [%eval 7.13] [%clk 0:01:46] } 35. Nc7 { [%eval 7.02] [%clk 0:01:07] } 35... Bb7 { [%eval 10.0] [%clk 0:01:39] } { Black resigns. } 1-0

Some good tactics, after misplaying the opening

Disclaimer: horrible blunders by white, but follow the lines to the end... taking that into account, the following:

Chaos and negentropy as understanded by a player with the white pieces, taking into account its rating.