Winning a Game with No Pieces Captured

white to move and win

Greetings to all chess fans! The game I'm going to show today was played between Nigel Short and Dorsa Derakshani in 2016. Nigel Short is an English grandmaster and best know for challenging Garry Kasparov for the world title in 1993. Dorsa Derakshani is a female International Master from Iran. She was banned by the Iranian Chess Federation for competing without a hijab and subsequently moved to the US to continue her chess career. The game they played was unusual as it ended without any piece being captured.

The game started with 1. c4 e5 2. e3 Nc6

The English opening, also known as a reverse Sicilian. It's characterized by 1. c4 instead of the usual e4 or d4 opening for White. 3. a3 Nf6 4. Nc3 g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. g4

Short signals his intention to attack in the King side with the move g4. 6. ...h6 7. Bg2 d6 8. h3 Be6 9. Nd5 Qd7

Qd7 opens the option to castle on the Queen side. 10. Ne2 Nd8

Dorsa retreated her Knight with the intention of moving c6 to drive away White's strong Knight in the center. 11. b3 Nh7 12. e4

Short moved e4 to prevent Black's freeing move, f5. 12. ...c6 13. Ne3 Qe7 14. Bb2 Bd7 15. d4 O-O 16. d5 c5 17. Qc2

The position is closed. White can push f4 to begin his attack but has to protect his Bishop on b2 first. Qc2 also prepares for Queen side castling. 17. ...Qh4 18. Nc3 b6 19. O-O-O Nb7 20. Bf1

Bf1 with the intention of moving the Knight to g2 and prepare to push f4 but here Black blundered with 20. ...Ng5 21. Ng2 1-0

Black was shocked to find her Queen trapped on h4 and resigned. The game ended without any pieces being captured.

Game link: https://lichess.org/Qi9xtvdG