Another See-Sawing Game

This is a sad game in which fortunes fluctuated and at one point I was + 4.8 up. However, the turning point came on move 24 when I played 24. Nf4?? See Figure 1.

Figure 1: game

Even though the computer had been recommending that I play Ne7+ for some time, it was crucial to play it here because my Knight had to move after being threatened by the pawn. Once I played my Knight to f4, I lost my e pawn and that was that. My excuse is that I'd drifted into mild time trouble and played the Knight move instantly without regarding the consequences.

I think this loss came down to time management. I was down to 2:26 on the clock versus Black's 7:10. This was too wide a discrepancy. I'd been playing some untimed games against the computer on my phone the night before and perhaps this didn't help. I need to play with time controls even against the computer.

A Lost Opportunity

My latest game, which I lost, held the promise of a win at one point. Figure 1 shows the situation after White blundered with his Queen move.

Figure 1: game

A few moves later and the rating bar was at -4.1. See Figure 2. It was up to me to consolidate my sizeable advantage by playing b5 but I played the ineffective 23. ... Qd7? and the evaluation bar fell to -1.6.

Figure 2: game

I still had 5 minutes and 46 seconds left on my clock but for some reason I dithered and I eventually got into time trouble. My opponent was much higher rated at 1624 and so I only lost 6 rating points but it shows I can hold my own against that level of opponent but only if I keep my nerve. It failed me here.

The Great Escape

Oh dear, I came close to losing two games in a row today. See my previous post titled Lost in Nine Moves. After my 15th move, I was in trouble. See Figure 1. I'd moved my Knight to f6 and had promptly trapped my Bishop. The evaluation bar was at +3.4 but all I could do was soldier on.

Figure 1: game

My opportunity came on move 25 when it looked as if my Knight on g5 was about to be dislodged and allow White to move his Queen to h3 and force checkmate. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: game

You have to feel sorry for White because he really had me on the ropes but with 21. ... Re3 it was all over and I very nearly didn't spot this move. Now, not only can the Queen not reach h3 but it is under attack and has nowhere to retreat to. This game has truly earned the title "The Great Escape".

Lost in Nine Moves

Today I suffered my quickest and perhaps most humiliating defeat, losing in a mere eight moves. Let's recapitulate the disaster. It was an unusual opening and my first blunder occurred on move 6 when I played played 6. ... Bg4?? Figure 1 showed the position just before I made the move. I should have played 6. ... Bd6, defending my e pawn and consolidating my position. As it is, if White plays h3, then I have to take the Knight with my Bishop or lose my e pawn.

Figure 1: game

White promptly played 7. Bxf5+ and suddenly I was in trouble. I'm used to having more closed positions arising from the French Defence and I was unprepared to deal with my King being in such an exposed position. After I wisely moved my King to e2, White captured my e pawn with his Knight, leaving his Queen exposed. Alarm bells should have sounded but I just assumed my opponent had blundered. This was a fatal mistake as the final position in Figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: game

Fortunately I only lost 8 rating points but there are important lessons to be learned from this:

• if the King is in an exposed position be very careful, anticipate attacks and sacrifices
• if your opponent offers a Queen, don't assume that it's a blunder
• never underestimate your opponent
• if your opponent spends 1 minute and 12 seconds before taking my f7 pawn, then the move has been carefully thought out and an equal amount of time needs to afforded the response

I remember being annoyed that my opponent was taking so much time and I wasn't using my time to anticipate what moves he might make. I assumed White's initial move of 1. Nc3 was weak because it allowed me to play 1. ... d5 and after 2. e4  d5 (whereby I dislodged his Knight), I felt that I was in a comfortable and dominant position. After 3. ... e5, he moved his Knight for a second time but this freed up his White-squared Bishop that caused all my later troubles. White played a clever opening and I basically fell into an opening trap. Now I need to win back my lost rating points.

A Comedy of Errors

This game deserves special analysis because it truly is a comedy of errors. To begin with, I was matched as White against a 1647 player. I knew that if I won this game it would be a significant boost to my rating. On move 10, Black made a critical error by playing Nd6?? Figure 1 shows the position.

Figure 1: game

After Black's retreat of his Knight, I fixated on Black's h pawn, seeing it was inadequately protected but first I thought that I'd advance my c pawn to c5 and dislodge the Knight. What I failed to see was that by playing Bg5, I would win the Queen. It's obvious in hindsight. The Black Queen is sitting there hopelessly exposed with White's two Bishops bearing down on it. By moving the Knight, Black had freed up the g5 square for my Bishop. At this point, the game was mine but I never played that most obvious of moves.

After my 11. c5?? the evaluation bar dropped from +6.0 to +2.5. Despite the missed opportunity I was still in a superior position. The next critical point came on move 20. Be2 threatening the Black Queen. At this point the evaluation bar had risen to +3.7 but after 20. ... Bg6? it rose to 5.8 because the Knight on h4 had been abandoned. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: game

Black should have played 20. ... Nf3+ but didn't and so I captured the Knight. Black then played 21. ... Bh3 and the evaluation bar climbed to +6.5. Black was now lost. I was a piece and two pawns up. All I needed to do was retreat my Bishop to g3. So why didn't I. At this point, I still had 6m31s on the clock so I wasn't under any real time pressure. Instead of moving my Bishop, I advanced my g pawn to g3. This inaccuracy caused the evaluation bar to drop to +4.1 but I was still in a much better position.

The next critical point came on move 28 where Black's intentions are clear. See Figure 3. He wants to capture the pawn on h2 by lining up his Queen and Rook. I realised that by moving my King to g2 and then my Rook to h1 I can defend the pawn. This is a rather passive recourse however, the engine recommends moving my Rook on a1 to b1 and responding to Black's Qh6 with f4. After my 28. Kg2? the evaluation bar fell from +3.7 to +1.8. However, my position is still better.

Figure 3: game

The next critical point occurs on move 29 when Black should have played 29. ... Rc8 forcing my Rook to move to b2 to defend the f pawn. Instead Black played 29. ... Qf3+ and here is where I made perhaps my biggest blunder. I simply didn't see that I could take the Rook and instead I retreated my King to g1. The evaluation bar is down is +1.0 but I still have an advantage. I'm three pawns up even if I am under attack. If I exchange Queens, I should be good.

Figure 4: game

Predictably Black now plays 30. .... Rc8 and I need to move my Rook to b2 and secure the defences or Qd2 is better to guard the e3 square. Instead I play the truly shocking 31. Rxa7?? and promptly lose the game. Checkmate is now unavoidable after Black plays 31. ... e3. Normally I defend fairly well but I failed miserably here. I still had over three minutes on the clock so again I wasn't under extreme time pressure. See Figure 5.

Figure 5

Of course, it's only a forced checkmate if your opponent realises it's a forced checkmate and Black didn't. He played the inexplicable 31. ... Kg8?? and I can save the game with 32. Re8 or better still 32. Qd2. Instead I'm oblivious of the mortal danger that I'm in and play 32. c6?? and once again the game is lost after 32. ... e3. Black still has over four minutes on his clock so there's no hurry but my pawn advance has seriously unnerved him. He tries to bust open my position with 32. ... Rxg3+ and after 33. hxg3 Black's belated e3 now leads to instant checkmate. See Figure 6. I didn't even see this initially because Black promptly resigned. 

Figure 6: game

Figure 7 shows the wild gyrations of the game. I led throughout the game but came perilously close to losing two times at the very end. This is not a game to be proud of and I need to think long and hard about the opportunties I squandered and the blunders that nearly cost me the game. 

Figure 7

Three Blunders Versus Four

My rating continues to slowly climb. It's now 1519. In my latest game, I made three blunders versus my opponent's four. Figure 1 shows my first blunder in response to Black's f6. I intentionally moved my Bishop to e5 when it was attacked by the Knight. I had intended to provoke Black's pawn move and then retreat my Bishop to g3 - which I did. This was regarded by the computer analysis as a blunder. Prior to playing 8. Bg3 my position was assessed as +4.7. Afterwards it was just +0.7. I was still slightly better but I had squandered an opportunity.

Figure 1: link to game

The recommended move was Nh4. Ah! It's easy to see now how much better this move is but I had already made up my mind to retreat the Bishop and didn't assess the new position. Fortunately for me, Black continued to make poor moves and I quickly won. As my opponents get stronger, I can't afford to throw away opportunities like I did in this game.

Losing on Time

Today I lost a game on time when I was -2.8 as Black at one point. This was most unfortunate as it caused my rating to drop below 1500 again. Figure 1 shows the situation.

Figure 1

I should have played Qe4+ and then advanced my d pawn protecting my Knight as it moved. Instead I dithered around. I realised that I have a tendency to waste time on moves that I know I'm going to make. Those few seconds add up and in this game cost me dearly. I don't feel too badly about the loss. Early in the game I complicated the situation unnecessarily but managed to recover thanks to mistakes on White's part. 

I'd actually driven the White King across the board to where the pawns were and where it would have been able to assist in the promotion of these pawns. My King meanwhile was still on g2 and too far away to stop them. This meant that I couldn't exchange Queens. An enemy King needs to be kept as far away from its pawns as possible in an end game, something I ignored. However, despite this, I still had a winning position but time pressure overtook me.

Almost at 1500

After beating a more highly rated player (1547), my rating jumped 10 points to 1497 and so I'm knocking on the door of 1500. I managed to avoid any blunders but committed three inaccuracies. The critical point in the game came on Black's 22nd move when he captured my pawn on g3. I'm embarrassed to say that I never even saw it coming because I'd forgotten that my f pawn was pinned by Black's Knight. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: link to game.

This was a serious oversight on my part. The Black Bishop had been bearing down on my King since move 18. Fortunately for me, this was Black's undoing. Three moves later he resigned. See Figure 2. My Queen check freed up the e4 square for my Knight where it forked the Bishop and Queen and even protected the f2 square.

Figure 2

Figure 3 shows the statistics for the game:

Figure 3

Even if I allowed Black to play Qxf2+, there are no further threats once I move my King. Black overestimated his prospects with the move he made while ignoring the threats that I posed. Black was significantly higher ranked than me and suffered a loss of 18 points, showing the price to be payed when losing to lower ranked players. For my part, I was lucky that Black's unforeseen capture of my pawn didn't have more serious consequences. Whenever a piece or a pawn is pinned, there are opportunities for your opponent and Black availed himself of such an opportunity. I was lucky but as I climb into the 1500s, I can't rely on luck.

Missed Opportunity

Today I won another game and am now at my highest rating ever (1487) but I did miss an opportunity which the computer analysis flagged as a blunder but is more properly termed a missed opportunity I think. After all, my position was was still fine after the move that I made (b5). Figure 1 shows the situation. I should have played 11 ... Nxd4 and if 12. Nxd4 then 12 ... Qb4+ winning the Knight.

Figure 1: link to game

The lesson to be learned though is to always keep on eye on a King that's exposed in the centre of the board. I saw that the d pawn was protected by the Knight and didn't look any further. In the game that followed White spent too long on his moves and abandoned the game with less than a minute left on his clock. Two more wins and I should climb above 1500 which will be satisfying.

Back in the Saddle Again

The day following my twin disasters as reported in my previous post And Just Like That, I managed to lucky win a blunderful game and reclaim 9 rating points. I played around 5am in the morning having gotten up and had breakfast at 3:30am. I watched Agadmator's review of the Round 7 Gukesh versus Arjun classical game and the Carlson versus Nakamura Armageddon game. So I was fresh and in chess thinking mode.

That didn't stop me making the first blunder of the game and overall I made three as opposed to my opponent's two. Figure 1 shows my final blunder.

Figure 1

As can be seen, if not completely blind, the White pawn on f4 is pinned and so Black's move is simply Rxe5. Fortunately, Black missed this and was tempted into playing Qc2+. My mistake was to be obsessed with doubling my Rooks on the h file. While this is a splendid tactic, it's useless unless the pawn on h6 is undermined and that's only going to happen if White advances either his f or g pawns. This open h file often occurs after a Knight attacks and captures the opponent's Bishop after it retreats to g3. My timing was wrong. FIRSTLY, advance the pawn or pawns to within striking distance of the opponent's h pawn and SECONDLY double Rooks.

Figure 2 shows the statistics of the game:

Figure 2

As can be seen, it was a game of fluctuating fortunes and it was more that Black lost rather than White won. At this 1500 level, you can blunder three times as I did and still win but against higher rated players I will be punished instantly. I need to raise my game. I usually emerge from the opening phase of my games with equality or better but then I often dither about and make poor choices that allow my opponent to gain the initiative.

And Just Like That

 ... and just like that I lost 17 points. The details are too painful to recall but after losing two games in a row I lost that number of rating points. I spend most of the morning grappling with AI and coding and was fairly mentally fatigued. For some reason, I decided to play some online chess and was clearly not mentally prepared.

The lesson to be learned here is that I should be in the mood and most importantly fresh, not mentally fatigued from previous activities. I might consider playing on the TV in the bedroom as I still find the laptop screen a little confining. It's worth a try. For the time being I need to regroup and not get too depressed by the current setback.

The first game I lost was simply due to basic blunder and I saw my mistake out of the corner of my eye the moment I'd made it. I was under no time pressure so I don't have that to blame. The second game I resigned because I'd moved my Queen but had not let go of my mouse. I changed my mind about moving it and returned it to what I thought was its original square. It wasn't and I lost my Knight.

The point here is that in over-the-board chess you can't pick up a piece, return it to its original square and then move another piece. I should not do this online either as it facilitates the sort of mistake that I made in this second game. At least I refrained from smashing my fist on the table after losing, unlike Magnus Carlson when he lost his classical game to Gukesh.