A Comedy of Errors

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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

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