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.
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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.
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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.
