A Comedy Of Errors

While I may have reached my highest official rating of 1628 on Lichess playing 10 + 5, it's not because of my good play. My latest game was a comedy of errors in which my opponent made the last error. However, my troubles began early on when I kept my Queen in the line of fire of the Black Rook. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: link to game

The computer analysis is prompting me to play d x c5 because this defuses the threat of the Black Rook on c8 that is bearing down on my Queen. I castled Kingside instead and then Black's best move was c x d4 which he didn't do immediately. I was aware of the threat that the Rook posed but thought that I'd have time to move my Queen to b1. Instead I was caught as Figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: link to game

As can be seen I did get to move my Queen to b1 but I was forced to and it came with the loss of my b pawn and my light-squared Bishop. This would never have happened if I'd simply taken Black's pawn on c5 but I didn't and I was lucky to go on and win the game. Black at this point had played well and took full advantage of my error.

Following my previous comments, I played another game that I promptly lost because I assumed my opponent had made a blunder. He hadn't. I had been sucked in big time and fell for the trap hook, line and sinker. It's too embarrassing to even post but the lesson to be learned from it is that if your opponent has been playing well and offers you a free piece then be very wary. I was not wary. This loss cost be 8 points so I've fallen back to 1620. Currently I am very annoyed with myself.

1616: Still Climbing

 At last I played a game with zero blunders but in which my opponent blundered in time pressure.

I now have a ranking of 1616 which I'm happy about.

Here is a link to the game with a screenshot showing my opponent's fatal mistake. Black with 1:31 left on his clock failed to see that my Knight could take his Queen and so promptly resigned.

1600 Target Reached

Today I finally surpassed 1600 points in the 10 + 5 rapid section of Lichess. I played two games, the first I won after my opponent left the game early on and in the second I should have lost except my opponent failed to take advantage of the position. Figure 1 shows the progress of the game in which I had the White pieces:

Figure 1

As can be seen for most of the game I was hopelessly lost. I knew I was in trouble. Black had mounted a massive attack with his two Rooks and Queen. Figure 2 shows the crucial moment.

Figure 2: link to game

I moved my King to g2 because I wanted to bring my Rook on f1 to h1 to oppose the Black Rook. At this point, I was relieved because, even though Black was about to double up Rooks on the h file, I knew I had time to bring my Rook across and defuse the situation. Black played his Rook on h8 to h7 as I anticipated and all was well. Little did I know that the game was lost. All Black needed to do was to sacrifice his Rook to h2. Even with the computer analysis, it took me a little while to see why this won the game for Black.

So while I may have surpassed 1600 with this badly played game and will continue to improve my rating, my opponents will soon not miss golden opportunities like this one that Black squandered. The moment Black played castled Queenside, I mishandled the position and allowed Black to mount his formidable attack.

Knights Can Move Backwards

 After a couple of wins, I managed to lose after blundering my Knight. Here was the position:

lichess link

All I needed to do was to retreat my Knight to e6. The evaluation bar showed that I was clearly ahead. After playing my Queen to g5 and checking the White King, I forgot about my Knight and ended up losing it. It was a game with errors on both sides but if I had retreated my Knight my position would have been fairly secure. It just didn't enter my head during the heat of battle.

I need to play more regularly and restrict myself to one game every one or two days. The only way to become battle hardened is play several games daily. I will lose some and win some but over the space of a few weeks I should see my rating slowly climb into the 1600s and maybe even beyond. The lesson to be learned from this game is that KNIGHTS CAN MOVE BACKWARDS.