Trash & Treasure

There is a saying called ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’. In chess the saying should be called ‘One man’s trash moves are opponent's treasure’.

Today I am going to talk about the trash moves I did in my Chess.com Daily championship 2024 games. Well, the moves are trash BUT there is a lesson in each of them. I will try to also give my mindset and thoughts behind the moves I did. Without further ado let’s dive into the trash can. I promise you though that the lessons will get better with each game we look below.

1. Over-pushing and being vulnerable

This game was against the opponent where I lost first due to my silly attack. After review of that game, I was very upset with myself as I had a winning position in that game. I had a feeling that I can beat this opponent. With that in mind I decided to push for the win and paid the ultimate price ☹

Below I made a blunder by trying to attack f7. Can you find the move made by my opponent?

The game was pretty much drawn, but I tried to go after their f7 pawn which was the only weakness I could find but, in doing so I exposed my own weakness in f4 and eventually lost the game. The silly loss in other game made me go all the way in this unnecessarily.

The lesson – Don’t let the other game’s results impact you and do not over-push blindly.

The next 2 games I didn’t lose but I had completely winning position in both of those, so they are really hurtful.

2.  Don’t miss the puzzles class

Have you ever felt that puzzles are boring, and you actually don’t get these positions in real games??? Well, I was one of the people who used to think like this but now I am a changed man, especially after this game. While it may be true that you won’t get the exact positions from puzzles into real games but the idea of the puzzle will definitely be there in the game.

This game was pretty even but at one point in the end game I had a Mate in 2 which I missed. It was a classic puzzlesque (I don’t even know if this is a word) setup and moves. Alas I couldn’t find the pattern and mate, but can you?

The lesson – Do puzzles puzzles puzzles!!!

3. Know you Endgames

Below picture was saved to my gallery since my college days because I really liked the message. I never thought I would use the picture anywhere though.

There is a very famous quote by Master Stephan Gerzadowicz: "Openings teach you openings. Endgames teach you chess!".

Endgames, probably the most complex and hard part to learn but once you master those you master everything.

My opponent in below game was about 400 points higher rated than me, so I desperately wanted to have a good game and give a good fight the least. However, I was actually playing very well and had an upper hand for most of the game. In the end we were pawn and king vs king endgame and I blundered the win ☹

On my part it was half knowledge as I knew that you have to have the king in front of your pawn in order to win and that was what I was doing but there is move order to this as well which I missed completely.

The lesson – Study the endgames, at least the basic ones 😊

Summary –

Overall, my daily championship campaign was a success from my point of view. I gained about 40 rating points and had few very good games against quality opponents. Had I converted above games I may have finished one place above.

All in all I feel it was a good experience and I am already looking forward to next year’s championship. Looking at the above lessons, I guess sometimes your trash can turn into your own treasure.