My First 10 Games On Chess.com

Hello everyone, I hope you all are having a great time! Welcome to Astro's Supercluster ( yes, my blogs finally have a permanent name ). This is going to be my last blog post for a while ( not the last post forever ), because I won't be posting due to a busy academic schedule in the upcoming months. 

How did it feel when you first played chess on online platforms? For me, it was a great experience. But, also, it was a little bit tough because of all of a sudden I had shifted to online chess from irl chess. Tbh, I started playing chess on online platforms because me and one of my school friends wanted to play chess together, but we couldn't play on a real chess board ( I hope you all might know the reason ). This is back in the year 2021. Before this, I had no experience of playing chess by sitting in front of a laptop or a phone. 

In this blog, you will be presented with the first 10 games I had ever played on Chess.com, or you can say combinedly in the overall online platforms for chess. I hope that these games will not fail to give you a sort of entertainment ( cuz I am going to roast myself a bit too much ), and if you are one of those guys who is on a tilt, these games will give you a bit of self - confidence, motivation, and satisfaction. Let's do it ( And for some reasons, I won't be revealing the username of my first ever account on Chess.com, it will be mentioned as anonymous in the games. ) !

     GAME 1 : The Worst Possible Start

Cannot say much about this first game. I literally began my online chess career with the worst possible first move as White. 

1.f3. Yes, the so called " Barnes opening ". Why is this move considered to be one of the worst first move choices for white? It's because it blocks the important developing move Nf3, nor does it control the center. Also, it weakens up your king. And I literally began my online career with this move lol. 

Also, I literally don't know what I was trying to accomplish with those triple queen moves ( from move 6 to move 8 ), instead of focusing on development, king safety, or striking in the center with d4. And after these moves, I just hung it in one chance on move 11. Nothing much to say after that, my opponent just took the advantage of my open king, and suffocated it to death, by harassing my king with his knights and the rook. I resigned on the 16th move, and that was not the start that was expected. I was a lot of material down, and did not wish to continue the game after that. 

Alright, let's move on! 

              GAME 2 : A Giveaway 

This game, is a game filled with mistakes, inaccuracies, blunders, and missed chances from both sides. I somehow managed to win this one, lol. 

Here, my opponent begins with 1.e3. The " Van't Krujis opening ". Not a bad first move, you can call it as decent. At least better than f3. But, I do not remember for what purpose I played Bb4+ on move 2. Maybe, I had just discovered that there's a check and played it randomly. The engine marks it as a " good " move, so let's not bounce on it that much. 

And then, I hung my rook on move 8, by again playing a random bishop move. Was I trying the deflection strategy, to give my opponent a free bishop to force it off that square? Or Had I just accepted that my rook is a goner? Only two people know the answer, god, and me 2 years ago. If that's true, the funny thing is, I can think about a move that much but couldn't think of a simple move, Qf6. And after observing clearly, I got to know that I literally spent " 18 " seconds on 8....Bg4. Yes, 18 seconds. And to add salt to the wound, I hung my knight as well. Oh god these one square queen moves......

A lot of mistakes continued from both sides as the game went ahead, and both missed a lot of good chances to take an advantage in the game. But it was on move 35 where my opponent blundered, and left me with 3 passed pawns, whereas he had a lone king. This is considered to be a winning position, but as I was viewing my own game, I was scared that I would have thrown this away too. Fortunately, I didn't, and my first win! Feels good, right? 

Let's move onto game 3!

GAME 3 : Worst Game In Chess History

I do not even have the right introduction for this game. According to the engine, I played this game with an accuracy of " 7.6 ". From that, try to guess what I was up to. I would recommend you to skip this game and move onto game 4, because this is just a....uhh. 

1.e4 by my opponent, what Bobby Fischer called as " Best by Test ", and I responded with a  " Scandinavian Defense ". But 2.Qf3, what are these early queen moves? And I responded with an inaccuracy as well, which was Nf3. My opponent did go for the right move, which was e5, but instead hangs up his own pawn with c4, which I didn't even notice. 

Some normal 600s-800s stuff after that for a few moves, but man, what was 6....Bxf3? This is what happens when you hear the name of " Mikhail Tal " as a beginner and try to play like him. " Oh I sacrificed my piece Mikhail Tal must be proud of me " ( Tbh I didn't know who Mikhail Tal was that time ). " There are two types of sacrifices, correct ones, and mine. ", is a famous quote by Tal. I would have liked if he had instead said, " There are three types of sacrifices, stupid ones, correct ones, and mine ". And some are blunders, like the one in this game was. 

And what even was 7...Qd7, these single square queen moves have been haunting me in these first 3 games. He took the free pawn, and I tried to trade queens, but blundered mate in one. He avoided the queen trade, and didn't even see the mate. Instead, hung his own rook in the process. 11...c6 was a blunder, and my rook was a goner, but it was again a mate in one. I had an option between taking the free knight of my opponent, and getting 6 points material advantage but losing the game, or save up the game and sacrifice my rook. And what did I choose? Yes, you are right, of course the first one. I literally spent 21 seconds of my remaining 8 mins to capture the knight and losing the game on the spot. This is the reason why this move was chosen for the thumbnail. 

4 blunders in a game of just 12 moves. Tells you the whole story. The engine very honestly told that I played this game like a 150 rated player.

I am just very desperate to move onto the next game....maybe you know why.

       GAME 4 : Scandinavian Mania 

This is game is a bit better than the previous game. Of course, mistakes and inaccuracies, and a few blunders were made by both sides, but I ended up winning this one. 

My opponent begins with the " English Opening ", a patient first move. I responded with d5, the Scandi against the English? At the present day, my first choice against the English would be to go e5, but maybe I was a big fan of d5 those days. And my opponent replies with 2.Qc2, not a good move, but these are some normal 700s-800s stuff. 

After a few moves, I was back at what I was best at that time. I hung a full bishop on move 4, by playing an early queen move, and my opponent didn't even capture it. I had a chance of forking my opponent with d4, but of course, that wasn't played. My opposition went for a queen trade, and instead of capturing his queen with my knight, I captured with the g - pawn and blew up my own kingside, and later played a kingside castle as well. It was on move 16 where my opponent offered me a free piece, and thankfully, I took it this time. 

I hung ( yeah I did it again ) my rook on move 23, and my opponent replied with even a bigger blunder, which can be said as the turning point of the game. He handed me a free rook with the move g3, and I won this game later. Yup, I didn't throw away my advantage this time. 

Ready for the upcoming games?

        GAME 5 : Your Birthday Gift

This is the game where I completely threw off my advantage and winning chances, which I had for more than half of the game ( It's like you suddenly get to know that it's your opponent's birthday after being 9 points up then you lose knowingly ). 

I began with the " Nimzowitsch - Larsen's Attack ", an opening played in order to fianchetto the dark squared bishop early on the long diagonal. The crazy thing is, I didn't do that in the whole game. My opponent hung its knight on move 7, what was he trying? Let's not criticize this move that much, because I have hung piece 5 times of my opponents in these five games till now. 

My opponent played a losing move on move 11, where he let me capture his queen with my rook, did he think that he pinned me with Bf5? Which was not even a pin actually. He lost his knight too, with me having a 9 point material advantage on move 13. But I completely gave it away from hereon. 

I blundered a mate in one on move 15 by capturing a free pawn, and my opponent didn't notice that. Imagine getting mated while being up 8 points of material. And it wasn't late when I lost my queen as well, it's always said that 2 bishops staring down at the opponent's king make up a dangerous team. I gave my opponent a mate in 10 chance by capturing the free pawn with bishop on a7, but it's always tough to notice such things as 700s-800s. My bishop got trapped on move 21, but I didn't see that it was also a mate if he captures it. I just accepted that my bishop is a goner and developed my knight, which resulted in a mate. 

Hence, like this, I lost from a winning position, with the engine saying that I played this game like a 300.

  GAME 6 : Please Capture My Queen

This can be so far said the best game, not a perfect game, but better than the previous games. 

It was my opponent who replied with a Scandi this time, which soon transformed in the " Svenonius Variation " of the French Defense. My opponent with Qf6 on move 5, which was again not a good move. He gave me an option to trap his queen on move 10, but I didn't pounce on it, but he hung his queen again, and thankfully I found out the fork this time. I won his rook on move 17 as well, and then it was a game with no further hiccups. 

I missed several mate in 8-10 chances ( which also included a mate in 4 ), but I did win this by mating with a queen and the king. Surprise Surprise, I didn't stalemate!

Time for game no. 7!

   GAME 7 : The Love for Free Pawns

This was again a game where I broke all the principles of chess, and maybe thought of having some fun with my queen by capturing the free pawns instead of focusing on development. Just one miss ( or a blunder ) was required to end up in a disastrous position, which I did. 

My opponent began with d4, I responded with the " Horwitz Defense ". After that, it was not a good game by me. I needed to develop my pieces, but had none of them developed, whereas my opponent had bunch of his pieces out. These queen moves were soon going to haunt me. I castled kingside, and with my knight on h6, my opponent had a chance to capture it with his dark squared bishop and damage my king safety, but he hung it instead with the move Qf3. I didn't see it, and blundered my own knight in the process. It was this move where I lost the game. 

My rook was a goner, but it also used to guard my f7 square, and mate was unstoppable from here onwards. The best move was to play Qd2 and sacrifice my queen, to force the dark squared bishop off that square and create up an escape route. I moved my rook instead, and got mated in a couple of moves. 

Well, a lesson for beginners, development is first and foremost. I did have fun with my queen, but it was short lived. Let's move onto the last 3 games!

           GAME 8 : A Perfect Game

I played more than 50% of this game perfectly. I am actually happy with how this game went, but there were some late misses and mistakes in the game. My opponent missed a simple knight capture for almost 3 moves, which resulted in a checkmate. 

I began with the King's Pawn, which soon turned into a " McConnell Defense ", with a queen on f6. It was like a perfect game until move 11 by me, my opponent decided to kick out my bishop with h6, but gave me an opportunity to trap his queen. And guess what, I found out the right move! No chance that I saw the queen trap, right? Maybe I just randomly went for an attack on queen but it resulted in my opponent's queen been trapped. 

I think I got overexcited a bit after this but didn't throw it away completely. I hung my knight on move 20, and my opposition didn't capture it for the next 3 moves. It soon ended up with me checkmating my opponent with the queen, supported by the very knight which I had hung a few moves ago ( lol ). 

And here comes game 9!

    GAME 9 : I Blunder, You Blunder

Not a new introduction, again a game with lots of mistakes, misses, blunders by both sides but I again managed to win this one. 

I again replied e4 with the Scandinavian Defense. This blog has been full of games which featured the Scandi, either by me or my opponents. And it soon transformed into an " Alekhine's Defense ". I hung my bishop on move 5 ( not a new thing ), followed by a knight hang on move 9. And my opponent didn't even punish me for that, and hung his own knight instead. He blocked the check with its queen, but again didn't see that his queen used to guard the light squared bishop, and I also didn't see that his bishop was free for the taking. 

I think he castled in the wrong direction, 13.Qxf7+ did look scary, but it was my game from there. My opponent allowed my rook to reach its king, and I teamed up my rook and the queen together, and delivered a mate. 

A lot of pieces were offered by both sides in this game. Alright, it's time for the last game!

        GAME 10 : So Many Misses...

Right then, the final game of the list. I know that you must be thinking of an ideal finish where I would decimate my opponent, but sorry, cuz I am going to disappoint you, this is a game where both me and my opponent played with an accuracy of 35. And guess what? I lost lol........

I began this game with 1.e4, and got replied with e5. I pushed my d4 pawn in the center, called a " Center Game ". But man, what was 2...Qh4? Why do people below 900 find these early queen moves so fascinating? And after being attacked with the knight, he didn't even capture the e4 pawn, and hung his own e5 pawn instead. 

The first blunder came on move 9, where I hung my knight ( how many total pieces have I hung till now, in all the games presented in this blog? Do let me know in the comments! ), and he didn't even see it ( as expected ). 9...Na6 was a mistake, I needed to take the bishop and if he was to take the bishop with his knight, there was a forking opportunity. But instead, I played a random pawn capture with my knight. My opponent blundered on move 13,and I didn't pounce on it, the best move was Qc6+.

I did capture the rook, but again blundered a mate in 1. A lesson for beginners, when you are attacking a king, especially when you have 2 pieces of your opponent so close to your own king, you need to continue the attack with checks. On move 18, the best was to give a check with my dark squared bishop, which would have resulted in a mate in a few moves. But as it was me, I got mated instead. 

According to Chess.com, I played this game like a 100 rated player. Was it that bad? Maybe...

                   CONCLUSION :

Wow, did you really make it to the end? If yes, Well done, and thanks for viewing the post! 

It was a great experience to view these games after almost 1 and a half year, and presenting it before you all! This will be an end to this blog, I hope you enjoyed the games. All the best for your upcoming games, and stay tuned for the next posts! 

As previously mentioned, this will be my last post for a while, next post may be coming in late April or early May. 

Regards, 

@AstroTheoretical_Physics