What Playing Chess Distracted Can Do To You!

Hi chess players and readers!  Now let me tell you something before we get into the meat and potatoes of this chess content. I am not one to make excuses for losing chess games. If there was drama on the board next to me, I needed to focus and make better moves. If someone touched a piece they didn't move and pulled their hand away (getting away with it), I should have called the tournament director. It's not a bragging opportunity for me (or as the chess twitch community would say, a "flex"), it's just that it's not my personality to make a lot of excuses for chess losses .

Now in regards to the title, if all you are here for is "What distracted Daniel?", you might be dissapointed. I did not get a call from a childhood friend I had not talked to in years, I did not read the news about yet another horrible decision by my favorite (american) football team... all it was that I had a physical board set up during the game, which I thought was wise, but transitoning from board to screen did not allow for 100% concentration, which is PART of why I lost this game.

I was Black, and it is my move. This is not where I lost the game, this is where I actually cash in material. I am able to play 17... c3, with a double attack on the b2-Bishop, and f1-Rook (via my a6-Bishop). And if 18. Nxa6, cxb2 traps the Rook.

Now for whatever reason, the best move according to the engines is 17... Bb7, maintaining material equality. OK? Maybe I'm dumb, but you might as well ask me when Covid will be over, I have NO idea why that move is better than cashing in on cold hard material, even if it is not the greatest compensation. Maybe I have too many weaknesses when I do so, IDK. We're going to skip ahead to the blunder, but I included brief analysis of the lines I mentioned, in case you want to see the pieces move!

So what are some lessons I learned from this embarrasment? 

• Going for complications with 19... Nb5 was not the best practical decision, and I should have looked at all of the lines in advance, and I failed to do so.

• Avoid making moves automatically, even in a "recapture" sequence

• Might be best moving forward to focus 15|10 games solely on the computer screen. Even if I don't get the full board experience, then at least I am only focused on one thing!

That is about it, I hope you enjoyed the post, comment down below, I would be happy to discuss with you! I will see you for the next post