Short game – Big lesson

“It’s okay to look back at the past, just don’t stare”

Benjamin Dover

Have you ever looked at your past and begun to feel cringe about your actions? Have you ever been in bed seconds before going to sleep and suddenly a memory of something silly you did during your childhood starts to tease your mind? Believe it or not, this is common among humans, and the best thing is that it's not bad at all!

I'm not a psychologist, but people tend to never forget their biggest mistakes, which can be good or bad depending on how you use those memories. In my personal experience, I will never forget how I lost a piece in the final round of a tournament when I was competing for first place:

Here I played the amazing move 1…Qa5? Awesome idea if you want to lose a game. For some reason, I thought the c6 square was protected (I mean, that is what happens in most positions when you play the Sicilian) losing the game after the simple 2.Nc6.

However, the position is not easy, in the first 2 minutes you may think that Black is losing a piece, but actually, there are a couple of good moves. Can you find them? let me know your variations in the comments.

Did I quit chess after such a ridiculous performance? Correct I did, I know that is not the answer you were looking for, but I did it for a few weeks.

But one thing is certain, I never saw the c6 square as usual again, which means I never made that kind of mistake again. And if you ask me, it looks like I would have won in retrospective. That game was short, but it taught me a great lesson for the rest of my life.

This was the inspiration I took to create the next series, where I will analyze short games (also called miniatures) from the past but with very valuable lessons. However, I can't promise that it will have the same impact as if you were the player who made the silly mistake. I do not think you would like to be that player anyways.

If you are looking forward to analyzing with me, I would recommend you send a friend request and message, the games will be posted here every Monday. Also, if you think you made a mistake that affected your chess career (in a positive way of course), feel free to share the game with me!

I am the chess Fide Master Gabriel Salazar, available for new students:
Contact: gabosalazarolchowski@gmail.com