my new favourite thing

theres a lot of funny things that happen when ur a beginner chess player.

in my last post, i was so amused by the engine being mad our pawns wouldnt take each other that i made a gif of it:

well, in my most recent game something similar happened again, but even more egregious. and i cant help myself. i think its so funny.

i dont think u can expect new players to see four entire squares away, so i forgive us both. we were too focused on the exciting action around b5 to be concerned with such trifles.

i was happy enough to see the hung pawn. 10 minutes is enough time pressure that if im gonna not blunder every move in the endgame, i gotta jump on moves that look good enough, and id already missed that my own night was in danger.

after my bishop was safe, free pawn acquired, i finally took a step back and found my opponents hanging knight. they responded by trying to threaten my queen.

i thought there might be a checkmate in 2 or 3 if only i could find it. i was ready to fully sacrifice my queen if thats what it took. this is why i take fast moves early in the game, so that i can afford to spend what felt like a long time thinking thru rabbitholes like these:

i did end up finding the mate in 1.

you might think the lesson here is to stop hanging knights for 5 moves, but thats easier said than done. and so the real lesson is to make fun of yourself for it and post a gif. this will do much more to make me recognize the scenario next time than if i just kicked myself and moved on.

and i think it is very very funny that we both hung our knights to each others queens in the exact same way, for so long. this is why we deserve our elos in the 300s

at least im up from 100, where i was a week ago. at this rate theres no stopping me!