A tragic loss.

Hello, how are you? Me, I'm okay... I guess. Well, to be honest I'm actually laughing. Laughing in disbelief at how I somehow managed to lose a game I could've won, and absolutely should've been able to draw. Let's take a look.

So we start with a Caro-Kann Defense. This is my current main black e4 opening (the French Defense is my sub opening). We play the exchange variation with 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 up to this point, it's book. Then I play Nc6 best move.  5.Nc3 e6 preparing to exchange 6.Bf4 Bb4 pinning the knight to the king 7.Ne5 Nxe5 8.Bxe5 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Qa5 first mistake. I think I play this often. I'll have to check, but I now have a mental note not to play this next time. Instead f6 protects the rook from a skewer. I did see the threat to the rook, but in my panic, I failed to see that my pawn could save it. Next we have 10.Bxg7 obviously a great move Qxc3+ 11.Ke2 Qc4+ looking to delay the rook capture until I could save it, or find a timing when it would be better for me or at least not too serious 12.Ke1 Qc3+ 13.Qd2 blunder and the first indication for me that my opponent wanted to win rather than draw.

Qxa1+ great move.

14.Ke2 apparently this was misplayed. Computer wanted Qd1, but couldn't I just escape with Qc3+? If I missed something feel free to point it out. Moving on I reply with Bd7 BRILLIANT!! 15.Bxh8 not very good. Allows Bb5+ great move. Next we get 16.Kf3 Bxf1 17.Qb4 Bxg2+ horrible move. I should've castled long. It's beautiful. I castle directly into the attack and protect my pawn. And it's a move I'm not a stranger to. I have many times castled into the danger, knowing the secret safety of such a risky play. I should've recognised it. Especially considering I had plans to castle on that side within a move or two.  18.Kxg2 Qxa2 19.Qb5+ Kd8 blunder loses the rook after Qxb7.

20.Rb1 my opponent blunders leaving me a breath of air to continue the game. I play Qxc2 and my opponent finally cashes in on the free pawn with 21.Qxb7 Qg6+ this is supposedly a mistake. But at this point, I'd realised how fucked I was. The point of this move was to play for a draw. 22.Kf1 Qd3+ 23.Kg1 Qg6+ 24.Kh1 Qe4+ 25.f3 Qxf3+ great move and unexpectedly giving me winning chances. If I played Qh3+ my opponent would have tried to protect the pawn with, but after Qe3+ we'd get a repetition of moves, which I know my opposite would refuse. I'd win the pawn, lose the rook, but after escaping from the constant checks, I'd only be a pawn down with my queen ready to irritate the opposite king.

26.Kg1 Qe3+ 27.Kf1 Qd3+ 28.Kg2 Qd2+ I blunder, and lose my advantage. But that's fine right? It's still equal. I'd been playing for a draw anyway. 29.Kf3 again my opponent blunders, allowing me to protect the rook. Qd3+ I miss Rc8. I'd clearly given up on the rook at this point 30.Kg2 Qe4+ still not seeing the rook save.

Somewhere within the next 5 moves I offer a draw, but it was rejected. 31.Kf1 Qd3+ 32.Ke1 Qe3+ 33.Kd1 Qd3+ 34.Kc1 Qe3+ 35.Kc2 Qe2+ 36.Kc3 Qe3+ 37.Kb2 Qd3 mouse slip. I wanted Qd2+, but that's life. 38.Qxa8+ Ke7 39.Qxa7+ Kd6 40.Qc5+ Kd7 41.Qa7+ Kd6 attempting to draw with repetition. 42. Ka2 Qc4+ 43. Rb3 Qc2+ 44.Rb2 Qc4+ 45. Ka3 Qc3+ 46. Rb3 Qc1+ missing a chance to win the queen 47. Ka4 Qa1+ 48. Ra3 Qd1+ 49. Rb3 Qa1+ 50.Ra3 Qd1+ attempting to draw with repetition 51. Kb4 Qd2+ 52. Rc3 Qb2+ 53. Rb3 Qd2+ 54. Kb5 Qe2+ 55. Ka4 Qc4+ 56.Rb4 Qc2+ missing the chance to take the queen AGAIN!! 57.Rb3 Qc4+ 58. Rb4 Qa2+ I finally see it 59. Kb5 Qxa7 60. Be5+ Kd7 61. Ra4 Qb7+ 62.
Kc5 Qc6+ 63. Kb4 Qc4+ 64. Ka5 Qc3+ 65. Rb4 Qa3+ 66. Kb5 Qd3+ 67. Ka5 Qa3+ 68.
Kb5 Qd3+ 69. Ka5 f6 here is where my efforts all go down the drain. My thoughts? I have a fucking queen! Surely I can win this.

70. Rb7+ Kc6 71. Rb6+ Kd7 72. Rb7+ Kc8 73. Rc7+ Kb8 and here is where I lose it all 74.Rc3+ great move... I cannot save the queen, so I resign. So yeah, here's how I lost in the worst way possible.

My thoughts. Patience. This was a long match, so stamina and patience were key to the resultant loss. Had I taken a couple of seconds to take a look at the situation I'd see the move that would lose me the game. Had I been patient and didn't play f6. I could have drawn. Had I been patient and played sane moves, I could have possibly won on time. So many possibilities to not lose and I chose the only option that did. In my first blog post I mentioned that I should take at least 30 seconds to consider my moves and I should calculate 5 moves deep. It hasn't been 12hrs and I'm already failing. I'll stop playing for now and go practice tactics. I think I'll focus on pins, skewers and forks.

Announcement: I will be participating in the Chess.com Daily Championship on Jan 1st. I've registered and am starting to look at some crazy openings I can play to throw off my opponents. I'll trying to win the best blog prizes and the best game prizes. I'm excited since this the first Championship I ever play, and also the first chess match I play with money to win. Wish me luck. I'm striving for a win.