The Secrets to Swindles

Have you ever found yourself down a lot of material, or you played an unsound sacrifice, or/and dead lost? I'm sure you've had this situation several times and in this post, I will teach you techniques to swindle a draw/win from a lost position.

1. Create an attack on the enemy king

Sometimes this will require losing more material or playing unsound sacrifices, but remember, you have nothing to lose. For example, in the following game, I was playing as white and forgot my opening and blundered a lot of material. So what did I do? I threatened checkmate, and my opponent defended incorrectly. Swindle!

2. Complicate the position.

In the following game, the black pieces were down a lot of material, so they sacrificed their queen and rook on the same move. Though an extremely unsound sacrifice, it confused the white pieces enough that they blundered the game.

3. The last and most important tip is to keep your queen close to the enemy king. Sometimes, the opponent will walk into a checkmate.

Finally, I'm going to give you a quiz that will highlight my personal greatest swindle ever. Ready?

This is the position I had. Before trying to solve the "swindle" try to imagine a way to checkmate the king. 

* Also, note the below quiz does not take into account white's best moves. The puzzle is based off of what was played in the real game. If white played the best moves, this trick wouldn't work. 

I hope you have a fun time swindling your opponents!