What to do when you're losing, Part 1

Being in a lost position is a stressful experience, and one that we've all been through. I'm sure that everyone reading this has been losing and wondered, "What should I do?" Today, I want to solve this question as it relates to a specific type of position.

First, I want to show you one of my personal favorite games. It may seem off topic but I promise it relates to this article's theme.

So what should we learn from this amazing game? Well, in my opinion, the most important thing is a very specific choice about the famous Rh8 move. This choice is the choice to create counterplay.

Of course, all good players have to create some type of counterplay in their games. But the specific choice to pull the queen away from c2 is very interesting to me. It flips the position around and gives black an attack instead of white.

But we're not all Max Euwe. I can imagine that most of the readers won't find Rh8 even as a puzzle, much less in a tournament game. So how can we know when to look for counterplay, and more importantly, where?

In a recent game of mine, I ended up with a similar type of position, albeit more closed, and I noticed a general theme between the two games. 

So what do the two games have in common? Well, let's look at the major weaknesses. In the Euwe game, the biggest weakness for White is g2. In my game, the Queenside dark squares, specifically c3, were weak. 

So next time you play a game, analyse after, but don't look at lines. Just find the weaknesses. I promise it'll help you when you're losing.