What to do when you're losing, part 2

Hey everyone! Today I want to look at a special part of losing. When your opponent begins a combination, what do you do? Often times, there's not much you can do. But chess is too complicated to say that you can 'never' or 'always' resist.

For example, here's a common trap: 

The reason this trap is so successful is not the move Qxg5, which is not too hard to see. No, the reason is that white has seen this combination so many times before and believes nothing can go wrong.

White's cockiness led to a defeat, and the combination failing. Oddly enough, a game I used in a recent article actually works well on this theme.

At the beginning, white thought they had a win, and instantly went for it. But black showed them how silly it was to assume a win when you first see it. 

So today's lesson is that if your opponent begins a combination, try and see if they're being too cocky. And, on the flip side, if you begin a combination, make sure you aren't doing it either. Goodbye now.