Poisoned Pawn

The quickest road to defeat is often snatching a pawn at the expense of development.

Chess Miniatures are often more instructional in what mistakes to avoid.

Playing in a thematic Richter-Rauzer combination, I was on the White side of the following game where my opponent entered such danger.

An early Qa5

In this tabiya, most popular is 6. ... e6.

Instead my opponent chose 6. ... Qa5. This has the drawback of bringing the Queen out too early, which White can drive back with Nb3.

Poisoned Pawn

Whtie has 4 pieces developed to Black's 3, and has castled whilst Black's King is in the middle.

To this end, it is suicidal to snatch a pawn at the neglect of completing development.

My opponent played 14. ... Qxg2 which allowed decisive attack at d7.

Instead, 14. ... Qf4+ may have been very stubborn.

Removing the Guard

Having piled 3 pieces on to d7, my opponent provoked with 16. .. a6 allowing 17. Bxa6 removing the guard of the Knight.

Better may have been 17. Ba4 or Bf1.

My Game Annotations and Analysis