How to Suck Less at Chess: Never Ever Give Up! (Part III)

This is my final installment of the Never Ever Give Up! series.  Is it time to say, "Adieu" to Captain Kirk and Drunk Magnus?  Never!  Even if he isn't giving you good chess advice at the moment, Drunk Magnus will always be at your shoulder telling you your opponent is too weak and too slow; and your new chess animal spirit, Captain Kirk, will give you life when you think all is lost.

And as you're staring down yet another loss, you quickly gather your wits, consult with your new allies and contemplate a few more strategies:

Take advantage of the moment:

Here, I just blundered a piece.  Remember what I said in one of my previous posts about the worst move coming soon after you think you're winning?  Well, it does apply to your opponent as well.

My opponent spent only 8 seconds on this move and I immediately returned from a piece down by a double attack against the bishop on c5 and the checkmate on h7 to eventually winning the game.  He should have spent more time.

Tricks are for kids:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not an advocate for playing for tricks and traps... unless you are losing.

In this example, I play Bc3, attacking his e-pawn, hoping to provoke e4, so I can go Rg7+.  Stockfish does not think it's a bad move, but sees Kd2 as best.  Rubbish.  Bc3 gives you the best chance.  It's really important that when you set up a trap, make moves that are playable, and not losing immediately.

In the game, that is exactly what happened.  My opponent had 9 minutes left on his clock, and spent 24 seconds on this move when he played e4.

HOLD THE LINE!:

If all else fails, just hang around long enough for your opponent to make a mistake.  In this very recent rapid game, I take advantage of a mistake and find a tactic to go up a full piece.  My opponent is down a piece and a pawn, with a cramped position, is down on time, and playing an opponent who is 300 Elo above him.

He simply holds the line and does not do anything that makes things worse:

After 10 moves we come to this position (where I'm now up another pawn) and play Qg6??

What's more amazing about this game is that, now that I'm losing, I forget my own advice!  Three moves later he plays 34.  Be4?? (making his worst move soon after he was winning), returning the favor to hang his own queen.  Despondently resigned to my fate, I go on autopilot, and completely miss my chance and play f5?? instead.

What a perfect illustration of why you should never give up a game!

In the following daily game, Stockfish had me winning by at least 6 points since move 32.  Then, I miss a way to win on the spot 17 moves later (49. ... Ng5).  All I needed to do is eliminate that h-pawn, even at the expense of my knight and game over.  Easy-peasy, except it's the endgame, and everyone sucks at the endgame.

Deux Ex Machina:

Miracles can happen.  Here are a few examples of opportunities my opponent missed.  See if you can find them:

This is a daily game and Stockfish says I'm up 5 pawns.  With one move I would have lost 8.5 pawns!

This is a rapid game with my opponent having over 11 minutes to think about this move.  We both were obviously napping.  See if you can do better.

This is my absolutely favorite example:  in this daily game, I have two queens!  Utterly hopeless for my opponent.  Actually I had considered the drawing move, but I had dismissed it due to missing the follow-up.  My opponent also admitted that he did the same but did not calculate properly either.

Conclusion:

I purposefully pulled non-blitz examples from my own games to show you that, even in losing positions with plenty of time on the clock, persistence, attentiveness, and creativity can pay off to save the game.  These are real games from real players that aren't super GMs.  Opportunities to save losing games happen, and happen often.  For you to fully implement these strategies, you must believe and have faith that opportunities WILL arise!  Otherwise, you will go on autopilot and miss them.

Your opponent is human and is subject to the same foibles as you.  Playing like Drunk Magnus will definitely help, but not always realistic.  If Drunk Magnus has abandoned you, remember these strategies, channel your inner Captain Kirk and beat your personal Kobayashi Maru.

This is part of an ongoing series called, "How to Suck Less at Chess."  It helps to start with this introduction to explain what I mean by sucking at chess and why you should read my blog.  If you like what you read, drop a nice comment.  It will help motivate me to produce more material.  Part 1 of "Never Ever Give Up" can be found here.