Stop Doing This in Chess Immediately! – Part 1, Attempt 2

Today's tip: Always think before recapturing.

Imagine this situation: you want to trade queens. Your opponent captures your queen with theirs, and you immediately—without thinking—capture their queen with one of your pieces. Of course, if you’re low on time, sometimes you have to do that. But if you have even a little time to think, then recapturing without considering the position is a mistake!

Most people not only do this, but also fail to consider that the opponent is not obligated to capture your piece in return during a trade. I personally run into this situation quite often, so if you follow my advice, you’ll start playing stronger (and your rating will improve too).

Maybe you don’t believe me yet. That’s why I’ve prepared a few interesting examples that show how many winning chances are missed by players who always complete the trade. Let’s take a look!

 
Example No. 1: “Don’t Take the Queen”
To start, I’ll show you a beautiful example from one of my correspondence games on Chess.com. I played as Black. White had a chance to win a pawn and get a +2.6 advantage (according to Stockfish), but because they captured the queen immediately without thinking, the position became equal.

Here, I played 22... Qxd4. It looked like a simple queen trade, and the only “reasonable” move seemed to be 23. cxd4 in return. White played exactly that—but computer analysis showed it was a blunder.

It turns out the correct move was 23. Bxf7+! And I’m sure that if White had thought longer, they would’ve found it and probably beaten me. In any case, it’s easy to see that after 23... Kh7 24. cxd4, White wins a pawn and gains the advantage.

This situation is also interesting because if Black didn’t play 24... Kh7, but tried something else, they would’ve fallen into a stunning checkmate with just minor pieces (checkmate with two knights and a bishop): 24... Kh8?? 25. Ng6+! Kh7 26. Nf8+! Kh8 27. Ng6#, or simply 24... Kf8?? 25. Nhg6#.

Example No. 2: “Don’t Take the Rook”
This example comes from one of my games on Lichess. The time control was 0+1 (bullet), I was playing Black again, and I won thanks to this idea.

In this game, my opponent played 34. Rxc8??, clearly expecting me to recapture with 34... Qxc8??. Probably, if I had played this game a few years—or even months—ago, I would’ve done exactly that. But now, since I’ve trained this habit, I didn’t rush to capture the rook. Instead, I found and played 34... Re1#, checkmate!

This example teaches us that we must think not only during a trade, but also before it.

 Example No. 3: “Don’t Take the Bishop”
Finally, I’ll present a beautiful study (not from a real game, but composed). This time, I invite you to find the correct moves yourself—a little test to see what you’ve learned from this blog.

 Conclusion
That’s the blog for today. Please leave your feedback in the comments, and if you liked the content, hit the like button and subscribe so this blog can help even more people.

By the way, you can also post your own games in the comments that illustrate the topic. If you allow it, I’ll add your games to this blog as well.

I hope to see you again in my next blog!