BLUNDER! Don't play the Napoleon-ish Queen!

BLUNDER! Don't play the Napoleon-ish Queen!

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#ViennaGame 

As a general principle, bring out the queen early is typically bad unless it's a specific line of theory.  However, there are some lines that are especially bad this is one of them in the Vienna Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3).

One of the things about the Vienna Game is that at the beginner-intermediate level, many people just don't know how to respond.  In this game against an opponent in their 1200s, they played (2... Qf6), which is like a reverse Napoleon Attack (https://www.chess.com/blog/vitualis/the-napoleon-attack-is-bad).  Stockfish calls this a straight up mistake [+1.75] (which is pretty bad on move 2).

The reason why this is so bad in the Vienna is that Nd5 immediately forks the queen on f6 and the pawn on c7.  That's what I played, which was a little impatient, but it will often induce another blunder by Black, which is moving the queen to c6 (3. Nd5 Qc6).  The best move for Black is for the queen to just go back to its home square, a move that is inhuman.  On c6, the queen blocks the natural development square of the knight, and it's in a position where it will be at risk of being trapped and captured, as we'll see later in this game!

That opportunity came on move 10.  I missed the best move, which is (10. Bxb5).  The bishop pins the queen to the king and thus forces the queen to capture the bishop back (10... Qxb5) or it'll be lost next turn.  However, with the queen now on b5, a forward knight attack (11. Nxc7+) results in a royal fork of the king and queen, and again, the queen is lost!

Not seeing that immediate winning move, I took a slightly more passive approach, bringing in an extra attacker to the b5 square before launching the attack.  This worked and the white queen was still pinned to king and lost and resigned soon afterwards.  GG.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/59346067615 

Hi!  I'm vitualis, the chess noob, and I run the "Adventures of a Chess Noob" YouTube channel and blog.  I'm learning and having fun with chess! 

I restarted playing chess recently after my interest was rekindled by the release of "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix.  I mostly play 1 or 2 games a day, and am trying to improve (slowly!).  I document some of my games and learning experiences on my blog and YouTube channel from the perspective of a beginner-intermediate player!


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