Being checkmated when on the attack

I have just lost both of these games as White.  In the first I wasn't really in a commanding position throughout but felt I was pulling it together and with move 40. Qb4 was attacking Blacks undefended Rook.  To my surprise Black moved and I'd been checkmated. 

In this second game I was according to the computer report winning throughout most of it. As you can see at the end I was eyeing up trying to promote the pawn on the b file. Once again Black moved and I'd been checkmated. 

Am I being a complete noob here, or is this common among players at the 850 level? 

I'd appreciate any feedback on the game as a whole as well.

Thanks in advance. 

Hi mate.

1st game it looks like you just didn't see the danger of the position but your opponent had. Do you see black play Qg6 on move 38?  Why would he move his queen out of file from the rook? That would've triggered alarm bells for me. I'm sure you won't get caught out like that so easily next time

2nd game you castled your king into an semi-open file which probably wasn't the wisest choice. Queenside would have been better since you had a nice pawn wall there. Sure there were pieces yet to develop, but that would have been my short term goal since your remaining king-side pawns were isolated and not really offering any defensive structure.

Just some thoughts from a fellow sub-1000 player.

Looking briefly...

Game 1... 9.d5 wins a piece, 12.Nxe6 wins a pawn...you had recovered somewhat and then switched off, missing the mate.

Game 2...7.d5 wins a piece. The final mate actually is hard to prevent, 47.f4 is the only way. Anyway, as you say it was a surprise to you as you were focused on your own plan.

So, both games you missed pawn moves early which would win a piece, both games you missed mate with the queen by your opponent. Tactic training and studying checkmate patterns will help, plus developing a sense of danger. You were concentrating on what you were doing and forgot about the potential threats of your opponents. Especially when queens are still on the board you must remain cautious of threats, always look to see what your opponent wants to do and how dangerous it is before playing the move you want. Do you have to stop them? Generally you played decently though, so don't be too downhearted. 

Thanks.

I did see the move 38...Qg6 but thought it was either to attack my Queen or he wanted to trade Queens, which I think he tried to do earlier in the game.  I thought dodging out of the way to attack his rook was a good move.   

I know he could've easily defended against it, looking at the board he could've forked my Queen and Rook with the Knight for example.  Sometimes it's psychological too. I thought the way in which I'd levelled the field and grabbed all of his central pawns would make him wary. 

But hey ho. 

I didn't see that.  I knew that I could take the Queen, but thought my Queen would then be taken by the Bishop. 

Drat, drat and double drat! 

"Am I being a complete noob here, or is this common among players at the 850 level?"

To answer this question, I'd say its completely normal at your level, and you should try to take advantage of it. I started out with chess on another chess website earlier this year, and for one reason or another I was doing a lot of mate in 1 and mate in 2 puzzles, but at the same time I didn't really pay any attention to opening principles or much else. So I constantly found myself down a lot of material, but because all I was looking for was mate constantly, I was just going all guns blazing for that, and I'd consistently win games where I was losing badly until I just mated in 1 or 2 moves (usually with a queen like you've been done with here). 

So I'd say yes, its very normal at the lower levels that your opponents will not recognise your threats, even when they seem so obvious to you. If you want to climb that ratings ladder cheaply, do a heap of mate puzzles (though you might get punished as I did later on when you meet stronger opponents haha).

I seem to have hit a wall around the 850 mark.  

I've started to play some unrated games for fun in order to gain practice and experience. Though I'm not sure I really try my best to win in such games.

I've been doing a few puzzles and lessons. Mainly I've been trying to stick to opening principals and trying not to blunder pieces. I haven't learned any systems or gone in depth into any defences. 

I only began playing in January and signed up here in mid Feb.  In March and April I was on an upward trajectory, but that seems to have stalled.   

Yeah I hit one long plateau already and then took off again. From what I read that sounds normal. I would just keep playing rated (don't worry about your rating, it'll take care of itself). Analyse your games. Keep watching the educational youtube videos. Keep doing puzzles. If you keep doing those things, ideas just slowly sink in, and your board vision gets better and better without you even realising. And before you know it your rating starts climbing again. That's been my experience so far anyway.

And also I think it's important when you get discouraged to take a break for a few days.  I've found taking a break really seems to help as I come back more excited to play, and I think concentrate better on each individual game.

I had a terrible weekend of chess last week and thought about taking a break. Someone else said don't go for longer than 3 days without playing. But I think a few days off might refresh me. 

I've been playing mainly rapid games in 30 minute format to try and give myself enough time to think things through. I know a lot of beginners seem to play blitz and bullet, but I think they come later when you're very experienced. 

In fact I'm going to take a break from playing now for 3 days and see how I feel when I return. 

Thanks for the advice guys. 

Personally speaking I think you're right with the 30 minute games. All the best advice I read (for improvement) says forget blitz and bullet. You're doing the right thing.

Nothing wrong with taking some time off buddy. I've had to for the past couple weeks. Not been able to play much at all. That's been good though. Feeling ready to push again. I'd just say don't say to yourself it must be 3 days. Just take as long as it takes until you get that urge back again. Then you'll know you're ready to scratch that itch.

I can't believe I've let it happen again. 

I was confident I could escape danger and thought I was a few steps away from winning.

I knew the Queen could come down but thought my King could just slide over and escape.  I carried on with my plan of opening up the centre and bam - checkmate. 

ur not a noob cuz in a recent Titled tournament and the last titled tuesday tournament one Gm missed a mate in 1 and the other Gm didn't do the mate in 1 cuz he didn't see the mate in 1 so even Gms can miss mate in 1

Which game?

between @Zkid and @champ2005 who were in the title tuesday tournament

You played a decent game for an 800. But one of the reasons we lose when up in material is when we fail to sort out our priorities: You should be extra careful after you win material, because you give your opponent valuable time to grab open files and diagonals. 

If you are up a piece, look to get the queens off the board, as that can help limit your opponent's chances of getting a big initiative (Weak back rank might be an exception, but it is quite easy to sort out in most cases.)

Otherwise, make sure you focus your play in the centre, as from here, pieces can be flexible in the squares they attack and defend.

Otherwise, keep it up.