The worst feeling in chess...

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Avatar of Hassi94

This is in my book the worst kind of loss.. When you have a really good game with no blunders and just genereally playing a proper game of chess, and then when you finally think you got it in the bag a dreadful blunder occurs...

Like in this game where I was really happy with my play all around and towards the end I was up a full rook. But he defended well considering his situation and was quite stubborn so I had my guard up. But then when I saw I had the chance to exchange queens I was sure it was over. I didn't even think twice before I took the pawn on f4 to force the trade, but I realized immediately afterwards that disaster was coming... My clear winning position turned to a clear losing position in one move.

Kudos to my opponent for being so resilient. But hopefully I, and maybe some of you out there aswell, can learn something from this. Never take a win for granted and let your guard down even if you're up a huge amount of material!!

Avatar of YourBurgerMate

When I skimmed through the game quickly, 14...Rh4 caught my eye. Other moves seem to be fine up until then and the next move to look at would be 17...Kh8. In that case, Kxf7 would solve the bishop pair problem at the end of the game.

 

White got their pieces out and black didn't finish development. Moves like 14...Nc6 and 14...Bd7 might be more solid for black. Is this a sign that after dynamic play you put on the brakes as you near move 15? I would never have spotted and played 10...Qf6.

 

Thanks for sharing.

Avatar of Hassi94

Yes you are probably right. Rh4 was a fancy move but it also led to a lack of development. This is typical for me when there is a tactical game with lots of stuff going on. I tend to focus too much on certain moves, while simple developing moves might be more practical or even better.

The reason I didn't go 17.Kxf7 was that I though that would run into 18.Qf3+ and something like 18.Qf6 19.Qxf6 gxf6 20.gxh3 Rxh3. I didn't want that to happen cause I really wanted my bishop there for tactical reasons. What I didn't realise was that after 18.Qf3+ I had Bf6. So I definitely should have gone Kxf7.

In regards to 10.Qf6 it took me over 4 minutes to find it.. 10. Qh5 really took me off guard and it wasn't what I expected.

Thanks for your feedback, some interesting takes there! 

Avatar of zes0460

Lasker said "Hardest game to win is a won game".

Never start celebrating, never go into that psychology.. you are your worst enemy.

Avatar of Hassi94

Wise words from Lasker!