I lost in 18 moves, but didn't make a single mistake?

Hello, fellow chess players. I have an interesting game which i would like to show to you. And ok, the game itself isn't that interesting. I simply get crushed by Stockfish in a correspodence game.

But my question to you, is, why? I tried chess.com's analysis but it just told me i played fine, and yet the ending position is about -2 so black is completely winning. I would like to learn something about this game, where did i go wrong? There is a rule that goes: "A chess game is won by a mistake,whether it's your mistake or your opponent's mistake." , which makes sense. Ok, i resigned the game but I'm pretty sure i would have lost even if i had played it to the end.  Mysterious,huh?

Btw i'm chessgeniusandwizard on lichess.

Why don't you ask this Stockfish itself about your moves?

That's what i did, but it liked my moves, however i lost. That's what i'm wondering about

That disgusting thing must have solved chess, it is a win for black.

Yep, i just proved that chess is a forced win for black

Hi lukascohen, played through your game.You made two major 'mistakes'. The first is that you didn't realise you were playing a gambit opening when you have to attack and the second was you weren't trying to accomplish anything, you were just defending. Next time you play the Centre Game try 3. c3 or 3. Bc4 and go on attack! See the book '700 Opening Traps' by Bill Wall for attacking inspiration!

Your mistake was: 1.e4??, the game was lost on move 1. And exd5 on move 8. sucks 8. 0-0 and and you got a lead in development, but as I said 1.e4 and you where lost fron the start.

Tantalasquealen,

I wasn't playing a gambit opening, and had no meaning whatsoever to play the Center Game, i just wanted to force a transposition into a Scotch

hello234567,

Why'd i castle on move 8? I would lose the pawn on e4, i don't want to do that against Stockfish I didn't see anything better than exd5, i knew that Re8+ was coming but i thought i was fine.

Activity is the most important thing, by playing 8. 0-0 you would have lost a pawn but gained the bishop pair and a lead in development all your pieces would have been ready and you would have had a save king, black would have had traded his best piece the dark square bishop and still has the whole queenside undeveloped. An example plan would to pin the knight on f6 then occupy the d file with a rook there would have been lots of possibilities for an attack. Compare that to what happed, you moved all your pieces backwards and started to create tactical problems and weaknesses in your pawnstructure (f3 TERRIBLE never play f3) and you still lost a pawn except you got a bad position as well.

Against a strong engine, i think it's easier to defend a bad position than losing a pawn, although i did get both in the game But if Stockfish thinks i played good chess, how could i possibly have prevented being down a pawn? There is only one answer: Chess is solved.

the e4 pawn   was the best pillar of your defense,   at 7th move when he atacks your e4 you should've protect it with the pawn from f2, he wanted  you to move that pawn. 

milkovich,

it seemed too slow, and actually i think the best was to push my pawn to e5.

Guys, i think i finally found out the losing move. It was 6.Nb3?? Better was just to try to get the king out of the center. The engine says that the evaluation before that move was -0.10, so about equal, but after 6.Nb3 it's -0,90, so black is better.

I think you should have selected a nom de echecs other than "chessgeniusandwizard", which tempts Fate by leading with your chin. 

Yes, but Stockfish can't read.

Or... can it?

The fact that you were -0.10 after 5 moves means you made mistakes.

"A chess game is won by a mistake, whether it's your mistake or your opponent's mistake." is not a rule I have heard of... who said that exactly? Does a sum of inaccuracies count as a mistake?

The inaccuracy started right at 1. e4 e5 2. d4?!, which is a rather dubious opening. I don't see what advantage the move can provide, and it immediately isolates your e4 pawn unless you play f3. That violates the 100x more well-known rule, the Ben Finegold rule of "never play f3". And then you were caught with your king in the center and a rook looking right down the lane, which you don't want to do against anyone. 8. exd5? looks terrible as your king is wide open.

Ok, thanks! d4 was played a bit early but i think i got a decent position. Nc1 was super passive and on move 6 probably just the simple Bc4 was the solution Btw, "never play f3" is obviously a joke, there is not a single move on the chessboard that could ALWAYS be bad. And by "mistake" i don't mean the "mistake" that the computer analysis refers to. By mistake, i mean any mistake, it could be a tiny inaccuracy, or even a huge blunder. I think Tarrasch said that quote, i read it in a book written by Richard Reti.