When you win due to an opponent missing a key move...

Twice in the last day, just after hitting submit, I saw an incredible move for my opponents (a real Queen winning !!) attack in the one instance, and a wonderful attack on my King that would've just cleaned me up. Both of my opponents missed these moves, and when I returned to the game seeing that they hadn't played the move I was incredibly relieved, gaining a new lease on life.

The thing is, while I really like these games for other reasons, I've been doing my damndest to play technically correct, or optimal.

I feel like these horrible blunders are like blemishes on what I want to be little (alberit patzerish) works of art.

It's like the value of the game (if I win) is tarnished, because I'll always know that if my opponent saw that single move, I would've been entirely blown away...

It puts me in a weird feeling about the game - I mean, of course in all games of chess both sides make mistakes, and it's okay if you win due to your opponent making a few subpar moves that you're able to incrementally capitalize on; but this is like them missing a mate in 1.

I guess I should be happy that they missed it, but gosh... I feel like I "lost" the personal chess battle with myself.

Maybe after the game is finished I'll post the position as a puzzle...

I know how you feel. I can relate. I choose to see it differently, though...

If you saw moves that your opponent did not, it likely means that you are a better player than that person. Therefore, you deserve to win the game.

It doesn't always mean you're better, but for that series of moves, you certainly played better - seems like a paradox, but your opponent would have seen the crushing move if he had been playing better at that moment.

All in all, chess is a game where capitalizing on mistakes is key to victory. In GM games, the mistakes are more subtle (creating a weak square, or not putting a piece on it's best post, for instance), but mistakes are a part of chess.

If nobody ever made mistakes playing the game, we'd all draw each other all the time and there would be no point in playing!

This is reason why I ask for special spectalces to see moves after I look look look and do not see. In my games the other side never misses great moves to kill me. You are lucky man Rael, can you please send to me some of this luck?

This happens to me sometimes too. I like when this happens (obviously) but also because it reassures me that chess is all about skill. If you play practically flawless, you will win.

Yeah - I've been on this real kick lately where I'm striving to look for extremely strong moves, trying to have maximal efficiency - I've been binging on the Chessmaster 11 Academy lectures, and getting excited that finally after 2 years some real chess knowledge is sinking in, that I'm understanding how to strive for positional weaknesses in trades or maintain the tempo or which side of the board to try a pawn storm and ALL that wonderful jazz that goes with chess, and I feel like I'm really playing actual chess for the first time, not blunderifically just throwing out my pieces haphazardly and hoping for the best...

... so it's pretty demoralizing when I realize that I walked into something where in one piercing move my opponent could've demolished me... it's like after all my efforts the only reason the game continues is because my opponent effectively missed a mate in 1.

It also makes a weird mockery of the effort that was invested to that point, like, here I am looking for ways to create small incremental weaknesses in my opponents position, making prophilactic moves and looking for long combinations just to win a single pawn, and then after clicking submit seeing that I just dropped a Queen and the game with her, hilariously.

I guess I'm just taking it more seriously right now, so all of my self-congratulatory feelings about how my chess prowess is improving kindof evaporates and I'm reminded of my utter patzerdom.

I guess that's another thing about chess - no matter how well you've played the game leading up to a point, if your attention slips for a single turn that's all it can take to unravel all of your hard work.

Well, I look at it like this: If they miss opportunities to win, then they didn't play good enough. All I have to focus on is my precision.

We all miss moves, usually without knowing it.

The experts say to review every game you play with a notepad in hand.  Notate you feelings about the entire game, and any key moves or combinations.  Sounds easy... wrong.

This exercise beat my ego up so badly my rating dropped over 150 points in a week.  Sure I found some of my opponents missed moves, but I missed mates, had exposures to forks, pins, left pieces hung for a series of moves - while developing attacks that actually strengthened my opponents position.  After the review I could not make moves in any of my games for fear that I was making some sort of blunder.  But the fact is, they did not capitalize on many of the mistakes.

It is all what you see when you look at the board. 

It is all what they see when they look at the board. 

Nothing else matters.

When the game is complete I'll post it in this thread and include the reasoning behind my thinking. Basically it was something wherein I'd determined that he couldn't make such and such a capture because he would've left his Queen hanging to mine, and then I looked at other plans, ways of improving my position, and I was like "Gee, it would rule if my rooks were connected", and so I moved the king up to connect them, and hit submit, missing the fact that now if the same capture happened from before, it was with check, dropping MY Queen.

Horrible.

It sounds like you should be spending much less time on all the positional stuff and focus mainly on tactics.

We all bang on about it on the forums as the way to go but for good reason! My friend went from around 800 rating to 1900 in about one or 2 months from just focusing pretty much solely on tactics!

Rael: you need to do the 'blunder check'. When you've done all your thinking and finally decided on a move, take a moment and ask yourself whether he can check you, capture any of your pieces, make a double attack, etc.

Of course you'd hope you would see those during your analysis, but going through this process once you've decided on your move will help get rid of the silly mistakes.

Rael,

You'll feel better about it if you read Zug's latest article:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-open-file---take-his-rook-archil

Well, for me anyways, it tends to be the opposite way around! I usually miss some really key moves that would have saved the position and given me the advantage. It happens every couple of games, (don't know if I'm paying attention or something) but I don't know why. The worst part is discovering it right after you hit submit, seeing it, but you don't want to look at it again (fearing the worst), and BAM!, your opponent runs away with the game.

ADK 

Oh man, that article rules! You were right, Kickaha, if it happens to a player of Zug's calibre, I shouldn't beat myself up for it. I suppose it's the nature of the beast. If you haven't read Zug's blog right there yet, you really should, it's a really engaging read.

Atomicchicken - you're absolutely right about the tactics. I tentatively broached a fresh attempt at tactics trainer again, and holy lord is that a glaring blindspot in my ability. That needs to be addressed stat.

Thanks for letting me vent, all - good advice from everyone.

Just read it -- funny!

Sometimes we overthink things. We expend so much energy looking for brilliancies, we fail to see the simple things.

The fact that the spectators all seem to see the errors points to another phenomenon. Chess is a lot easier to play when it ain't your gluteus maximus in the crosshairs.

I feel the exact same way whenever I run my game through an engine. Its only then that I see those surprise pins and forks that, if my opponent saw, would obliterate me. The fact is, unless you are playing strong opponents (or cheaters) these tactics are probably going to be missed by your opponent as well.

The only thing you can hope to do is always double check for blunders before you hit the submit button. Its weird but I agree you seem to always notice those blunders that cause you to beat yourself into a coma as soon as you hit that submit button.

Hey listen, even the best of the best of super GMs have found themselves in this position. It is the human element, which by the way, is disappearing more and more with the continued advent of computer chess and engines of great, in depth analysis.

I played a game over a year ago on here with linksspringer, who was rated higher than myself. I was leading in position. But then, I moved my Queen where I had NOT intended to move her, and lost my position. It was a great blunder, the biggest one I ever made on here. I resigned the game.

It just happens to everybody at times.

Yes, 'everyone makes mistakes'. We've said that now, we don't need to say it a hundred times over.

I agree with the original post, which said:

"I feel like these horrible blunders are like blemishes on what I want to be little (alberit patzerish) works of art.

It's like the value of the game (if I win) is tarnished, because I'll always know that if my opponent saw that single move, I would've been entirely blown away..."

Exactly. The game will not make it into my top ten. Unfortunately it won't be in my collection of Best Games which I imagine bound in leather and gold-leaf with glowing pages full of WonderGames...

The quest for wonder games is part of the motivation to improve.  The tarnished games just make me say D'OH!!

Wow . . . you not only want the win but you want it to be artistic and flawless as well. You're either, A) Too hard on yourself--Lighten up; after all, you won for Pete's sake or B) a self-absorbed person of great leisure who has no real stress in their life who needs to make up a "meaningful" situation to fret over. Get over yourself. There are many who have greater things to worry about. Loss of loved ones, loss of jobs, repossessions of homes, cars, etc. It's a GAME . . . learn from mistakes (whether your opponent saw them or not) and simply play better the next time.

I see it from Rybka's point of view.

Chess ist about mistakes. As far as we know every game starts with a score of about +0.21 and it ends with either 0.00, +299.99 or -299.99.

Nobody can increase the score of any given position by playing a fantastic move. All You can do is decrease it by playing the wrong move