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  • Friday, October 28, 2011

    85 Reasons Why You Lose

    I was looking over Bill Wall’s chess page and when I saw an article titled Reasons Why You Lose at Chess I had to check it out! So, thanks to Mr. Wall, here are the real reasons why we lose somewhat updated by me.
    1-2011 is what he said; I thought he was talking about the year, not his rating
    2-after the game, I noticed my opponent had two bishops of the same color.
    3-as Black, forgot which way the pawns were moving in the endgame
    4-attempted to checkmate, but blocked by one of opponent's pawns, which was hidden from view behind his queen!
    5-Chair was too short to see over the pieces.
    6-backward pawns
    7-bad move in a bad position
    8-bank rank mate was overlooked
    9-beans and bananas for breakfast
    10-boss came in while you were playing on the Internet at wor
    11-castled into it
    12check was overlooked
    13-checkmate threat was overlooked
    14-confused MCO column 12, note 6 with column 21, note 9 and lost queen
    15-counterplay was overlooked
    16-created holes
    17-developed my pieces too slowly or not at all
    18-diarrhea during the end game
    19-doubled pawns
    20-drawn game repeatedly declined by my opponent at least a dozen times
    21-endgame ruined my superior opening preparation
    22-endgame technique is weak
    23-en passant move was forgotten
    24-everyone watching my game agreed I was winning except my opponent
    25-exposed king
    26-faulty exchange
    27-forgot to say "J'adoube" and lost Queen while adjusting it
    28-forgot to stop clock while looking for the TD to ask what the time control was
    29-full moon
    30-glass chess set pieces opponent brought looked the same, lost Queen
    31-got too fancy
    32-greed
    33-hallucinated or ghost affect
    34-heart attack or stroke
    35-hypnotized by opponent and a spectator named Dr. Zukar
    36-I was winning on time until my opponent checkmated me
    37-knocked king over while I tried to shake my opponent's hand in a draw offer
    38-long diagonal threat was overlooked
    39-lost on time while I considered my opponent's draw offer
    40-lucky checkmate my opponent found before I could checkmate him
    41-mishandled pieces
    42-missed opportunity
    43-neglect of center
    44-noise
    45-opening preparation poor
    46-opponent did not follow my opening preparation that led to mate
    47-opponent had beaten a master the round before - with an iron bar
    48-opponent had no bra and bent over the pieces too much
    49-opponent sneezed on the chess set; said he had a contagious disease or bird flu
    50-opponent spent too much time in the book stalls during the opening
    51-opponent would not resign when he was in a lost position
    52-opposition of kings by my opponent
    53-perpetual check didn't last very long to avoid the 50 move rule
    54-played the King's Gambit Accepted and lost a pawn early on move two
    55-poison pawn or piece was grabbed
    56-positional errors
    57-queen and king looked too much alike in this East European chess set; lost Queen
    58-removed a defender and dropped a piece
    59-right moves were made, but not in the right order
    60-rook sacrifice failed when he took my Queen instead
    61-sacrifice overlooked
    62-sacrificed a piece, but then forgot why
    63-stalemate avoided
    64-stopped analysis one move short
    65-studied How to Beat Bobby Fischer and was unprepared for other opppnents
    66-sunglasses by my opponent blinded me from the glare
    67-tactical error; faulty tactics
    68-team captain said a draw was no good for the team, so I resigned
    69-tempo loss
    70-theoretical draw doesn't work in practice
    71-thought rook and pawn ending was a draw; he had the rook and I had the pawn
    72-time control must have changed; thought it was 40 moves in 5 hours, not 40 in 2
    73-time pressure by my opponent; too much distraction watching the flag rise
    74-toilet break was too long; shouldn't have eaten 4 burritos and tacos at once
    75-transposed opening moves
    76-tried for too much
    77-uncoordinated pieces
    78-underestimated my opponent
    79-unjustified attack
    80-unlucky pairing with Nakamura; played blitz chess and lost
    81-weakened castled King's position
    82-went out for a walk in the fresh air, forgot about tournament, kept walking
    83-wrong rook
    84-zugzwanged my opponent, but then he found a way out
    And I will add…


    85-after analyzing my correspondence game for an hour, played my move on the server but didn’t check to make sure it was the position I had been analyzing.

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