Blundering

    Wednesday’s weather started off pretty decent...temperature in the mid-40s (7 or 8 C) with misty rain. Then temperatures dropped to 15 degrees (-9 C) with gusty winds and light snow that kept up for over 24 hours. As can be seen from the traffic camera of a nearby Interstate it was ugly out there. And, yes, there are a couple of cars in the picture. 

    It was a good day to play some online games. It was obvious from the start of the games that most of my opponents were low rated. In order to make things more challenging I played poor openings myself. For example, 1.g4, 1.f3 and 1.h4 plus I made a few unsound sacrifices. 

    Many amateurs like to think they have a tactical style and, having heard the saying “chess is 99 percent tactics,” think that by playing tactical chess they are bound to win more games. 

    From what I've seen online, some players consider blundering away a piece to be sacrificing it. Among amateur and novice players, blunders often occur because of a faulty thought process where they do not consider the opponent's forcing moves. 

    Another thing I observed is that when facing an obviously bad opening many players will play bad moves trying to refute it. Usually there is no quick refutation and instead, solid developing moves will gain the advantage. 

    Also, blunders are common simply because players don’t do a quick board scan before moving. If they did they would be less prone to putting a piece en prise and making gross tactical blunders. 

 

[Event "Online G/10"] [Site "?"] [Date "2026.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Anonymous"] [Black "Tartajubow"] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "66"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] {Irregulat Defense} 1. d4 f6 2. Bf4 (2. e4 g6 3. Nf3 Nh6 4. Bc4 e6 5. O-O Nf7 6. Re1 Bg7 7. Bb3 O-O {White is better. There is no forced win, but in the long run black's poor position told against him and he lost. Malaniuk,V (2573) -Wuttke,E (2064) Dresden, 2010} 8. c3 {1-0 (39)}) 2... Kf7 (2... e6 3. e4 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bd3 Ne7 6. Nf3 O-O {Vargas Pereda,J (2006)-Sargissyan,S (2269) chess.com INT 2022. White is better, but by no more thanb the advantage of the firt move,}) 3. e3 h6 4. Bc4+ e6 5. Nd2 {Too slow.} (5. d5 {The threat fi 6. dxe6 cretes a serious problem for black.} d6 6. dxe6+ Bxe6 7. Qh5+ Ke7 8. Bxe6 Kxe6 9. Nc3 {Black's K is badly exposed.}) 5... Kg6 {Of course 5...d5 is the best black has, but I jad an idea of what was coming. White is very well off after either 6.Bd3+ or 6.h4} 6. Qg4+ {While this is certainly not a horrible move it ends up leaving his Q exposed and black uses the time to consolidate his position.} Kh7 7. Bd3+ {A rather pointless check. Better would have been 77.h4 and the h5 with the intemtion of controlling g6.} f5 8. Qg3 d6 9. e4 Nf6 {It's time to develop! 9...g5 was probably OK, too. At this point Stockfish is saying white's advantage is about one Pawn.} 10. O-O-O Nh5 {This gains the two Bs, but continuing ti develop with 10...Nc6 has its merits/} (10... Nc6 $14) 11. Qe3 Nxf4 12. Qxf4 Qf6 13. h4 Nc6 {White should develop with 13.Ngf3. Instead he plays to break up the position on the K-side with a view to getting to my K. Howver, he doesn't have enough pieces iun play and his Q is exposed so the plan doesn;t accomplish much.} 14. g4 e5 15. dxe5 dxe5 16. Qh2 {Finally. ..a mistake. 16.g5 would have resulted in equal chances.} fxg4 {Black has a free P and white's pieces are not especially well placed.} 17. h5 Nd4 (17... Bc5 {attacking the f-Pawn would have nearly put whiyte out of commission+/-} 18. f3 Rf8 19. fxg4 Bxg4 {and black is winning.}) 18. f4 Be6 19. Nc4 {Here 19.. .Qxf4 would be decisive, Instead, I tried to get fancy and white ends up with the advantage.} Nxc2 {This earns a question mark.} 20. Qxc2 Qxf4+ 21. Kb1 Rb8 { B;ack could at least stay in the game with 21...Rd8. There is no reason at all for the text which is a serios blunder. White now has what should amount to a winning position.} 22. Ne2 (22. Rf1 {was extremely potent.} Qg5 23. Rf5 Qe7 ( 23... Bxf5 24. exf5 Qf6 25. Ne3 Rd8 26. Nxg4 {with a vicious attack.}) 24. Rxe5 Rd8 25. Rxe6 Qxe6 26. Ne2 {White has two Ns vs a R+2Ps, but more important than material, is white's positional superiority. For example...} g5 27. hxg6+ Qxg6 28. Nf4 Qc6 29. e5+ Rxd3 30. Qxd3+ Kg8 31. Rf1 Rh7 32. e6 Rg7 33. Ng6 Qc5 34. Rxf8+ {wins}) 22... Qg5 23. Ng3 b5 24. Na5 c5 25. Nf5 c4 {White still has a significant advantage, but now, even with several minutes on his clock, he saw a ghost and made a bad sacrifice when all he needed to do was retreat the B to e2/} 26. Bxc4 {[%mdl 8192]} bxc4 27. Nxc4 Rc8 {The pin is fatal.} 28. Nfd6 (28. b3 {is equally hopeless.} Bxc4 29. bxc4 Rb8+ 30. Ka1 Ba3 31. Rb1 Rhd8 32. Qc3 (32. Rxb8 Rxb8 33. Rb1 Rxb1+ 34. Kxb1 Qf4 {The threat on ...Qf1+ wins outright.}) 32... Rxb1+ 33. Rxb1 Bc5 34. Qa5 Bf2 35. c5 g3 36. c6 g2 {wins. Would I have seen all this if white had played 28.b3? Of course not.}) 28... Bxd6 29. Rxd6 Bxc4 30. Qf2 Rhd8 31. Rg6 Bd3+ 32. Ka1 Qc1+ {Why not sacrifice the Q?!} 33. Rxc1 Rxc1# 0-1