Imagine watching a chess match where one side is destroying their opponent from start to finish, but then, at some point, they just resign! You'd be confused, maybe, and even wonder if you didn't see the game right at that point or if the winning side was just high. Well, I am that high chess player, and I will be sharing this particularly interesting game.
I hung my queen! Or so I thought, but I had already resigned from the game. It wasn't until much later, in a different game, that it dawned on me that I had made the stupidest mistake ever.
I shouldn't have resigned the game even if I hung my queen, but the situation of the fact that I hung my queen infuriated me and I couldn't hold the embarrassment so I resigned.
What I'm going to do now is to share the game with you and show you the position at which I resigned.
The Game
| 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nc6 3. c4 g6 4. cxd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qa5 6. d5 Nb4 7. a3 Bg7 8. e4 Bg4 9. Bd2 Bxf3 10. gxf3 Na6 11. Bb5+ c6 12. dxc6 bxc6 13. Bxc6+ Kf8 14. Bxa8 Nf6 15. Nd5 Qb5 16. Rc1 Ne8 17. Bc6 Qb8 18. Qa4 Nac7 19. Bxe8 Nxd5 20. exd5 Be5 21. Bh6+ Bg7 22. Bd7 Qe5+ 23. Be3 Bh6 24. Qd4 Qxd4 |
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1. Nf3 - I was playing white, and my favourite opening is the zukertort opening where I play Knight f3 on the first move. My opponent responds with d5, which is the most response I get for playing 1. Nf3
And the game continues with 2. d4 Nc6 which is the chigorin variation. I also get this alot and I like seeing it cause my next couple of moves are pretty straight forward.
3. c4 - Like I said, my next couple of moves are pretty straight forward. Next comes a shocking move which I think is a very bad and awful move, g6. Funny how I just checked the engine and it totally agrees.
And the best move in response is to play 4. cxd5 and that's what I played. Luring the black queen forward and punishing him for such a bad move. He plays Qxd5
So the next move comes very natural and it's 5. Nc3, developing with tempo on the vulnerable black queen. My opponent plays Qa5 in response, the usual and common spot for the queen in such positions. You'll know this from the Scandinavian defense.
Next I pushed 6. d5 that's what I usually do in this kinds of positions because after the vulnerable queen the knight on C6 is next, so I attack it with my pawn. Forcing to move back or wander in the wild, that is in the white's position and be further attacked. Which my opponent did with Nb4.
Here I said to myself this person really wants a chess beating 😅.
7. a3 my response to attacking the knight which was futile because I wasn't actually threatening to win the knight cause my room would having been hanging if I ever took the knight. My opponent knowing this ignored and moved on with his development with Bg7. That hurt. I don't like making dumb moves I know I should have known whether it works or not.
So I played 8. e4, solidifying my center and preparing to develop my bishop on c1 that is obstructing my queen from defending my rook. My opponent plays Bg4. I'm sure his idea was to not only pin my knight to my queen but that after he captures lures my queen to a square where she would lose defense of the c2 square where there is a potential fork for my opponent.
Not panicking and knowing my knight is not only defended by my queen but is also defended by my pawn which makes his plan futile. So I played 9. Bd2, here my bishop is x-raying my opponents queen through my knight and his knight.
That is not only my advantage but I am threatening to win his knight on the next move, cause now my rook is defended by my queen. My opponent going along with his plan played Bxf3. The only thing he achieved with that plan was damaging my pawn structure and nothing more. Now he has to deal with my threat. I played 10. gxf3.
My opponent finally deals with my threat and plays Na6. Only that I had a win because of that move and I didn't see it. I just found out from the engine. With Na4 I win the queen. Because he is trapped!
But because of my tunnel vision I played what I had already had in mind which was to develop my f1 bishop with check. I played 11. Bb5+ which was accounted as a blunder by the engine, because he cound have just gone f8 and not give me all the advantage but he played c6. In my mind I was like, you know, he is in for serious destroying.
I played 12. dxc6 and he responded by taking back with bxc6 and I took next with my bishop with check and forking the king and the rook. I played 13. Bxc6+ and finally he went Kf8.
Let me not bore you with every single move I and my opponent played and let me just take you to the highlight of the game. Which is me thinking I hung my queen.
Fast forward to move 24, I played 24. Qd4 and immediately I thought, "oh no, I hung my queen". Why did I think that? In my memory note I was like, my bishop which is supposed to be defending my queen which is attacking my opponents queen is being pinned.
But little did I know that if my opponent took my queen he is no longer pinning the bishop to my king therefore I could recapture with that bishop.
But the major irony was I resigned after having a mate in two which I didn't see. How ironical and painful is that? The engine reveal this to me. Which I could have also seen if I had calmed down and analysed the position myself, because that was my ultimate plan, checkmate!
My opponent took my queen with Qxd4. I leave you with this puzzle find mate in 2, in this position.
Thank you all. I enjoyed writing this post and I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to be doing more of this in the future. Let me know if you also enjoyed it. I will also be awaiting your response from the puzzle.
