Thursday, July 17, 2008

Blowing It With One Bad Move

Kids: How many times have I admonished you about king safety? (No, I don't need an exact number; it's a rhetorical question.) And do you listen?

Okay, so maybe you do: good. But do I listen -- to my own advice? Not from the look of this game. I had the advantage throughout. I was turning up the pressure, controling space, and was up a rook to a pawn, but in my lust for material, and because I ignored my opponent's attack while pursuing my own plans, I enabled him/her to swoop down and mate me.



My big blunder was 30. g3, which made mate inevitable. Even after 29. ... Qh4, with Black's queen and knight bearing down on my king, Chessmaster scores the game at 6.62 -- a big lead for White.

The move I missed was 30.Qxf7, which would have protected the f2 square and pressured Black's king. Chessmaster's continuation: 30. ... Qxh2+ 31.Kf1 Qh1+ 32.Ke2 Nf6 33.Qe6 Qh5+ 34.f3 Qg6 35.Qf5 Qxf5 36.exf5 Nd5 37.Nb5 Nf4+ 38.Kf1 d5 39.Rb7.

2 comments:

Robinson said...

Isn't the first blunder black's 6th move? Shouldn't 7. Qa4+ win the knight?

Tom Panelas said...

Yep. The old fork the king and knight-on-the-rim tactic. Missed it. By way of explanation: (a) it was a G/5 blitz game, and (b) I'm not very good at chess.

Neither was my opponent, apparently, though he/she/it* did win the game.

*It was online, so I don't know the sex, or for that matter even the species.