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Punishing the opponent when they hang a piece is important if you want to win. It is not uncommon that the hung piece is otherwise actually in a fairly advantageous position if not for the fact that the square was defended. This is why the opponent moved it into that position! In a previous video, I talked about “mate in 1” tunnel vision and this occurred in this game. Worse, my tunnel vision in trying to set up a mating attack meant that I straight up missed the fact that the opponent had hung their queen! Not accepting the “Botez Gambit” is rarely good…

I’ve found that sometimes when an opponent makes a move that I have categorised in my mind as impossible, like hanging their queen, I don’t recognise it as such in the game! In this game, I had simply mentally prepared in my mind that the opponent would move their queen somewhere, and if they didn’t defend their bishop, then I would capture the bishop, setting up a mate in 1 threat. When they didn’t move their queen, I didn’t register that I now had the option of capturing their queen with the rook, which was the entire purpose of blocking the threat with Re7 in the first place! Luckily for me, the fact that the opponent had only seconds left on their clock, and facing a mate in 1 threat meant that they hung their queen a second time and they resigned. This was pretty lucky for me!

I hope you enjoyed this video, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/37940977127

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "davidroth1"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A06"]
[WhiteElo "1258"]
[BlackElo "1254"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "19:35:44 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. e3 Nc6 3. c4 Bg4 4. cxd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qd7 6. Bc4 e5 7. e4 O-O-O 8. h3 Bxf3 9. gxf3 f5 10. a3 Nf6 11. Bd5 fxe4 12. fxe4 Nxd5 13. Nxd5 Qf7 14. Qa4 Bc5 15. Rf1 Rhf8 16. f4 exf4 17. Rxf4 Qe6 18. Rxf8 Rxf8 19. Qc4 Bf2+ 20. Kd1 Qxh3 21. Kc2 Re8 22. d3 Qg2 23. Bd2 Nd4+ 24. Kc3 Nc6 25. Rc1 Bd4+ 26. Kc2 h5 27. Nxc7 Kxc7 28. Qf7+ Re7 29. Kb1 Qxd2 30. Qxe7+ Kb6 31. Qd8+ 0-1