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Today, I won a game that I should have lost! I basically blundered a move in the middle game, and my opponent launched a punishing and very clever attack on my king with their queen, with a mate in 1 threat. I had accepted that my poor move meant that I would straight up lose a piece without compensation. And then, my opponent made a Botez Gambit?

I remember doing this earlier in my chess journey. I see a strong and potentially winning checkmate line, and my opponent seemingly allows it to happen! So I launch it excitedly, and in my mind, I’m completely winning. My opponent then plays a move that perhaps I didn’t anticipate, but as I’ve convinced myself that my plan was winning, I miss what is an obvious counterattack, something easily sidestepped, and blunder into a losing position.

My hunch is that my opponent was probably so invested in the projection that they would have a checkmate with Qa8, they never considered what they should do when it didn’t happen when I created an escape square for the king. I can imagine the thought – ah ha! – let’s bring in another attacker! And in that “I’m winning” mindset, was blinded to the fact that the king move revealed a discovered attack on the queen by my rooks, as they’re all on the back rank. Or the fact that my knight was straight up hanging after their clever manoeuvre, and ripe for the capture.

In an earlier video, I spoke about the risk of “mate in 1 tunnel vision” and here it struck again. Unfortunately for my opponent, it instantly transformed their winning position, +6, to a losing one, -7.

I hope you found this game interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/41042902635

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.14"]
[Round "?"]
[White "viagrapill"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C24"]
[WhiteElo "1099"]
[BlackElo "1289"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "17:41:47 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 d5 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. c3 Bg4 7. O-O Nb6 8. h3 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 Nxc4 10. dxc4 Bc5 11. b4 Be7 12. Nd2 Qd7 13. Rd1 O-O-O 14. Qe3 f5 15. b5 Na5 16. Qxa7 Qd3 17. Qa8+ Kd7 18. Ba3 Rxa8 19. Nf3 Qxd1+ 20. Rxd1+ Ke6 21. Bxe7 Kxe7 22. Nxe5 Ke6 23. f4 Rhd8 24. Re1 Kf6 25. g4 fxg4 26. hxg4 g5 27. f5 Rd2 28. c5 Re8 29. b6 c6 30. Nf3 Rxe1+ 31. Nxe1 Rxa2 32. Nf3 Ra3 33. Nd4 Rxc3 34. Ne6 Rg3+ 35. Kf2 Rxg4 36. Kf3 0-1