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Today, I played an aggressive and tactical move that I thought was good, but was actually a blunder in analysis. However, humans don’t play like Stockfish, and my aggressive move induced my opponent to make a natural looking move, which was also a blunder. So in a roundabout way, the move that I thought was good, but was objectively a blunder according to a robot, actually turned out to be great against a human!

The insight that I got from this game was just the depth in the tactics in the game of chess! But also at human psychological level, there can often be gains to be had playing scary looking aggressive moves as the opponent may respond inaccurately. In this game, my blunder was only a blunder if the opponent saw the single and specific way to immediately exploit it. Otherwise, the next best move basically resulted in a neutral position.

There was a similar situation for my opponent’s super aggressive counterattack which Stockfish also called a blunder. I only had a single move that gave me the advantage – making their blunder a blunder. If I didn’t see this move, my next best move actually gave a substantial advantage to white.

I love seeing positions where the difference between a blunder and great move is a razor thin margin. I hope you found this game interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/42964811269

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.04.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "EbramWiLLiam"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "1355"]
[BlackElo "1340"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "23:47:15 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 Nc6 4. Bg2 Bf5 5. O-O Qd7 6. c4 O-O-O 7. Nc3 dxc4 8. e3 Bh3 9. Ne5 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Bxg2 11. Qxd7+ Nxd7 12. Kxg2 Nxe5 13. e4 Nd3 14. Be3 Nxb2 15. Nb5 b6 16. Nxa7+ Kb7 17. Nb5 e5 18. Rac1 c6 19. Na3 b5 20. Nc2 Nd3 21. Rb1 Bc5 22. Bxc5 Nxc5 23. Ne3 f6 24. Nxc4 Ka6 25. Ne3 Nxe4 26. Rb3 Nd2 27. Ra3+ Kb7 28. Rd1 Nc4 29. Rxd8 Nxe3+ 30. Rxe3 Rxd8 31. f4 exf4 32. Re7+ Kb6 33. Rxg7 Rd2+ 34. Kf3 Rxh2 35. Kxf4 h5 36. Rg6 Rxa2 37. Rxf6 Rf2+ 38. Kg5 Rxf6 39. Kxf6 b4 40. Ke5 b3 41. Kd4 b2 42. Kc3 b1=Q 43. g4 hxg4 44. Kd2 g3 45. Ke2 g2 46. Kf2 g1=Q+ 47. Kf3 Qf5+ 48. Ke2 Qg2+ 49. Ke3 Qfe4# 0-1