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Sometimes, you win games where you feel that you didn’t deserve to win. Recently, I’ve been playing not so well, with my ELO rating on rapid dropping from the high 1300s to the mid- to low-1200s. This week, I’m going to cover a few games in this general theme. Games where I made some egregious blunders, where I should have lost due to poor performance, but somehow won anyway!

I’m not sure that there’s a huge amount to learn from these games. That said, slow down and don’t make one move blunders that you see immediately after making the move! And secondly, play on, especially if the blunder is in the opening or middle game. It’s not who blunders first, or the most, but who blunders last that matters!

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

Game 1: https://www.chess.com/game/live/46061374331

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "shpend07"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C48"]
[WhiteElo "1350"]
[BlackElo "1259"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "19:32:40 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. d3 d6 6. Be3 Bb4 7. Qd2 Bd7 8. Bxc6 Bxc6 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Qxc3 Qd7 11. O-O-O O-O-O 12. d4 Nxe4 13. Qc4 Nxf2 0-1

Game 2: https://www.chess.com/game/live/45988823461

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.10"]
[Round "?"]
[White "invalida"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C45"]
[WhiteElo "1099"]
[BlackElo "1249"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "23:44:58 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Qf6 6. Nf5 Bxe3 7. Nxe3 Qxb2 8. Nd2 Nf6 9. Bc4 Ne5 10. Rb1 Qc3 11. Bb3 Nxe4 12. O-O Nxd2 13. Nd5 Nxf1 14. Nxc3 d6 15. Qxf1 O-O 16. Nd5 Be6 17. Nxc7 Bxb3 18. Nxa8 Bc4 19. Nc7 Bxf1 20. Kxf1 Rc8 21. Nb5 Rxc2 22. Nxd6 b6 23. a3 Nc4 24. Nb5 Nd2+ 25. Kg1 Nxb1 0-1