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This is part 2 of underserved winning in the game of chess! One of the risks in doggedly pursuing a position where checkmate is possible is that we can get “tunnel vision”. I’ve previously made a video cautioning this phenomenon as we approach mate in 1 attacks – we can easily lose sight of the rest of the board and make a massive blunder. This happened to me in this game, but as we’ll see, there is a twist at the end!

My opponent played an unorthodox response to e4 with b6, “Owen’s defense” or the Queen’s fianchetto defense. I knew none of the theory and don’t know how well my opponent did either. We ended up playing a fairly even game up to the middle game. Stockfish evaluation fluctuates wildly a few times on the basis of a few missed tactics on both sides. Then, as I come out ahead with a winning attack, I make a silly one move blunder, hanging a piece and killing the attack. The evaluation goes from +5 to -7! How did I win? My opponent made a two-second Botez Gambit when they had mate in 5 giving me the match! Never give up, never surrender!

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

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/46144165781

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "kennymehta"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B00"]
[WhiteElo "1242"]
[BlackElo "1180"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "18:45:05 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 b6 2. d4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. d5 Bb4 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 exd5 7. exd5 Nf6 8. c4 O-O 9. Nf3 Re8+ 10. Be2 c6 11. d6 Ne4 12. O-O Nxd6 13. Qxd6 Rxe2 14. Re1 Rxe1+ 15. Nxe1 Qe8 16. Be3 Na6 17. Rd1 Rd8 18. Qg3 Nc5 19. Bh6 g6 20. Qc3 Ne6 21. Nf3 d5 22. Nd4 Ng7 23. Nf5 Nxf5 24. Re1 Qd7 25. Bg5 d4 26. Qd3 Re8 27. Rxe8+ Qxe8 28. g4 h6 29. Bf6 Qe1+ 30. Kg2 c5+ 31. Kh3 Qf1+ 32. Qxf1 1-0