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Blunders are simply a feature at beginner-intermediate level chess. Sometimes, this can be due to miscalculation. Sometimes, it can be due to tunnel vision where you dogmatically proceed down a tactical line that is no longer good. Sometimes, it can be due to visual biases and positional blindness – for instance, with regards to diagonals and multistep knight moves.

However, the dumbest type of blunder, which I did in this game, is simply due to carelessness! On move 12, I spent about one-and-a-half minutes calculating my next move. Earlier in my thinking, I had worked out that moving the knight on c3 – Ne4 – was probably good. However, when it got to the point of actually moving the piece, I had somehow in my mind flipped the move to the other knight on f3 and played Nd4. Immediately after the move the alarm bells rang in my brain that something was wrong with the move, but of course, it’s too late! No take backs on chess.com!

This blunder changed the game from an advantage of +1, to a terrible -6, with me feeling very silly! However, where I once might have been tempted to resign immediately, I usually play on nowadays. Make the opponent earn their win! And this was the right choice in this match!

One of the strategies that can sometimes work in the middle game is to advance a pawn if you can into the opponent king’s defensive position. This has the possibility of weakening the king’s defences – which can occur through a pawn capture or trade, or by the opponent advancing one of their pawns. And on move 26, my opponent played f6, moving their pawn forward and out of the attack from my pawn on g6, and I saw my opportunity.

Stockfish evaluation suggested that Black was still completely winning, but it’s evaluation changed from -11 to the less winning -6. More than that, it required Black to identify the tactic that I was going to employ. I was no longer trying to just defend, and I wasn’t trying to win back material. Rather, I was aiming for the option that is as good as “winning” for the player is a completely losing position – a forced draw – and in this case, a draw by threefold repetition.

My rook captures their knight – Rxd4 – a seemingly desperate move in keeping with the defensive tone of my prior moves. With the rook seemingly ripe for the taking, my opponent quickly blitzed out the next move to recapture, allowing now for perpetual check of their king by my queen. Glorious!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/49427989617

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.06.19"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Thiagonzaga"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "1195"]
[BlackElo "1337"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "18:59:11 PDT"]
[Termination "Game drawn by repetition"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Bf5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 a6 5. a4 c6 6. dxc6 Nxc6 7. Nf3 e6 8. d3 Bb4 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 Bd6 11. Qe2 Bc7 12. Nd4 Nxd4 13. Qd1 Qd6 14. f4 Ng4 15. Re1 h6 16. Ne4 Bxe4 17. dxe4 hxg5 18. e5 Qc5 19. Qxg4 Qxc4 20. b3 Qc5 21. Kh1 Rfd8 22. Rad1 Rac8 23. fxg5 Bxe5 24. g6 f6 25. Rxd4 Qxd4 26. Qxe6+ Kh8 27. Qh3+ Kg8 28. Qe6+ Kh8 29. Qh3+ Kg8 30. Qe6+ 1/2-1/2