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Recently, I’ve had three rapid games where I won in less than 10 moves. At the beginner-intermediate level with an ELO rating around 1200, people no longer succumb to openings like the Scholar’s Mate, and nor do dubious but tricky lines like the Wayward Queen Attack work. When I had a look at these three games as a group, I identified some themes that I hadn’t really conceptualised before.

Theme 1: all three games did involve an early “Wayward Queen”-like move, but where the Queen is supported by two other pieces. Simply, in the context of the games, the threat from the queen is real and not easily or obviously refuted.

Theme 2: all three games involved an attack on the opponent’s f-pawn. This is often an important tactical target in an opening as it is the only piece that starts with only one defender – the king.

Theme 3: in all three games, the opponent responds to this threat with a queen move in front of their f-pawn – so Qf3 or Qf6 depending on whether the opponent is playing with White or Black respectively. As can be seen in Stockfish evaluation, defending the f-pawn with the queen in this manner is a mistake.

Theme 4: and the last really powerful tactic, is getting a knight on d5 (when White) or d4 (when Black). This knight powerfully hits the queen on f3 or f6, and forks the c-pawn, which no longer has a defender due to the queen having moved.

Put together, the opponent’s queen is often overstretched – unable to simultaneously defend the f-pawn where there may be a checkmate threat, defend the c-pawn from the knight which might come with check and a king-rook fork, and escape the direct attack from the knight itself.

Game 1: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4dyaoJ7r6r

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/F6uAxsKz"]
[Date "2022.06.24"]
[Round "?"]
[White "elyiou"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2022.06.24"]
[UTCTime "13:46:09"]
[WhiteElo "1562"]
[BlackElo "1560"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-11"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+15"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "C57"]
[Opening "Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Nxe4 5. Nxf7 Qh4 6. Qf3 Nd4 0-1

Game 2: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/kidH6gUv2

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/PC9Wlcp3"]
[Date "2022.07.10"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "xSeRGeYx"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2022.07.10"]
[UTCTime "12:27:03"]
[WhiteElo "1549"]
[BlackElo "1531"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+13"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-5"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "C25"]
[Opening "Vienna Game: Stanley Variation, Meitner-Mieses Gambit"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Qg4 Qf6 5. Nd5 Qxf2+ 6. Kd1 Nf6 7. Qxg7 Rg8 8. Nxf6+ Ke7 1-0

Game 3: https://www.chess.com/game/live/51596420913

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.07.14"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Sulaeman10"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C25"]
[WhiteElo "1217"]
[BlackElo "1209"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "21:05:09 PDT"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 c5 3. Bc4 a6 4. Qh5 Qf6 5. Nd5 Qd6 6. Nc7+ Qxc7 7. Qxf7+ 1-0