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chess noob Quick Wins! is a series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

Today’s game is against another Aussie, @Warlpiriman in a Team Australia Easter Tournament. I had the White pieces and Black played the full symmetric Max Lange Defense against the Vienna Game in a slightly different move order, otherwise known as the “copycat” variation (1. e4 Nc6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Bc4 Bc5)! Never go full copycat!

And the reason, is that with (4. Qg4) it’s no longer possible for Black to copy moves, and the most common response by Black is the powerful and sensible looking (4… Qf6) counterattacking the f2 pawn, looking like they might have a scholar’s mate!

However, we now have the devious Mietner-Mieses Gambit with (5. Nd5), attacking the queen, and effectively begging Black to take the f-pawn! The fascinating thing here is that this is actually Black’s best move, but White remains ahead on evaluation, and it now becomes extremely difficult for Black to navigate the position despite objectively only being [+0.75]. In fact, Black will very commonly have their position disintegrate in the next few moves, and possibly lose their queen!

And that’s what we see, after the queen takes the f2 pawn, the king slides to completely safety on d1 (5… Qxf2+ 6. Kd1). And now, Black realises their problems… My queen is attacking g2, and if that falls, it looks like massive material loss. My knight on d5 is attacking the c7 pawn, which would come with an absolute fork of the king and rook! Basically, I have an attack on both sides of Black’s home territory!

My opponent doesn’t find the necessary move that covers both these attacks (Kf8), and opts to push their g-pawn to g6 instead. A blunder [+5.5]. Because with (7. Nh3), suddenly the Black queen is not only off-side, it is almost trapped! In fact, at high depth, Stockfish doesn’t believe that the queen can be rescued, but rather, recommends a somewhat complicated series of moves where they lose an additional piece but force a queen trade, rather than losing the queen outright!

My opponent doesn’t find this, and desperately tries to evacuate their queen, and don’t succeed. On move 11, they lose their queen. On move 13, they lose a rook. On move 14, my queen creeps forward with a check and Black resigns, down not only 14 points of material, but also, crippled by emotional damage! GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/499854755

[Event "TA 2023 Easter Bilbies tournament - Round 1"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.04.06"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Warlpiriman"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Tournament "https://www.chess.com/tournament/ta-2023-easter-bilbies-tournament"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C23"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game-Max-Lange-Meitner-Mieses-Gambit"]
[UTCDate "2023.04.06"] 
[UTCTime "08:26:07"]
[WhiteElo "1211"]
[BlackElo "822"]
[TimeControl "1/172800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "08:26:07"]
[EndDate "2023.04.08"]
[EndTime "04:53:18"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/499854755"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.82046355.50x50o.c8c8e6b7296c.jpg"]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/8595342.45b26bb1.50x50o.5792cc3e3af7.jpeg"]
[BlackCountry "17"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 Nc6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Bc4 Bc5 {\"Copy cat\" variation of the Vienna Game, Max
Lange Defense is not good for Black $1 [+0.4]} 4. Qg4 Qf6 5. Nd5 {The
Mietner-Mieses Gambit is very tricky for Black to navigate $1 [+0.75]} 5... Qxf2+ $1
{[%c_effect f2;square;f2;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 6. Kd1 g6 $4
{[%c_effect g6;square;g6;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e8f8;keyPressed;none;from;e8;opacity;0.8;to;f8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f8;persistent;false] Unfortunately for
Black, this move is a blunder [+5.5] and we are about to enter a line where
Black queen can get trapped in the middle of the board.} 7. Nh3 $1 {[%c_effect
h3;square;h3;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 7... Qd4 {[%c_arrow
d7d6;keyPressed;none;from;d7;opacity;0.8;to;d6;persistent;false,f7f5;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;f5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d6;persistent;false,f5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f5;persistent;false]
Extraordinarily, at high depth, Stockfish believes that the Black queen is lost
and recommends mitigating the losses $1} ({Stockfish at lower depth...} 7... d6 8.
Nxf2 Bxg4+ 9. Nxg4 {... and chess continues with White up a clean piece, and
Black has no real winning chances... [+7.3]}) ({Stockfish at higher depth...}
7... f5 8. Nxc7+ Kd8 9. Qg5+ Be7 10. Nxf2 Bxg5 11. Nxa8 {... and chess continues
- Black is definitely worse but White needs to consolidate carefully [+5.5]}) 8.
d3 {The Black queen is now trapped...} 8... Bd6 $6 {[%c_effect
d6;square;d6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c5e7;keyPressed;none;from;c5;opacity;0.8;to;e7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e7;persistent;false] The noose tightens
around the queen [+8.3]} 9. c3 Nh6 $4 {[%c_effect
h6;square;h6;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
d4c5;keyPressed;none;from;d4;opacity;0.8;to;c5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c5;persistent;false] Black straight up
blunders their knight in an attempt to counterattack the queen [+14.5]} 10. Bxh6
Qxc4 {Queen has to take a piece with her as she goes down...} 11. dxc4 Bc5 12.
Nxc7+ Kd8 13. Nxa8 d6 14. Qg5+ {[%c_effect
d1;square;d1;type;Winner,d8;square;d8;type;ResignBlack] Emotional damage, GG $1}
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