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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 from my subscriber @TFossS and is a very lovely 8-move smothered checkmate! Now, this game teaches us something about creating opportunities, and making use of opportunities when they arise.

I’ve spoken and written briefly about this before, but the subtext in many articles on chess, and comments that I’ve received, is this idea that the only legitimate way of playing is accurately. I think this notion is often an unquestioned assumption, and perhaps, has become more entrenched in the modern age of incredibly strong chess computers. However, humans are not computers, and if we take the position that our goal is to win rather than playing accurately for its own sake, then our approach can be potentially very different. The CONTEXT of the game matters! A quick perusal of the massive Lichess community database, especially of lower-rated players, will identify that often, the most accurate move according to the engine is not the move with the highest likelihood of winning!

An idea: a position that requires your opponent to play accurately, that is, where there is a favourable asymmetry in the impact of mistakes, can be a major advantage. Importantly, this advantage is not necessarily reflected by the metric given by engine evaluation.

This game had an uncommon opening, the Van Geet Opening (1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bf4) which looks like a mirror imaged Urusov Gambit in the Petrov’s Defense. I suspect both my subscriber with the White pieces and Black knew little theory of the opening, and White played quite aggressively, launching a knight attack on move 4 with Nb5, with now a double-attack of knight and bishop on c7.

Black plays inaccurately, but the mistakes were perhaps a little subtle. The main tactical mistake, however, was Black pulling their pieces backwards defensively to cocoon their king – first (5… Nd7) and then (6… Ne7). The cocoon the king, is to smother the king…

On move 7, Black plays an unfortunately one-move blunder with (7… c6), which relinquishes defence of the d6 square. White sees the opportunity and (8. Nd6#) – grabs the opportunistic smothered checkmate. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/95115540751

[Event "Live Chess"]

[Site "Chess.com"]

[Date "2023.11.30"]

[Round "-"]

[White "TFossS"]

[Black "OTEM"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Timezone "UTC"]

[ECO "A00"]

[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Van-Geet-Opening-1...Nc6-2.d4-d5"]

[UTCDate "2023.11.30"]

[UTCTime "20:34:44"]

[WhiteElo "1299"]

[BlackElo "1230"]

[TimeControl "600"]

[Termination "TFossS won by checkmate"]

[StartTime "20:34:44"]

[EndDate "2023.11.30"]

[EndTime "20:37:03"]

[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/95115540751"]

[WhiteUrl "https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/noavatar_l.84a92436.gif"]

[WhiteCountry "2"]

[WhiteTitle ""]

[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/19205518.53bafe11.50x50o.9016051705b9.jpeg"]

[BlackCountry "45"]

[BlackTitle ""]



1. d4 {[%clk 0:10:00]} 1... d5 {[%clk 0:09:59.4]} 2. Nc3 {[%clk 0:09:59.3]} 2...

Nc6 {[%clk 0:09:56.1] Van Geet Opening} 3. Bf4 {[%clk 0:09:58.5]} 3... Nf6 $6

{[%clk 0:09:52.2][%c_arrow

a7a6;keyPressed;none;from;a7;opacity;0.8;to;a6;persistent;false][%c_highlight

a6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;a6;persistent;false][%c_effect

f6;square;f6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] An inaccuracy [+0.2 $37 +0.8] - a6

is best to prevent Nb5} 4. Nb5 {[%clk 0:09:57.2]} 4... e5 $1 {[%clk

0:09:49.7][%c_effect e5;square;e5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 5. dxe5

{[%clk 0:09:57.1][%c_arrow

f4e5;keyPressed;none;from;f4;opacity;0.8;to;e5;persistent;false][%c_highlight

e5;keyPressed;shift;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false]} 5... Nd7 $4 {[%clk

0:09:42.7][%c_arrow

a7a6;keyPressed;none;from;a7;opacity;0.8;to;a6;persistent;false][%c_highlight

a6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;a6;persistent;false][%c_effect

d7;square;d7;type;Blunder;persistent;true] This is a blunder that loses the

knight} 6. Qxd5 {[%clk 0:09:44.7]} 6... Ne7 $2 {[%clk 0:08:46.4][%c_arrow

f8e7;keyPressed;none;from;f8;opacity;0.8;to;e7;persistent;false][%c_highlight

e7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e7;persistent;false][%c_effect

e7;square;e7;type;Mistake;persistent;true] A mistake [+4.5]} 7. Qd3 $2 {[%clk

0:09:07.3][%c_arrow

d5c4;keyPressed;none;from;d5;opacity;0.8;to;c4;persistent;false][%c_highlight

c4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c4;persistent;false][%c_effect

d3;square;d3;type;Mistake;persistent;true] A mistake [+2.5]. Qc4 is best, with a

double attack with the knight on c7.} 7... c6 $4 {[%clk 0:08:44.4][%c_effect

c6;square;c6;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow

e7g6;keyPressed;none;from;e7;opacity;0.8;to;g6;persistent;false][%c_highlight

g6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g6;persistent;false] A very unfortunate

blunder... 😂} 8. Nd6# {[%clk 0:09:00.4][%c_effect

e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow

d6e8;keyPressed;none;from;d6;opacity;0.8;to;e8;persistent;false][%c_highlight

e8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e8;persistent;false] Opportunistic

smothered mate $1 GG $1} 1-0