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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 one of my Team Australia clubmates @Bumblebek, who is a relative beginner, rated in the 400s. They submitted this game of 1-minute bullet which is a very nice demonstration of a particular phenomenon that occurs in beginner-intermediate chess. That is, the player who has a battle plan and follows it, has an advantage against an opponent who doesn’t have a plan. Just following a plan provides purpose and cohesion to the moves, and in the context where the game isn’t very accurate, which is typically true in casual chess in short time controls, this can be decisive!

My subscriber had the White pieces and played the King’s Pawn Opening: Leonardis Variation (1. e4 e5 2. d3). This is a bit suboptimal, but part of the plan. It opens the diagonal for the dark square bishop, and the opening is uncommon. In bullet where you are relying on rapid pattern recognition, this takes the opponent out of their expectation.

Black responds sensibly by playing (2… d5), taking the full centre, but White gambits their e-pawn for activity, and uses the tempo to advance their knight into attacking position (4. Ng5!?). This is inaccurate, but the battle plan is to hit Black’s weak f7-pawn with knight and queen (4… exd3 5. Qf3!?).

With the immediate rapid attack that is unbalanced, Black is notionally better at almost [-2], but this is only if they play accurately. They block the mating attack with (5… Nf6?!) a sensible looking move that is a bit inaccurate. However, in the subsequent moves, Black flails at White trying to make a counterattack, but this approach was a mistake. It was important for Black to just develop. White rebuffs Black’s counterattack easily and wins more advantage in development doing so.

On move 9, White plays (9. Nde4!?) with the goal of dislodging Black’s f6-knight. This move is an inaccuracy in evaluation, with White giving up their objective advantage back to equality [0.00]. Simply, Black isn’t obliged to move their knight! However, part of the psychological game is creating opportunities for your opponent to blunder, and here Black lost sight of continuity, perhaps forgetting why their knight was on f6 and took the bait (9… Nxe4??)!

With the knight no longer blocking White’s queen’s access to the f7 square, checkmate (10. Qxf7#)! GG!

Game: https://www.chess.com/game/live/98955874345

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2024.01.14"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Bumblebek"]
[Black "MSVSvitez"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "rnbqk2r/ppp2Qpp/8/b3p1N1/4n3/2PB4/PP3PPP/R1B1K2R b KQkq -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C20"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Kings-Pawn-Opening-Leonardis-Variation-2...d5"]
[UTCDate "2024.01.14"]
[UTCTime "07:21:13"]
[WhiteElo "479"]
[BlackElo "321"]
[TimeControl "60"]
[Termination "Bumblebek won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "07:21:13"]
[EndDate "2024.01.14"]
[EndTime "07:21:52"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/98955874345"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/310134689.4830de87.50x50o.d7b820b16de9.jpg"]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/noavatar_l.84a92436.gif"]
[BlackCountry "127"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 {[%clk 0:01:00]} 1... e5 {[%clk 0:01:00]} 2. d3 {[%clk 0:00:59.9] King's
Pawn Opening: Leonardis Variation. This is a slightly suboptimal opening for
White [-0.2]. However, as it is uncommon and unexpected, it can have a
psychological advantage in very short time controls like this game of 1-min
bullet.} 2... d5 {[%clk 0:00:57.7]} 3. Nf3 {[%clk 0:00:58.9] Notice that White
approaches this game with a set tactical plan; to attack Black's weak f7-pawn
with a knight and queen combination. Although the moves are not necessarily
accurate, the player with the plan will often defeat the player without one $1}
3... dxe4 {[%clk 0:00:56.3]} 4. Ng5 $5 {[%clk 0:00:57.7][%c_effect
g5;square;g5;type;Interesting;persistent;true][%c_arrow
g5f7;keyPressed;none;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false,g5e4;keyPressed;none;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;e4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false,e4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e4;persistent;false]
White gambits the pawn, and places the knight in an attacking position $1} 4...
exd3 {[%clk 0:00:54.7]} 5. Qf3 $5 {[%clk 0:00:56.4][%c_effect
f3;square;f3;type;Interesting;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f1d3;keyPressed;none;from;f1;opacity;0.8;to;d3;persistent;false,g5f7;keyPressed;none;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false,f3f7;keyPressed;none;from;f3;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d3;persistent;false,f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false]
White gambits another pawn; note the mating attack on f7 $1} 5... Nf6 $6 {[%clk
0:00:51.8][%c_effect f6;square;f6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f7f6;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false] Surprisingly, (5...
f6) is the most accurate move in this position $1 [-2 -> -1.2]} 6. Bxd3 {[%clk
0:00:52.7]} 6... Bc5 {[%clk 0:00:48.4]} 7. Nd2 {[%clk 0:00:50.7] White now
brings out the queen's knight with the goal of dislodging Black's f6-knight...}
7... Bb4 $6 {[%clk 0:00:46.9][%c_effect
b4;square;b4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] Losing tempo by moving the bishop
twice in a row in an attempt to pin the knight. However, this doesn't work.
[0.00]} 8. c3 {[%clk 0:00:46.7]} 8... Ba5 $6 {[%clk 0:00:44.2][%c_effect
a5;square;a5;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
b4d6;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;d6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d6;persistent;false] And Black loses even
more tempo [+1.3]} 9. Nde4 $5 {[%clk 0:00:45.4][%c_arrow
d3c4;keyPressed;none;from;d3;opacity;0.8;to;c4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c4;persistent;false][%c_effect
e4;square;e4;type;Interesting;persistent;true] A very direct plan, tempting
Black to move their knight. Of course, they don't need to and they shouldn't $1
[0.00]} 9... Nxe4 $4 {[%clk 0:00:42][%c_highlight
e4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e4;persistent;false][%c_effect
e4;square;e4;type;Blunder;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true] However, Black
lost sight of continuity and blunders checkmate...} 10. Qxf7# {[%clk
0:00:44][%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow
f7e8;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;e8;persistent;false,f7f8;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;f8;persistent;false,f7e7;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;e7;persistent;false,g5f7;keyPressed;none;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e8;persistent;false,f8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f8;persistent;false,e7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e7;persistent;false,f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false]
GG $1} 1-0