Blundering in Stereo/Enjoy a laugh!

I have some flaws in my OTB game, and one of the reasons I play here is to correct those flaws.

In OTB, I sometimes play superficially, I don't use enough time (rarely more than 40 minutes in even the slowest games, unless I am losing...), and even when I play a disciplined game for 40 moves, I look too far ahead on move 41 and miss the one-move threat.

Over the last year, I have made very good progress here on the site in removing the simple mistakes and "two-move"-style blunders, but I recently had a reminder that I still have work to do.

I have been studying and playing the Veresov Opening here, and I have a good number of games going on with various lines and ideas within the opening.

In some games, I have played the same line, to see what various approaches my opponents might take.

Imagine my surprise to find that two players had exactly the same idea, and I blundered a piece in both! I try not to make the same mistake twice, but I apparently need to try harder. At first I was angry, but after I got over it, I just had to laugh! I'm sure someone will say that I should have played on, but both opponents are very good players, and I did not think that the marginal value of continuing was equal or greater than the additional time I would need to invest playing a piece down with only marginal compensation. Here they are:

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
I have some flaws in my OTB game, and one of the reasons I play here is to correct those flaws.

In OTB, I sometimes play superficially, I don't use enough time (rarely more than 40 minutes in even the slowest games, unless I am losing...), and even when I play a disciplined game for 40 moves, I look too far ahead on move 41 and miss the one-move th ...[text shortened]... 4 h6
8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Qa5+ 10. c3 f5 0-1[/pgn]

Perhaps I'm missing something. As often I am. Why not answer with b4?

Originally posted by sbacat
Perhaps I'm missing something. As often I am. Why not answer with b4?

...Qa3 with the threat of ...Qxc3+ and a fork. I also looked at playing Qf3 with the idea of checking on h5 next move after ...f4 and pinning the g-pawn to the black queen so the bishop could capture on f4, but I couldn't get that to work either.

What about this?
11. Bc7 Qxc7 (better than ... fxe4 12.Bxa5) 12. Qxf5 (only 2 points lost instead of 3)
and followed by Bc4 and 0-0-0.

Wouldn't that give you any usefull attacking chances?

Originally posted by tvochess
What about this?
11. Bc7 Qxc7 (better than ... fxe4 12.Bxa5) 12. Qxf5 (only 2 points lost instead of 3)
and followed by Bc4 and 0-0-0.

Wouldn't that give you any usefull attacking chances?

Black will play ...Nf6 with a discovered attack on the queen. I would probably go ahead and check black just to move his king over, but I would still be a piece down with only my queen developed against a player rated over 2000, where the game time is measured in days.

While I would have the captured black f-pawn, that missing pawn also represents a half-open file that black can use for an attack. He has better development, so he could really just treat the pawn as a sacrifice and try to catch white while I am underdeveloped.

If it were OTB I definitely would play on a bit because there would be a clock ticking, but CC is much less forgiving.

ha, thank you! good to know this happens to the more experienced, too...

and also nice, because i just tried one of those 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 games, promising some confusing, but essentially playable lines. i just got confused and stumbled in the dark and my go-playing-ethics almost forced me to resign. however, i was not nice and kept on playing, turning the game into a win. and that was only psychology: my opponent was ranked more then 300 points less, so i thought it is possible. and it was - not very nice, though.

now i got more motivation to play 2. Bg5 again...

greetings, t.

edit: the game

[id]8658643[/id]

edit2: narf....

Originally posted by tharkesh
ha, thank you! good to know this happens to the more experienced, too...

and also nice, because i just tried one of those 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 games, promising some confusing, but essentially playable lines. i just got confused and stumbled in the dark and my go-playing-ethics almost forced me to resign. however, i was not nice and kept on playing, turning the ...[text shortened]... o play 2. Bg5 again...

greetings, t.

edit: the game

[id]8658643[/id]

edit2: narf....

Here we go!

Game 8658643

Ok,that made me laugh
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude 😀

I know the feeling all too well.In fact,I just had a similar experience.Not as gruesome though.
torten-atticus2,July 2011 Octet IX

Around move 50 I threw in the towel after a difficult endgame.Main conclusions:
1) I played really well for my standard but couldn't hold the ending
2) that Qd3 is not so great,next time stick with the more normal Bxc6

So about a week later we meet again
torten-atticus2,July 2011 One Zero Split

This time atticus was better prepared,or I played worse,and blew me off the board in an odd 20 moves.

Originally posted by torten
Ok,that made me laugh
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude 😀

I know the feeling all too well.In fact,I just had a similar experience.Not as gruesome though.
torten-atticus2,July 2011 Octet IX
[pgn]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Qd3 {I know Bxc6 is supposed to be best,but this should be ok too}[/pgn]
Around move 50 I threw in ...[text shortened]... me atticus was better prepared,or I played worse,and blew me off the board in an odd 20 moves.

The bizarre thing for me was that when I got to the second game just a few minutes after the first, I thought "Wait a minute, didn't I just resign this?"

😞

Originally posted by torten
Ok,that made me laugh
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude 😀

This time atticus was better prepared....

Better prepared - I wish! 🙄

In the first game, I made a big error early on, and thought I was hanging on for a draw. Only when I remembered the standard method of escaping perpetual (with my pawn on e2 as well), was I truly comfortable.

In the second game, I introduced my B via g7 instead of e7 for a change. No big deal though. But you made it into a big deal with one positional error (BxNf6) followed by one fatal error (allowing Bxb2 and total control of the dark squares). Nice finish in that one 🙂