Saturday, January 17, 2009

Duh.

I was playing a blitz game earlier today against a guy rated about 200 points higher than me. I'm white and we reached the following position after he just played Qe4, with each about a minute and a half left on the clock:



I'm thinking about my move, and after about 5 seconds he offers a draw. Here's what went through my head, all within a few seconds: "I can't castle to protect my rook on b1 since he will just take my queen with his bishop. Ne7+ obviously doesn't work. Oh he's offering a draw? Well he's higher rated and probably doesn't see any win for either side. Screw it, just take the draw." Duh. Stupid blitz. I'm such a patzer.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. You're too trusting. I'd never offer a draw the way your opponent did - wouldn't want to arouse suspicions. Your opponent apparently lost his nerve, but it paid off this time :)

Chessaholic said...

Definitely too trusting. No draw offer should be accepted without looking at all options. Especially easy ones like this :)

From the patzer said...

I immediatly saw Nxf6+ but then in gaining the bishop. Only after a quick scan after mentally placing the knight on f6 is saw QxQ move.

Strange though that you looked at Ne7+ and not at Nxf6+ .

wang said...

Don't worry about it.

1) It was only a blitz game.
2) Hopefully you are playing with an aim at improving, so take it as a lesson.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Blitz is a breeding ground for blunders. This one isn't all that bad for blitz especially. I wish these were my main complexity-level of mistakes during blitz. :)

Chessaholic said...

Chesstiger: my thought process stopped prematurely after Ne7+ because of the draw offer that was made at that point.Had I continued my thought process, the next candidate move probably would've been Nxf6+...

Wang: yeah it's just blitz, but I still get pissed off when I blunder :)

BDK: LOL... Don't worry, I make worse blunders than this on a regular basis :)

Anonymous said...

Was this OTB or Internet? He's not supposed to offer a draw like that on your turn. He saw he was lost so tried to throw you off. Not a big deal since it's blitz, but kinda rude.

Chessaholic said...

lep: yeah definitely rude. But like you say, no big deal. It's not the first time that has happened to me...

trallala said...

I think accepting the draw was a right thing to do, 'cause winning that position with 1 minute on your clock is far from easy and if he was higher rated you should have some respect... ;-)
http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4428

likesforests said...

Mucho painful! My eye goes right to Ne7+ and Nxf6+ for the win. I calculate my next move before considering draw offers, but I always play with a 5s delay or increment so that changes the dynamics of things a bit.

Banatt said...

Ouch.

Well at least it was only blitz. If it were a big trophy match, then that would be much much worse.

Chess @ FICGS said...

Hahah, that's a nice blunder in a way, don't worry it happens to every chess player, that's the right way to learn :)

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