6 games at 3+0. 1 won, 5 lost. The engine flagged 11 blunders and 13 further mistakes.
1−5Wins and losses
1272 to 1109 (−163)Rating, first to last game
1.83Blunders per game
3 of 5Losses that began from +3.0 or better
5.3 sAverage time per move
A blunder is a move after which the engine evaluation drops by three pawns or more. A mistake is a drop of one and a half to three pawns. Times are UTC.
Key positions
3 positions from the day. Use the buttons under each board: test yourself first, then see what happened and the better move, or open the whole game up to that point. The red arrow is the move that was played.
Before the move: +1.3After the best reply: mate in 1 against the author
Clock: this move took 7.8 s, and 1:09 were left after it.
At move 24 Black's queen on c6 gave check along the long diagonal to the king on h1, and the rook on g8 already aimed at g2. 24.Kh2 left the diagonal but allowed 24...Qg2#, because the rook on g8 protects the queen on g2. This is how the game ended.
Blocking the check was the answer: 24.f3 keeps the game in White's favour (+1.3), and 24.Nf3 and 24.Qf3 also hold. The king move took 7.8 seconds, with 69.9 seconds left.
When in check, list all three answers: move the king, block, or capture. Before moving the king, ask which squares around it the opponent already controls.
Clock: this move took 4.5 s, and 1:53 were left after it.
At move 14 the white knight on f5 was attacked by Black's queen on d7 and had no defender. 14...Qxf5 wins the knight and leaves Black clearly ahead (+6.2). 14...Nxd5 took a pawn instead, and the engine's reply 15.Qg4 threatens Qxg7#, with the knight on f5 and the queen both aiming at g7 (−7.9).
White played 15.Nxe7+ instead of 15.Qg4, but the game was still lost later on time. The clock readings show 4.5 seconds for 14...Nxd5, with 113.4 seconds left in this 3+0 game.
Before taking a pawn, look at every enemy piece that is attacked and undefended. A free piece comes first.
Clock: this move took 12.0 s, and 1:35 were left after it.
At move 16 the black queen stood on h5, on the edge of the board. 16.Re5 attacks it, and the engine finds no good answer for Black: every reply leaves White at least 6.7 pawns ahead. 16.Ne4 was played instead and let Black trade knights, and the position was level (+0.1).
The game stayed close to level until 22.g3, and it was later lost by checkmate. 16.Ne4 took 12.0 seconds, with 95.6 seconds left in this 3+0 game.
When the opponent's queen is on the edge of the board, count its safe squares and look for a move that attacks it with tempo.
2 of the 5 losses ended on the clock. When the clock ran out the engine rated these positions at −1.2, −2.9 for the author. A rating below −3.0 means the game was already lost on the board; 2 of them were not. The Clock page shows how time use relates to blunders.