18 games at 3+2. 10 won, 8 lost. The engine flagged 28 blunders and 33 further mistakes.
10−8Wins and losses
858 to 866 (+8)Rating, first to last game
1.56Blunders per game
2 of 8Losses that began from +3.0 or better
4.8 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.
Clock: this move took 41.1 s, and 1:38 were left after it.
At move 13 Black was a pawn down but clearly better (+4.9), because the white queen on b7 was deep in Black's position and short of squares: after the engine's choice 13...Re8, every move of that queen leaves Black at least 7.6 pawns ahead. 13...Qb8 offered a queen trade instead, and after 14.Qxb8 Raxb8 the advantage was gone (−0.1).
It was not a rushed decision. The clock readings show 41.1 seconds for this move, with 98.9 seconds left. The game then stayed close to level until 17...c6 and 18...Bf6, after which it was lost.
When the opponent's queen is deep in your position with few squares, keep the queens on and make its life harder. A queen trade sets it free.
Clock: this move took 7.3 s, and 3:03 were left after it.
At move 11 the pawn on d5 was attacked twice, by the knights on f6 and e7, and defended twice, by the knight on c3 and the queen on d2. 11...Nfxd5 starts the exchanges and loses them: after 12.Nxd5 Nxd5 13.Qxd5 Black has given a knight for a pawn (−6.1).
With equal numbers of attackers and defenders, the defender makes the last capture. 11...h5, or another quiet move, keeps the game level (+0.7).
Count attackers and defenders before you capture. If the numbers are equal, the capture loses material.
Before the move: mate in 1 for the authorAfter the best reply: +11.0
Clock: this move took 2.7 s, and 2:20 were left after it.
At move 24 Black had mate in one with 24...Rc1#. The rook capture 24...Rxd2+ was played instead; it still wins (+11.0), and the game ended two moves later with 25.Kxd2 Qc2+ 26.Ke3 Qe2#.
The result did not change, but the habit matters. The move took 2.7 seconds by the clock readings, with 140.3 seconds left, so there was time to compare both rook checks.
When there are several checks, look at every one of them before choosing. The quiet-looking check can be mate.
1 of the 8 losses ended on the clock. When the clock ran out the engine rated these positions at −7.7 for the author. A rating below −3.0 means the game was already lost on the board; 0 of them were not. The Clock page shows how time use relates to blunders.