Game #244: the Queen's Pawn Opening with c6 gave me +6, and I still lost
On March 1, 2024, in game #244 of my rapid journey, I played the Queen's Pawn Opening against Anixamander (1073), who answered my 1.d4 with c6 and brought the queen out early. The opening went better than almost any opening I'd played so far: by move 13, Stockfish had me at +5.96 (evaluations are from White's side). I lost the game anyway, with seven blunders by the engine's count. My rating went from 985 to 979.
This is an opening lesson, so most of this post is about the first 12 moves, where I did some things right and missed the best one. But it would be dishonest to leave out what happened after, because that's the part that cost me the game.
Where I was that week
This was week 8 of the journey, the week I first touched 1000. That happened three days earlier, after game #232, and it lasted one game. Since then I'd been going up and down between 973 and 994. Game #243, just before this one, was a win against guitoufox (1004). Rated 985, I was facing someone almost 90 points higher.
| Game | #244, March 1, 2024 |
| Opponent | Anixamander (1073) |
| My colour, rating after | White, 979 (from 985) |
| Time control | 20 minutes, no increment |
| Opening | Queen's Pawn Opening, 1...c6 (A40) |
| Result | Loss, I resigned after Black's 68th move |
| Accuracy (Stockfish) | Me 62.8, Black 70.9 |
| My blunders / mistakes / inaccuracies | 7 / 1 / 1 |
The opening: Black's queen goes for a walk
The game started 1.d4 c6 2.Bf4 d6 3.Nf3, and then Black played the queen to b6. The tool describes that as a double attack: the queen hits my pawn on b2, which had no defender, and the knight on b1 behind it. Stockfish called it an inaccuracy. I defended with the pawn to b3, which was an inaccuracy of my own: the engine preferred to develop the knight to d2 and leave the pawn alone, and in its line Black doesn't take it.
Black's queen kept moving. After a knight jump to d5 and my bishop retreat to g3, it gave check from b4, and I blocked with my knight on d2. Then Black's knight jumped into c3, attacking my queen and my other knight. Stockfish called that a blunder, and here is the position I want to remember.
I did the natural thing and took the knight. Black's queen took back on c3, and the position was only slightly better for me (+1.20 in a fresh check). The engine's move was the pawn to a3, attacking Black's queen first. In its line the queen steps to a5, my next pawn move to b4 attacks it again, and after the queens come off I'm winning (+4.04). I didn't even consider it. My queen was attacked, so I dealt with the attacker, and I never looked at whether I could attack something bigger first.
The opening move I did find
Two moves later Black played the bishop to e7, and Stockfish called it a second blunder. This time I found the engine's move.
My knight came to e4 with an attack on the queen, the queen went back to a5, and on move 12 my knight took the d6 pawn with check. After the trades on d6 I was a pawn up on the board, and Stockfish rated the position +5.96. My accuracy for the opening phase was 87.2.
So the opening part of the lesson is simple. Black's queen made four moves in the first eleven, and every one of them was a chance for me to develop a piece with an attack on it. On move 11 I took that chance. On move 8 I missed it, because I only looked at the threat against me.
Then the middlegame happened
I'll go through this faster, because it's painful. My middlegame accuracy was 51.7, with five blunders and one mistake.
On move 16, still at +5.27, I brought my queen to h5 to threaten checkmate on h7. Black simply pushed the pawn to g6, which attacked my queen, and the evaluation dropped to +1.64.
Look at the engine's choice: a pawn move that attacks the queen. The same idea from the opening, and I missed it again. On the next move I moved my queen to g5 and the evaluation went to -0.60. Black then blundered back (five blunders in the game for them), and by move 25 I was at +6.41.
On move 26 I put my rook on c1 to attack Black's queen on c2 and the rook behind it. It looked like a double attack. It was a blunder: Black's queen could take my rook on c1, and in the engine's line my back rank becomes the problem. Stockfish wanted my rook on d7 instead, attacking the bishop, and that kept me at +6.23. Black missed the capture and took a pawn instead, and I was winning again.
On move 30 I was at +6.17 and moved my rook to d1. My bishop on b5 was standing on the same row as Black's queen on e5, with nothing in between and nothing defending it. The queen took it. Stockfish's move was the bishop back to d3, which a fresh check rates at about +6. After the capture: +0.03.
The endgame I held for 25 moves, and then didn't
The queens came off on move 40, and for 25 moves the rook endgame was dead equal by the engine's count. My endgame accuracy was 89.4, the best of my three phases. Then on move 65, with about three minutes on my clock against Black's six, I made the last blunder.
The engine's line is the rook to f1 and then to h1, behind the pawn. My king move gave Black one free tempo: the pawn went to h2, and when my rook went to f1, Black's rook blocked it on g1. On the next move the pawn became a queen. The evaluation had gone from 0.00 to -5.03 with my king move, and I resigned a move later. You can replay the full game on Chess.com.
The opening lesson from game #244
Against an early queen, look for pawn moves and developing moves that attack it, before anything else. In this game I had three of those chances that I know of: the pawn to a3 on move 8 (missed), the knight to e4 on move 11 (found), and the pawn to e4 on move 16 (missed). The one I found gave me +6. Each one is the same question: can I attack the queen with something cheaper, and gain a move?
The second lesson isn't about the opening at all. Stockfish's "missed win" flag is on this game: at one point it gave me a 91.4% winning chance. A good opening gave me a winning position three separate times, and I needed it to win only once.
What came next
The next game, #245, was another loss with the Queen's Pawn Opening, and I went down to 972 before two wins against William2180 brought me back to 992. The week ended at 982. The other side of that same week is game #216, a win where my opening led to a kingside attack instead. Everything else from those seven days is in week 8 of the diary, and the full series is on the journey page.
I built Chess Coach because I wanted these moments found for me, every game, in plain words: here's how the analysis works. And if you're rationing reviews on Chess.com, here's how many free game reviews you get there.
Frequently asked questions
What happened in the opening of this Queen's Pawn Opening with c6?
Black answered my 1.d4 with c6, then brought the queen out early to b6, b4 and c3. Stockfish marked two of Black's opening moves as blunders, and by move 13 it rated my position +5.96 after my knight attacked the queen and then took the d6 pawn with check.
What did I miss in the opening?
On move 8 Black's knight jumped to c3, attacking my queen. I took it with my knight. Stockfish wanted the pawn to a3 first, attacking Black's queen, which had no defender; a fresh check rates that +4.04 against +1.20 for my move.
How did I lose a +6 position?
In the middlegame. Five of my seven blunders and my only mistake came there, with an accuracy of 51.7. Twice I was above +6 and gave it all back in one move, and the last blunder came in a drawn rook endgame with about three minutes on my clock.