Week 11: three chess mistakes to avoid, learned at 0–6 with White

Week 11 (March 18–24, 2024) took me back below 1000: 13 games, 4 wins, 9 losses, rating 1022 → 999 (-23), with a low of 984 along the way. The ugly number is the White one: six games with White, six losses. Even worse, in six of my nine losses the engine had given me at least an 80% winning chance. That's why this week turned into a short list of chess mistakes to avoid: I didn't lose to better chess, I lost to the same few mistakes.

The week in numbers

My accuracy (71.0%) was the lowest of any week so far. With Black I was fine, 4 wins and 3 losses. With White I lost everything: three games labelled Zukertort Variation, two Accelerated London and one Zukertort-Chigorin. Two of those losses were games I abandoned instead of finishing. The losing streak ran five games, #306 to #310, from Tuesday evening to Friday.

On Monday morning I played celo84 twice, half an hour apart. I won the first game with Black, and lost the second with White after being completely winning. Both games appear below.

Three mistakes, three positions

All evaluations are from White's side.

Mistake 1: a pawn grab with the queen and the king in the center (game #301)

With Black against celo84 (1076) I was clearly better (-2.90). My king was still on e8. I took the pawn on d4 with my queen, and from there the queen attacked White's knight on c3, the pawn on g4 and the bishop on d5. Three targets, which felt great. But White had a capture with check: bishop takes my knight on c6, check, also attacking the pawn on b7 with the rook on a8 behind it. After that the position is about equal (+0.06).

r . . . k . . r
p p . . . p p .
. . n . . q b p
. . . B . . . .
Q b . P . . P .
. . N . . . . .
P P . . . P . P
R . . . K . N R

Castling first would have kept my advantage. The game turned into a mess of mistakes on both sides, and I won it.

Mistake 2: the automatic recapture (game #302)

Thirty minutes later, with White against the same player, I was completely winning (+5.99). Black's bishop had just taken my knight on c3. I took it back with the pawn, without thinking. But my bishop on b5 was also under attack from Black's bishop on d7, and Black simply took it (-3.11). The engine's move was queen takes the pawn on d5 first: from d5 my queen attacks the bishop on d7, the pawn on b7 with the rook behind it, and the knight on g8, all at once.

r . . . k . n r
p p B b . . p p
. . . . . q . .
. B . p . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . b . P . . .
P P P . . P P P
R . . Q . R K .

I abandoned that game later on, without playing it to the end.

Mistake 3: queen and bishop on the same file (game #303)

Against bursel06 (1033), White, I was winning again (+4.11). My queen was deep in Black's position on h7. I moved my bishop from g3 to h4 to attack the rook on d8. That put my bishop on the same file as my queen, and Black's rook went to h8: attacking my queen, with my bishop behind it. That's called a skewer: the front piece has to move and the one behind it falls. The evaluation flipped to -3.52.

. . k r . r . .
. p p b . p . Q
p . n . p . . .
. . . p P . . .
. q . . . . . .
. . . . P . B .
P P P . . P P P
. . K R . B . R

My queen escaped by taking a pawn on f7, and Black's rook took my bishop on h4. I was checkmated later in the game. The engine's move was the humble one: bring the queen home to d3.

The lesson of the week

Three different positions, one shape: in each I was clearly winning and made the move that looked most active without checking the board around it. So these are the three chess mistakes to avoid that I wrote down after week 11:

1. Don't grab with the queen while your king is in the center. Castle first, grab later.
2. Don't recapture automatically. Before taking back, ask: is something else of mine attacked, and is there a bigger capture?
3. Don't line up valuable pieces on one file or diagonal in front of an enemy rook or bishop. That's how skewers happen.

None of them is about openings or theory. All three cost me games I had already won.

All games this week

Previous: week 10, nine games at 1000. Next: week 12, my cleanest week and a missed mate. The full series is on the journey page. And if you've ever wondered why a review flags a move without saying why, read why Chess.com's Game Review doesn't explain moves; Chess Coach explains them in words like these.