Week 23: rapid chess opening blunders before move 15

Week 23 (June 10–16, 2024): I went back to plain 10-minute games, played 40 of them, scored 23 wins and 17 losses, and climbed from 956 to 1009. I crossed 1000 again with game #557, at the end of a six-game winning streak. The week began with three losses decided before move 15; those rapid chess opening blunders are the focus below.

Rapid chess opening blunders before move 15: the week in numbers

Some context matters here. In weeks 21 and 22 I had played most of my games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds and gone 10–26 in that format. This week every game was 10 minutes. My opponents were also weaker on paper than before: 954 on average, between 896 and 1021, because my own rating had dropped. So I can't say the time control alone fixed anything. What I can say is that I blundered less than my opponents for once (67 to 89), and that none of my mistakes came with less than 10 % of my clock left.

Thursday, June 13 was a marathon: 16 games, 10 wins and 6 losses. With White I went 13–7, with Black 10–10. My 1.d4 setups did the work: the plain Queen's Pawn Opening went 5–0 and the London System 3–2. The Zukertort Chigorin Variation, my most played line, was the exception at 3–4. And only five times this week did I lose or fail to win from a position Stockfish gave me at least an 80 % chance in.

The three losses that opened the week

All three came on Monday, June 10, in my first three games, and all three are opening or early middlegame blunders.

1. Developing the knight to the wrong square

Game #523, Black against Ysnzrll (970), in a Giuoco Pianissimo. Equal position, +0.17, move 5.

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

5...Nge7 develops a piece, so it looks harmless. Stockfish disagrees: +0.17 became +2.37. Its main reply is 6.Ng5, attacking my f7 pawn, which nothing but my king defends, while White's bishop on c4 is already aiming at it. The line continues 6...Rf8 7.Nxh7 Rh8 8.Qh5. Notice the squares White uses: h7 and h5. A knight on f6 covers both of them. A knight on e7 covers neither. That's why the boring 5...Nf6 is the right square: it develops and defends the king's side at the same time (game on Chess.com).

2. The queen grabs a pawn and gets pinned

Game #524, Black against Garpez11 (969), in a Scotch Game. I was winning, -3.27, with my queen already active on h4 and my king still on e8.

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

8...Qxe4 takes a pawn and puts my queen on the same file as my own king. White's answer is 9.Re1: the rook attacks the queen, and the queen can't step off the e-file without exposing the king behind it. That is a pin. In Stockfish's line I have to give the queen for the rook (9...Qe5 10.Rxe5+). The evaluation swung from −3.27 to +6.95. The engine's 8...Ne5 attacks White's undefended bishop on c4 and keeps everything safe (game on Chess.com).

3. Castling away a defender

Game #525, White against Maan_kuk (971), in my Zukertort Chigorin setup. Black was slightly better, −0.52, and had a rook on b2 deep in my position.

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

Castling is supposed to be the safe move. Here it wasn't. My king on e1 was the only piece defending the knight on d2, which Black's rook on b2 was attacking. After 14.O-O the knight is no longer defended. Black's best reply, 14...g5, attacks my bishop on f4, and the line goes 15.e4 gxf4 16.exf5 Rxd2. The evaluation dropped from −0.52 to −4.54. The engine's 14.e4 attacks the bishop on f5 first and keeps the king where it's useful (game on Chess.com).

The lesson of the week

Three losses, three "safe" moves: developing a knight, taking a pawn, castling. Each one was fine in general and wrong in that position. For me, getting better at rapid chess starts there: in a 10-minute game I can't calculate everything, but I can always spend a few seconds on one question during the first fifteen moves, what does this move stop doing? The knight on e7 stopped guarding h7 and h5. The queen on e4 stopped being safe from the e-file. The castled king stopped defending d2. After those three games I went 23–14 for the rest of the week.

All games this week

Previous: week 22. Next: week 24. Back to the journey. And if you want to see which "safe" moves are costing you, review your own games like this.

For a general method beyond this week's games, see the rapid improvement guide.