Week 61: the Zukertort Chigorin Variation, a pinned knight and a comeback

Week 61, March 10 to 16, 2025, started badly and ended well: 13 rapid games, 8 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw, rating 1251 → 1283 (+32). The first three games were losses and dropped me to 1227, as low as I had been since January 10. Then I went 8–1–1 in the next ten. With White, my main weapon was the setup Chess.com calls the Queen's Pawn Opening, Zukertort Chigorin Variation, which went 2–2 this week. Its two losses are the most useful part of the week, so that's where this post spends its time.

The week in numbers

The comeback had some lovely games: 95.6% against mtbco (1232), 94.9% against DarkKnight7878 (1212), and a win in six moves against ahmadkordi12 (1190), who resigned after 6.Bg3 in an equal position (97.8% accuracy, but nothing had really happened). It also had the most painful draw of the winter. In game 1381 against Lyn2011212 (1267), a Pirc with Black, I reached a position the engine scored at −72.17 for me, and on move 66, with 29 seconds left, I had mate in one (Qf8#). I played Kg6, and the game ended in a draw by insufficient material. Fifteen of my 50 blunders this week came in endgames, more than in any other week this winter.

What the Zukertort Chigorin looks like in my games

My White setup is London-style: 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4, then Nf3, e3, c3 and Nbd2. When Black answers with an early ...Nc6, Chess.com labels it Zukertort Chigorin. By the end of this week I had played it 175 times: 96 wins, 78 losses and 1 draw. It is my most played opening and, by results, one of my better ones. This week's games:

• Game 1374 against BeTungCuTi (1263): loss (below).
• Game 1382 against Rajasonu (1244): win by checkmate, but with five blunders and 67.0% accuracy.
• Game 1383 against Fooxxx122 (1295): loss. I was at +6.43 on move 39 with 66 seconds left; 39.Rxe8 brought it to +0.06 and 42.Qe1, with 48 seconds left, to −7.13.
• Game 1384 against ahmadkordi12 (1190): the six-move win.

Game 1374: a capture into a pin

The first game of the week (game on Chess.com). I was already worse, −2.35, and Black's pawn on c4 was attacking my queen on d3.

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

Taking the pawn looks like it solves the problem: the attacker disappears. But my knight lands on c4, on the diagonal between Black's bishop on b5 and my queen on d3. The bishop now sees the knight with the queen behind it, a pin: the knight can't move without losing the queen. The engine's reply is 14...d5, attacking the pinned knight with a pawn, and the evaluation went from −2.35 to −6.00. The engine's move was the humble Qc2, moving the queen away first. In the game Black played 14...Rc8, attacking the knight too, and after another blunder, 16.Rc1, the game was gone.

Game 1375: the knight that stopped defending

The next day, with Black against riteshtiger45 (1271) in a Modern Defense (game link), the position was equal, −0.34.

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

Nh5 attacks White's queen. It also stops defending my bishop on g4, and the engine's answer is simply Qxg4: the queen takes the bishop. −0.34 became +7.36, and the game ended right there on move 8, marked abandoned. Bd7, retreating the bishop, kept the position equal.

(The third key moment, 25.Bxb5 in game 1376 against NoobSavvy (1264), was the same idea with White: my bishop took a pawn on a square where it could be captured, +1.55 became −2.06, and I was mated with 5 seconds on my clock.)

The lesson of the week

Both key positions punish the same habit: I made a move that solved one problem and created a new one on the same line. Nxc4 removed the pawn attacking my queen and put the knight in a pin on the diagonal to that queen. Nh5 attacked White's queen and took away the only defender of my bishop. So my rule for this week: when I'm about to capture or attack, I first look at the piece I'm moving and ask what it was defending and which line it lands on, especially when my queen is on that line.

On the opening itself, the Zukertort Chigorin did its job: 96–78–1 over 175 games is a decent record for me. The losses came later, from moves like these, not from the setup.

All games this week

Before this: week 60. After this: week 62. All weeks are on the journey hub, and Chess Coach can build the same per-opening record from your own games.