Week 87: ten blunders before a rapid timeout

Week 87 (September 22–26, 2025): 47 blunders in 14 rapid games, 6 wins and 8 losses, and my rating moved from 1222 to 1206. In game 1694 I recorded ten blunders before a rapid timeout, with my clock running down through the middlegame. That game is the focus below, alongside two more moments from the week.

Ten blunders before a rapid timeout: the week in numbers

The week had a five-game losing streak in the middle (games 1696 to 1700). Of my 47 blunders, 35 came in the middlegame, 6 in the opening and 6 in the endgame. Ten were played with a low clock, and all ten were in that single game, number 1694. Without it, the week would have been bad but ordinary. With it, it's a lesson.

Game 1694: how a 10-minute game is lost on time

I was Black against pHaeXYr (1213), in the Modern Defense against 1.d4. The clock tells the story better than the moves. After my 25th move I had 289 seconds left. By move 30 I had 120. On move 32 alone I spent 58 seconds, and the move I found, 32...Bxd6, was a blunder that took the evaluation from -1.24 (good for me) to +4.23. I had 56 seconds left for the rest of the game.

Then the position swung back. On move 35 I was winning again, -4.98, with 38 seconds. Here are my blunders from then on, with the seconds I had left after each: 35...Ne7 (38), 37...Qxe6 (31), 39...Nc6 (24), 41...Nd4 (20), 42...Ke6 (18), 46...Rxf2+ (12), 48...Kc3 (11), 49...Rb2+ (10), 50...Rc2+ (8). Each one gave away a large part of the evaluation, and between them the advantage changed hands several times. On move 57 I had 4 seconds and White was mating; the clock ran out first. My accuracy for the game was 64.0%, with 13 blunders in total, and 26 of my 57 moves were made with a low clock.

The honest reading: the blunders with 10 seconds left are not the real mistake. The real mistake was spending four minutes on seven middlegame moves in a 10-minute game with no increment.

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

The first big swing in that game came earlier, with plenty of time on the clock. White's kingside pawns were already on g5 and h5. I pushed 17...b4 on the other side of the board, and the evaluation went from -0.53 to +2.56. Stockfish's answer for White starts with 18.h6, a pawn attacking my bishop on g7, and then 19.c4, a pawn attacking my queen on d5. Pawns gaining time with attacks. The engine's choice for me was the calm 17...Rd8, keeping things about equal.

Two more moments from the week

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

The same idea, later that same day, against jhonperada (1202). Stockfish wanted 16...Rd8 again, and again I played a pawn move next to my own king instead: 16...f6, from +0.80 to +3.20. In the engine's lines White's h-pawn advances towards my king. In the game it did, 17.h5, I blundered once more with 17...Nc5, and the evaluation reached +17.34. My opponent didn't find the finish, and I won when the game was abandoned on move 33.

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

And as White, against budaksekip (1242), Black's 9...Na5 was a blunder that left the c7 pawn hanging to my bishop on f4. Stockfish's 10.Bxc7 takes it and also attacks the knight on a5, which had no defender. I developed with 10.Be2, and my advantage dropped from +2.42 to +0.49. It's the second week in a row that my London bishop on f4 ignored a free pawn on c7. I lost this one later.

The lesson of the week

Budget the clock by phase, not by feeling. In a 10-minute game with no increment, a minute on a single middlegame move is a luxury I can't afford, and game 1694 shows the bill: all ten of my low-clock blunders this week came after one long think. My rule from now on is rough but simple: if I have less than half my time left before move 25, I play the next few moves on principle and save the long thinks for real crises. And when a calm move like ...Rd8 is available, I should play it instead of pushing pawns next to my own king.

All games this week

Previous week: week 86. Next week: week 88. The rest of the story is on the journey page. Clock times and evaluations come from the same game review Chess Coach gives you when you review your own games like this.

For a general method beyond this week's games, see the clock-review guide.