I’ve heard another blogger use the term “chess blind”. I am afflicted with this disease. Here is an example:

It's My Turn Playing Black

I’ll admit that I have a long way to go to become a decent chess player. However, when playing online chess you do have the opportunity to take a few days to make a move and presumably consider your options. There were a number of moves I could have made here but only one really disastrous move.

After I finish a game I generally run it through an analysis program. One is available on Chess.com or I can use Shredder. (For those who might be wondering …. NO, I never use Shredder to help me decide my moves. It’s just for after-the-fact analysis.) At this point in the game we were even on material and Shredder even gave me a decided advantage on positioning. When I replayed the game Shredder recommended that I make the following move 19 … Qh3. Indeed that was a pretty good move.

I've lost the Queen ... and the game

In fact the move seemed rather obvious …. with the benefit of hindsight. I guess I could say that I got it half right if you were to believe that moving half way there get’s you half the benefit. But unfortunately chess doesn’t work that way. I decided for reasons I don’t even remember to counter with 19 … Qf5 which of course was followed by 20 Ne7+ and I promptly lost my Queen and shortly thereafter the game.

One of my challenges playing online chess (as opposed to live chess where you are playing and not leaving the computer) is to make sure I get my head back into the game when I’ve been away for perhaps a day or so. Hopefully I can learn. During this game I sent a note to my opponent saying I couldn’t believe I had made such a stupid move. He graciously responded by saying that he’d made that mistake many times. A classy response to be sure but I didn’t feel much better.