Remaining poker faced...

[John Upham]

In a Surrey League match last night (playing for Guildford versus Crystal Palace) I made one of the worst blunders in my entire chess history.

I was black : 1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nf3?! de: 4. Ng5 ed: (Nf6 was more sensible) 5. Bd3:

and now I played the totally losing 5..Nf6??

I won't insult you by telling you what White should have played.

I played the blunder and realised my error. I now started to recreate the famous Sure advert but without any beautiful women or large leaves with ticks cut out of them present.

I pretended to need the toilet (well, in fact I more or less did!) and prayed he would not find the move.

Came back and he played 6. Nc3

Should I have stayed at the board and sweated it out or contacted the Samaritans?

What is the worst blunder you have played and had to sit through?

[Alex Holowczak]

Should I have stayed at the board and sweated it out or contacted the Samaritans?

Your opponent would have probably claimed a win for using a mobile phone.

I tend not to make really bad blunders, and if I do, I don't notice the blunder until my opponent takes advantage of it. E.g. last year I left my Q en prise in a game, waited, and still didn't see the Q was under attack until he took it...

[Alan Walton]

If Nf6 is the worst blunder of your chess career, then you are a better player than most if not all people of this forum, the majority of people have made blunders alot worst than this

If anything this was just a oversight of missing a tactic, not a true blunder where you hang material

[John Upham]

If Nf6 is the worst blunder of your chess career, then you are a better player than most if not all people of this forum, the majority of people have made blunders alot worst than this

If anything this was just a oversight of missing a tactic, not a true blunder where you hang material

Apologies, my post sounded a tad arrogant. Since I restarted playing again in 2004 I meant to say!

I meant worst in terms of happening at move 5! i.e. having a totally lost position at move 5 rather than dropping a piece somewhere in the middle game or ending.

I did once play 8..Nbd7 in the main line of the Blackmar-Diemer and resigned immediately when my opponent took on f5 with his rook! That was in the famous Erfstadt Beer and Rolls 13 x Blitz games tournament near Cologne. Mind you, it was round 13 at 1am!

[Gavin Strachan]

I have had a good few similar situations and managed to go on and win (always seem to win these games eventually!). Last year I had a completely won position and missed just taking the queen..Fortunately the position was very won at that point and the opponent was playing on for team reasons which I could understand!

[Alan Walton]

I will let you off with that one

Admittedly my worst blunder was at Gib in 2009, where I was a piece up, then amazingly blundered it back, by just not being able to count to 3 (number of attackers vs defenders)

If you want a laugh just search megabase, I was black against Suez Panama

[David Williams]

As black once, just out of the opening I played a line that reached a position where we both had three king-side and two queen-side pawns on the second or third rank, and isolated d pawns - white on d4, black on d3, so they were the 'wrong way' round, and at a very cursory glance you might just think they were blocking each other, facing the other way . I could play my queen to f4, threatening mate on h2, and pick up his d4 pawn when he defended the mate. Instead I placed the queen en prise on e5.

As I sat there horrorstruck, he quickly reached for the g pawn. When his hand was a millimetre away from it he suddenly recoiled, and said "I didn't touch it!" I confirmed that he hadn't, smiled, put my pen in my pocket and folded my scoresheet in two - and then realised he was still thinking. I hadn't stopped the clock, shaken his hand, spoken at all, knocked over my king or written 1-0 on my scoresheet. So I just sat on, and after a couple of minutes he played g3, I took his pawn and went on to win.

[Warren Kingston]

In a Surrey League match last night (playing for Guildford versus Crystal Palace) I made one of the worst blunders in my entire chess history.

I was black : 1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nf3?! de: 4. Ng5 ed: (Nf6 was more sensible) 5. Bd3:

and now I played the totally losing 5..Nf6??

I won't insult you by telling you what White should have played.

I played the blunder and realised my error. I now started to recreate the famous Sure advert but without any beautiful women or large leaves with ticks cut out of them present.

I pretended to need the toilet (well, in fact I more or less did!) and prayed he would not find the move.

Came back and he played 6. Nc3

Should I have stayed at the board and sweated it out or contacted the Samaritans?

What is the worst blunder you have played and had to sit through?

http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=576453

[michaeljmeadows]

Last season I was playing in a tournament and doing rather well to begin with. Then I ended up playing someone whose grade was over 200 and at the time, mine was in the 130s. The game went:

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3 dxe5 5. Nxe5 c6 6. c4 Nb4 7. a3? after which I had to sit and look at my mistake for about 10 minutes before my opponent came back to the board and casually played 7... Qxd4.

After that I decided to risk it all with the dubious 8. Nxf7 Qe4+ 9. Qe2 Nc2+ 10. Kd1 Qxe2+ 11. Bxe2 Nxa1 12. Nxh8 but of course his knight gets out quite easily and mine was well and truly stuck.

It still irks that I had a rare chance to play someone that much higher graded than me and I threw it away so quickly.

[Roger de Coverly]

http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=576453

The player with white (Dinic) has been playing that line for twenty years . Most of his opponents preferred 4 .. Nf6 to 4 .. exd3 .That's the only database example of someone falling into the cheapo. I would say it shows poor research or poor opening selection by the Crystal Palace player. You play an offbeat line which doesn't make sense unless you have a trick and then fail to close the door when someone walks into the thematic trap.

[Warren Kingston]

Komnenic (2211) can not be a mug though?? Can he Roger?

[Roger de Coverly]

Komnenic (2211) can not be a mug though?? Can he Roger?

I suppose he was running (like John) on autopilot. It was only move 5 after all. If you don't know the line, white's pawn sac looks pointless. You have to pause for thought and notice the Nxf7, Bg6+ trick.

There are one or two openings like that - the latest version of the Grand Prix attack in the Sicilian can start 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nd4 4 Bc4 Nf6 5 d3 e6 6 Nge2 . It looks as if .. d5 quickly equalises or better but there's a problem

[John Moore]

Well that's my latest cheapo buggered -Thx Roger :

[James Coleman]

I know the trick you are referring to but I think White would has to play 5.0-0 for it to work?

[Michael Jones]

The only example I can think of offhand was when I was graded 120ish, playing a 190, and hung a piece, which my opponent failed to notice (in mitigation, it was a blitz game) - he still won. When I make blunders most of my opponents have the annoying habit of noticing

A couple of times I've benefited from the opposite - in one league game (can't remember the position) my opponent made his move, pressed the clock then suddenly exclaimed "s**t!". I made my reply which forced his resignation a few moves later, then advised him gently that he'd have been better off keeping quiet, as I hadn't noticed the blunder and had been about to play something different. Similarly, in another blitz game my opponent made a move then resigned immediately; I gratefully accepted the resignation (he was higher graded than me) and only afterwards noticed that he'd just left his queen en prise.