Last week was the finals of the Chess Kids National Interschool Championships at Monash University and, as a chess coach, I had the job of going through players’ games after they had finished.
An older boy sauntered up to me holding his scoresheet and asked if I could have a look at his game.
“Sure” I replied. ”It’s not long” he commented as he handed me the scoresheet.
“Did you win?” I asked as I glanced at his scoresheet which indeed showed that the game was only 7 moves long!
“No” was his response. ”He threatened me with the 4 move checkmate and I panicked.”
I started playing through the moves.
1.e4 e5 2.Qh5.
“This shows that your opponent is not a very strong player” I noted “as you shouldn’t bring your Queen out so early in the game. What did you do in reply?” I asked.
“I knew that he was threatening the 4 move checkmate so I thought that I’d better make a run for it. I played 2…Ke7.”
“Surely this is the worst move in the history of chess” I thought to myself. I looked at the scoresheet and saw that White had played 3.Bc4?
“Neither of you noticed 2.Qxe5# I asked”.
“No, I guess we were both focused on the 4 move mate” he replied.
Play continued 3…Kd6? 4.Nf3 g6?? 5.Qxe5+ Kc6 6.Nd4+ Kb6 7.Qb5# 1-0.
Is there a better example of “If you find a good move look for a better one?” For both players to miss mate in one move with 2.Qxe5# shows that they were only looking at their own plans rather than the total picture.
In tennis we have a saying “A quick game is a good game”.
In chess clearly the reverse applies.
