The Pivotal Moment in a Game

Earlier today, Jim and I finished a good game of chess. It was a pretty tight match for most of the way despite his useless knight locked up on the edge of the board. Then, there came a point in the game where I could have found the best move and likely ended up victorious. Instead, I missed the move and continued to wallow in the land of mediocrity.

I'm black, and it's my turn to move. Here was my chance to take advantage of Jim's minor mistake of pushing his pawn to e5. It was only a mistake in hindsight, as I clearly did not capitalize and so it didn't hurt him one bit.


If you want to think about this more, stop reading... maybe click on the image, so you aren't distracted.

Okay, so after I had already lost, Jim sent me a message telling me he thought I had missed a good move here... Qxe5+. And, after thinking about it more, he was totally right. I also got additional confirmation of this using the analysis engine.

That's all for now.

Here's the entire game for anyone interested. I also missed a better move on 32 in a similar style as well, which led to a really bad spot and my loss.

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2008.03.16"]
[EndDate "2008.03.30"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Jim"]
[Black "BruteForce"]
[WhiteRating "1476"]
[BlackRating "1488"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "4747605"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bc1f4 Nb8c6 3. Ng1f3 Ng8f6 4. c4 e6 5. a3 Bf8d6 6. Bf4g3 Nf6e4 7. c5 Bd6xg3 8. hxg3 g5 9. Nb1d2 h6 10. e3 Bc8d7 11. Bf1d3 g4 12. Nf3h4 h5 13. Nd2xe4 dxe4 14. Bd3xe4 Qd8f6 15. f3 O-O-O 16. b4 Nc6e7 17. Qd1e2 a6 18. a4 Ne7d5 19. Be4xd5 exd5 20. Rh1f1 Qf6h6 21. e4 dxe4 22. fxe4 Bd7e6 23. Qe2d3 Rh8e8 24. Rf1f4 Qh6g7 25. e5 Qg7g5 26. O-O-O Be6d7 27. Qd3b3 Re8e7 28. Kc1b2 Bd7e6 29. Qb3c3 Re7d7 30. b5 Rd7d5 31. bxa6 bxa6 32. c6 Qg5e7 33. Nh4f5 Qe7f8 34. Nf5e3 Rd5d7 35. cxd7 Kc8xd7 36. d5 1-0