The Queen is Dead

As documented in the past, I’m pretty good at falling asleep at the switch. My Queen gets captured and I’m left scratching my head. “How did I not see that?” or “Could that threat have been any less obvious?” are two common thoughts. Many players, including myself, get discouraged and fall into a defensive mindset where all they want to do is prolong the game as long as possible (some players abandon the game altogether).

When your opponent calls all the shots, you won’t last long. As the below example illustrates, however, you can dig out of the hole if the game is still young and you hold decent position.

Okay, so my Queen (Nxd2) was captured and I had to trade a bishop to get the offending knight (Nxd2 - Nxd4). Seems that the cards are stacked against me, eh? At this point, you have to just say “fuck it” and go on the attack in hopes that you can even the score without sustaining further damage.

While my opponent set up an attack from the left side of the board, I pounced on unprotected pieces (Nxd5 and Bxf5) and threw a wrench in Black’s plans by forcing moves out of Check (Be6+). This coerced Black (who once held a clear advantage) into playing defense against a pin (Rf7) and a fork (Nxc7) before making a questionable move (Nxe3). It also helped me that Black stubbornly held position with a bishop ripe for the picking (Bxc4).

The dust settled and I came away with a clear material and positional advantage. I guess the lesson here is that if you’re going to lose your queen, lose her early because you’ll have plenty of time to make up for the loss. Don’t panic. All it takes is persistence and patience to break even.