http://en.lichess.org/sMfX8pCw/black#0Hi!
I played this game against a weak opponent. I was surprised to show my game analysis show two blunders. I went through them both and I fail to see what is a blunder in those moves. I thought blunders were a move where you're hanging a piece or failing to take a hanging piece or fail a forced check mate.
I'm not saying I did not blunder, I'm well aware I did, I'm just too amateurish to make sense out of them, and that's why I ask for your help.
Thank you!
Been only playing for a few weeks so be gentle :)
I'm guessing the first blunder is I'm hanging a pawn on B5. I see it now.
Hi,
a blunder is not necessarily as direct and obvious as what you describe. Sometimes the benefit (such as winning a piece, or denying your opponent the opportunity to do so) can be the result of a long sequence of moves; the blunder happens the moment you miss the forcing line (by forcing, I mean that even the best response from your opponent leads to a substantial disadvantage) and offer him/her the opportunity to save themselves. I have to admit, sometimes it's not all that obvious. Don't focus too much on these, when it comes to purely deep and tactical lines that most players would fail to notice anyway.
In your game, you had to see for the first one that white couldn't just recapture your knight on c3. Or if they did, you could recapture their pawn and hit both their king and knight on e5, thus winning the knight (or worse, the rook on a1 if they blocked the check with their queen...). Then of course you'd need to consider what happens if they played queen d2 instead of recapturing, and so on. Again, this example isn't too bad but it can quickly get pretty deep. Start with the suggested best line from the computer analysis and try to work out independently why this should be the best sequence of moves, and what would have happened if played differently.
Your "blunders" were marked as such based on the fact that you had strong tactics due to the tension against the knight on c6. They were merely missed opportunities. Nothing to really be embarrassed about.
*c3 (not c6)
Makes sense. Thanks!