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White to Play

Pete Tamburro on Oct 3, 2025

Chess games are not infrequently decided by one player not paying attention to little details that are actually a big deal. This game is an example of that. It starts out calmly enough. 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Bf5 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Nc3 e6 7.Ne5 Nbd7? [But here we have a mistake. Black needed to play 7...Nfd7 8.g4 Bg6 with an equal game, but not 8…Nxe5? 9.gxf5 Nec6 10.fxe6 fxe6 11.Qh5+ g6 12.Qg4 Qd7 13.Bh3 Nd8 14.e4!. The actual game continued 8.g4 Nxe5? 9.dxe5 Nxg4 (not 9...Bxg4 10.Bb5+ Nd7 11.Qxg4) and we reach our diagram SEE DIAGRAM

The little detail was that the bishop was cut off from d7. 10.Qa4+ Ke7 10...Qd7? 11.Bb5-another little detail 11.Qb4+ Kd7 12.Qxb7+ and Black resigned because White has a following Bb5.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

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