Failing to follow principles

In my first blog post, I talked a bit about my tendency to be overly optimistic about my prospects in some positions, which can cause me to not pay enough attention to the potential downsides of the decisions that I'm making. But, in the game I shared, my opponent could have shut down my attack (twice!) because I didn't put my foot on the gas when it was necessary. Chess is HARD! It's clear that I'm still configuring my mental traffic light, figuring out when the light should green to attack, red to hold off, or yellow to take it slow. It's all a part of the learning process, and despite this game being so short, I feel like this was a great experience for me.

Mike vs. S. P. (May 2026)

I'll start with a bit of context as usual. Coming into this game, I'm on 2.5/3 which is good for being tied for 3rd with 3 more rounds to play. Looking at the standings, I had a good chance of playing up in rating which I was happy about. For me, it takes the pressure off. This all sounds great! However, two of my good friends got married over the weekend, and my wife and I were traveling for their wedding. Two days before this game, I had made some poor decisions at the open bar, and now on game day, as someone who is now on the wrong side of 30, I was still feeling its effects. For you young people who drink alcohol, if you haven't experienced a two-day hangover yet, you will... and it's not fun. All this to say that I almost considered just taking a bye for this round. I wasn't feeling up to playing after all the travel, sleep deprivation, nausea, and headaches, but I decided to go anyway.

Let's get into the game!

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5
We have a Marshall!

9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Re4

We've reached a fairly common position in the Marshall. The Lichess database has 713 Master games in this position. The best move for black in this position by far is 15... g5, but it's not too easy to spot over the board if don't know that already. My opponent started thinking in this position, which let me know that they probably didn't know that and was likely to play an inaccuracy. They actually picked up their light squared bishop and moved it briefly to play 15... Bg4?? but moved it back after seeing that it would lose on the spot.

15... Bd7
Since they had to move the bishop, they chose this square, which is really the only good square for the Bishop if you have to move it.

16. Rh4 Qe6
The only move that doesn't lose.

17. Bc2?!
Trying to place immediate pressure on h7 in an attempt to punish black for allowing Rh4. I looked primarily at h6 and g6 as responses which looked fairly good for me. I did not look at my opponent's response.

17... f5!

It's now that my mistake becomes apparent. My rook is stranded, and since I've neglected developing my queenside, I'm not able to create much counter play against black's weakened king position.

18. Nd2 Be7 19. Rh5!? g6 20. Rh6?
Two poor decisions in a row and my rook is basically trapped. I had considered Rh3 each time, but I thought the threat of f4 looked too dangerous.

20... Bg5??
I had assumed this is what my opponent would play. Neither of us saw the winning 20... Kg7! But I was happy to see this. Given all the weakened dark squared on black's side of the board, I was happy to trade their dark-squared bishop for my rook and own the dark squares. With that and the nice outpost on e5 for my knight (and being up a pawn!) I thought I should be better after a trade.

21. Nf3 Bxh6 22. Bxh6

We've reached this position. I encourage you to try to evaluate the position! Also, I forgot to press my clock here and got up to walk around the playing hall for a few minutes. If that's not an indication of how tired I was, I don't know what is. Luckily I only burned about 5 minutes.

f4 23. Bxf8 1/2-1/2
I offered a draw here. I was tired and really wanted to get home and get in bed. I thought there was a chance I was better since I'm still up a pawn and black's bishop is not that great, but I assumed this was going to end up in a drawn out endgame where I'm trying to prove my extra pawn advantage. I wasn't interested. Maybe it wasn't a practical decision over the board, but it certainly was a practical decision for my life and health! I was thankful that they accepted after a bit of a think.

We talked after the game and both thought that f4 was probably the most practical move for them. Turns out the engine is laughing at both of us.

Takeaways!

1. Playing chess when you're not feeling good stinks...
2. Follow principles! One of white's problems in the Marshall is queenside development, so I should have thought about that after black's initiative was fizzling out.

Bonus Game! CaissoRedormed - Mike-Shea (played for LichessLadders)

I won't put too many comments here. Feel free to enjoy as you see fit.

Some insights:

• I enjoy the "prep" aspect of these. I don't take it too seriously, but I use it as a way to explore new opening ideas. This is why I played the O'Kelley.
  • To that effect, I was expecting that we might reach a Smith-Morra given their history, so I wasn't so surprised when we transposed.
• I was seriously regretting not trading queens on move 11. I was struggling to figure out how I was going to solve the problem of my light squared bishop which was why I decided against it. Though it seemed to work out for a while since my moves seemed very natural to play for most of the middlegame.
• I thought 57... Nb7 might be a blunder when I played it. When I saw their king move towards the kingside, I thought this idea might not work anymore, but I stubbornly played it anyway. I felt lucky that it worked out.
• I was honestly floored to see the engine accuracy at 94%. Given that I was up a rook and then we reached a knight endgame with me having an extra pawn.