Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Bullet Mistakes

The Austrian GM Savielly Tartakower accurately stated: “The mistakes are there waiting to be made”.

Every chess player is eligible to make mistakes at some moment in the game.
But there are two conditions where the probability of making mistakes is higher: a) beginners at any moment, and b) GM at blitz games.

American GM Samuel Sevian and Indian GM Nihal Sarin recently played an online match on chess.com. It was part of the “Junior Speed Chess Championship”.

I have selected two positions of their bullet games, where the players missed their chances.

Is worth remembering that time control for bullet games were 1 minute per player, plus 1-second increment.

The position in the first diagram appeared in one of the games after 71 moves. The remaining time for both players was 14 seconds. A sequence of checks for both sides finishes when White finds a way to block Black’s queen and simultaneously check the opponent’s king.

Avoiding the check from g4 would have given Black chances to extend the game, more extra checks with queen and/or winning one of the white pawns.

The second diagram shows the position in another game reached after White’s 23rd move.

For more information about this match, read the report “Match Sevian vs Sarin”
Another ironic chess sentence that is always worth to remember says: “If your opponent is going to make a mistake, don’t disturb him/her”