Lessons Learnt From Hard Losses

You know that feeling when you have this long variation all calculated out all the way until you're sure that you've won? Every move is fantastic, and you're just crushing. You play out the variation, and your opponent follows along, and you're like "HAHA I CALCULATED THIS OUT ALREADY. YOU'RE LOSINGGGG."

And then suddenly: BAM! A move that you missed, which leads to a completely lost position for you. And you're just sitting there like... 



Then, after you've recovered, you decide to analyze the game. And you realize, in that last position before you blundered, you missed this simple move that would have led to mate in six. Normally, of course, you wouldn't miss it, but since you had this variation all calculated out, you just blitzed it all out and didn't consider any other alternatives. And then you're like...



Now, don't worry, all of this ranting wasn't just for the sake of letting out my anger. There is a lesson in all of this! But you'll have to get to the end first . 


Recently, I played in the St. Louis Invitational, a norm tournament (meaning that if a player gets 6/9, they get one of the three norms to a chess title).There were two sections: IM and GM, and naturally I played in the IM section.

FM Carissa Yip at the St. Louis Invitational. Photo: Austin Fuller for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

Not much can be said about my tournament...but I decided to show here one interesting game that I played against WGM Sabina Foisor, the current U.S. Women's Champion. 

A painful loss, of course, but I came away with three main lessons that can apply to everyone. 

1) Treat every position as a puzzle. 

In this position, I knew that there was something. I could sense it, and I thought that f6 was the key. But if I just looked at the position like a puzzle, g5 would be so obvious. 

2) King safety is key!!!!

The reason I lost was because I didn't pay much attention to my king safety. And you can't just look at your own king safety; look at your opponent's as well. If I did that, g5 would be so obvious again, since the black king is in a mating net. 

WGM Sabina Foisor, the current U.S. Women's Champion. FM Carissa Yip at the St. Louis Invitational. Photo: Austin Fuller for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

3) SLOW DOWN!!!

There's no reason to rush. When I played f6, I still had a solid 10 minutes left compared to Sabina's one minute. Taking your time and thinking through the position carefully is important.

Well, this brings us to the conclusion of this article. Thanks for taking the time to read it, and until next time ChessKids!