Blunder (chess)

A mistake is an unusual mistake in the game of chess which, under normal circumstances, takes the player's skill level into account, and which looks "stupid" and usually leads to loss of material or even the loss of the game. It often happens because a player overlooks a simple threat. One also speaks of chess blindness . Mistakes can happen to players of all skill levels, even if they are very rare among particularly strong players.

In addition, players with a large error rate are also disparagingly referred to as blunders .

Examples

Deep Fritz - Kramnik
Bonn 2006

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Black to move: Qa7 – e3 ??

In the match between the chess program Deep Fritz and the former world champion Kramnik Kramnik drew in the adjacent position De3 and overlooked the fact that white cage, one with Qh7 Matt sets. He could easily have prevented mate with Kg8.

Giri - Shankland
Wijk aan Zee 2019

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Black's move gives up.

In the second example, Anish Giri had just created a position with b5-b6 that almost inevitably ended in a draw . Even so, Samuel Shankland gave up. He saw that his knight was lost. He knew that the game would end in a draw if his king could reach the b8-square, because then he could commute to a8 and b8 and protect his pawn against the attack of the white king. But when he saw that the black-squared bishop could prevent this, he thought the game was lost and overlooked the fact that the game would end in a draw even if the king was on c8, which he could not be driven out.

Other languages

In English, a gross mistake is called a blunder . The derogatory term mistake for weak chess player has been taken in this meaning in the English chess jargon, such as in the phrase: ". Patzer sees a check, Patzer gives a check"