Your quickest wins and losses

[Peter D Williams]

Afternoon all

I lost a game in about 10 moves at Coulsdon chess club and was rather surprised to hear my opponent say to me its checkmate as he moved in on my king and he was right it was checkmate which was most annoying as i was going to carry out a raid on his rook.

Be careful over the next few day weather is going to get bad again.Well it time for some Jam enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-H0uIH5HHQ

[MartinCarpenter]

Losing, I seem to manage in 17 moves every now and then. This one is formally shortest but just an occupational hazard really. I haven't recorded quite how long my shortest wins went on as tended to stop when a piece up etc.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 O-O 8.Bd3 Nbc6 9.Bg5 Qa5 10.Ne2 cxd4 11.f4 dxc3 12.h4 Nf5 13.Bf6 Nce7 14.Bxf5 Nxf5 15.Ng3 g6 16.Nxf5 exf5 17.Qg5

This next one though? Ow. I was on a personal run of 13.5/15 in this league. Probably just over confident really - people really *had* been giving me free pawns on a fairly regular basis so....

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.d3 fxe4 5.dxe4 Nf6 6.Qd3 Bc5 7.O-O Bb6 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nxe5 Qe7 10.Nc4 Ba6 11.Nc3 O-O 12.Be3 Qf7 13.b3 d5 14.Ne5 Bxd3 15.Nxf7 Bxf1 16.Bxb6 axb6 17.Nh6+ gxh6

What's worse is that our team, comfortable favourites to start with, were starting an 8 board match up 2 defaults and were 'inspired' by this game to lose the match The team at least recovered to scrape home in the league! Shortly after that, I contrived to do this.

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 a6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.g3 Bg4 7.Bg2 Nc6 8.Bf4 Qb4 9.O-O O-O-O 10.Qe1 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Nxd4 12.Bg2 e6 13.a3 Qc4 14.b3 Qxc3 15.Qxc3 Ne2+ 16.Kh1 Nxc3

However that game didn't finish there because I didn't actually notice I'd blundered the piece for about ten more moves(!). That was obviously rather disturbing. Took me a while to get any confidence back

[John Clarke]

For more grisly examples, see this earlier thread on much the same subject:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4212

[Dan Lambourne]

I think I am the forum record holder for fast checkmates - I used to routinely win with this trap when I was younger:

I went one better after being extra evil and forcing touch move on move 2.

[Event "School match"] [Site "Bellfield Middle School, Bucks."] [Date "1980s"] [White "Young Dan"] [Black "Random opponent"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "0"] [BlackElo "0"] 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Ke7 3.Qxe5#

The only other short game I can remember that involved a checkmate (I ignore the resignations), happened last year.

[Event "Birmingham Summer League"] [Site "Redditch"] [Date "2013.06.18"] [White "Name escapes me"] [Black "Older but not always wiser Dan"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "0"] [BlackElo "0"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. Nge2 Nf6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. Qf3 Bg4 7. Qd3 Nc6 8. f4 Nb4 9. Qc4 Qb6 10. Be3 e5 11. Na4 Qa5 12. Nb3 Nd3#

[Graham Borrowdale]

I went one better after being extra evil and forcing touch move on move 2.

Unforgiveable!!

[Alex Holowczak]

The only other short game I can remember[...]

Thankyou for not bringing ours to wider attention.

[Mats Winther]

[Event "15+5"] [Site "Free Internet Chess Server"] [Date "2014.02.01"] [Round "?"] [White "N.N. (Rating: 2101)"] [Black "M. Winther"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [PlyCount "18"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [TimeControl "900+5"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bg3 h5 6. Ne5 h4 7. Bf4? {loses piece, somewhat surprisingly} Bxe5 8. Bxe5 f6 9. Bf4 g5 {0-1}

[Mick Norris]

I have won games in 11, 13 and 13 again, and 18 moves but not lost before move 20 I think (I'm not good at resigning)

My record draw is 1 move, although I might beat this on Saturday

[MartinCarpenter]

I'd be slightly careful lest they decide to refuse the score sheet

[Ray Sayers]

I agreed a draw in 6 moves at the 4NCL last season after my tearful family called me just before the game to say one of our children had broken the back of one of our Guinea Pigs (great timing - thanks).

But the piggy lives! After rushing home he just had nerve damage and the paralysis mostly went away after a few weeks of therapy (!).

His name is Tufts. He bit me once.

[Dave Ewart]

Here's my contribution: full analysis/commentary/notes, just because I wrote it up at the time. I did indeed tweet the entire game afterwards

[Event "Kidlington Chess Congress 2013"] [Site "Kidlington, Oxfordshire"] [Date "2013.02.03"] [White "Ewart D"] [Black "Opponent"] [ECO "B01"] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 {This turned out to be the shortest game I ever played in a tournament match. The entire game score fits into a single tweet!} d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Be2 {Less challenging than 4.f3, but I want to put my knight on that square.} Bxe2 5.Qxe2 Qxd5 6.Nf3 e6 7.O-O {All well-known opening theory so far, I think.} Be7 8.Nc3 Qf5 $2 {Although computer analysis after the fact shows that Black can in fact dig himself out of from here, this was psychologically wrong for Black.} 9.Ne5 $1 {And now Black has two major threats to contend with. The threat of g4 trapping the queen, costing at least a knight; and also Qb5+ winning material and destroying Black's Queen-side. In this position Black thought for a full 30 minutes trying to find a solution to the twin threats and, unfortunately, chose a poor move.} Qh5 $4 (9. ... O-O $4 10.g4 Nxg4 11.Qxg4 Qxg4+ 12.Nxg4) (9. ... Nc6 10.g4 Nxg4 11.Qxg4 Qxg4+ 12.Nxg4 Nxd4 {is Black's best try, getting two pawns (possibly three) for a knight. However, given this line was "losing a knight", I imagine that's why Black dismissed it.} ) (9. ... Nfd7 {is the only other reasonable alternative.}) 10.Qb5+ Nbd7 11.Nxd7 {And now White wins a piece: after 11. ... Qxb5 the zwischenzug 12.Nxf6+ is played before recapturing on b5. Black resigned here: the game has a long way to go, but the result should not be in doubt.} (11.Qxb7 Nxe5 12.Qxa8+ Kd7 13.Qxh8 {was a rather risky-looking line that I analysed over the board, but despite being two rooks up, White's queen could be stuck on h8.} Nf3+ 14.gxf3 Bd6 15.Re1 Ne8 {There was no sense in risking such an unclear position.} ) 1-0

[John McKenna]

I agreed a draw in 6 moves at the 4NCL last season after my tearful family called me just before the game to say one of our children had broken the back of one of our Guinea Pigs (great timing - thanks).

But the piggy lives! After rushing home he just had nerve damage and the paralysis mostly went away after a few weeks of therapy (!).

His name is Tufts. He bit me once.

Ray, you're all heart. However, WC Fields, a great barroom philosopher, categorically stated that - anyone who hates children and animals can't be all bad. So maybe it wouldn't have hurt to hate, just a little, after that bite.

Right, time to roast a baby chicken, or as WC might have put it - a little chickadee.

[Ray Sayers]

I agreed a draw in 6 moves at the 4NCL last season after my tearful family called me just before the game to say one of our children had broken the back of one of our Guinea Pigs (great timing - thanks).

But the piggy lives! After rushing home he just had nerve damage and the paralysis mostly went away after a few weeks of therapy (!).

His name is Tufts. He bit me once.

Ray, you're all heart. However, WC Fields, a great barroom philosopher, categorically stated that - anyone who hates children and animals can't be all bad. So maybe it wouldn't have hurt to hate, just a little, after that bite.

Right, time to roast a baby chicken, or as WC might have put it - a little chickadee.