The CRAZIEST Thing Happened in This Tournament Game…

This might be one of the strangest tournament games I have ever played in my life. I was playing against a Spanish guy, his name is Manuel, and he was rated around 1800. But this guy was a tricky, tricky, tricky guy. And you might think that, you know, younger people are gonna be faster. But this guy was the fastest person I've ever played chess against. I was in complete shock. So we were waiting around a little bit before this tournament game started. This was gonna be a blitz game. And then he smiled, we shook hands, and started the game. So, so far, nothing crazy is happening. This is just a regular queen's gambit declined. And he's bringing out his knights. And I was thinking here, should I go bishop e7? Should I go c6? I was spending just a few seconds here thinking, what should I do? And I decided to play bishop e7. And now he instantly goes g4. And I thought, okay, I know who this guy is. I know what type of player this guy is. He's gonna go all aggressive style against my king. So I was kind of smiling when I realized this. And so here, I brought my knight up, and he instantly just went queen c2, threatening my knight. And I thought, okay, there's nothing going on. I mean, I haven't even castled my king. Typically, you start attacking the king when it's castled. I haven't even castled. So I don't really care if he starts attacking my king because it's safe. So we traded knights. He took with the pawn instantly. He right now has more time than he started with. And I thought, okay, should I castle? Should I go something like b6? Get my bishop out? Should I my knight out? Like, what should I do? That's what I was thinking. So I spent some time considering, and I ended up going b6. He instantly took my pawn on d5. Like I said, he's playing so fast. I took back with the pawn. And now he spent a few seconds considering his options. And then he said, bam, I'm gonna go h3 and defend my pawn. Finally, he has less time than he started with. So I was now thinking, and I was thinking, you know, should I move my bishop or should I castle? To be fair, his style of play was definitely intimidating me a little bit. I don't like playing against someone that feels very confident and that is playing their moves instantly. So I was feeling a little bit under pressure right now. But I just thought, Anna, you can't think about that type of stuff. What was that accent that I just did? Okay. Anyways, I was thinking, I can't think about that. I just gotta move. So I opted here for going c5, which is a very loose move, you know? But I kind of didn't want to castle, but I thought, okay, I should probably castle. But I didn't really want to because then I thought that maybe his attack might get stronger. At the same time, I felt like he didn't have enough pieces for that. So I went h5. I mean, I could just go castles and there's nothing wrong. But I was playing in a bit of a weird way as well. He decided to take and I decided to take back. And I just thought, okay, I'm gonna place my king on g8. Now I have a fantastic position. My bishop can go to f5. This is great, I thought. I was very excited. He now finally started thinking a little bit and he decided to go for the move bishop a3. Now placing that bishop on that diagonal with, I'm not really sure exactly what the prime idea was, but I suppose that his bishop didn't have any other good spots. So it makes sense to place that bishop there. So now it seems like the game is not going to get so crazy. But trust me, this game is about to get very, very, very crazy. I decided to go c4 because I wanted to stop him from getting his bishop to d3. We traded bishops and now I was threatening to get my bishop out and threaten his queen. So he brought his knight out and I was now fully ready to get my bishop out. But then I realized, wait, maybe he can go queen a4 check. But then I thought, okay, I can also just move my king. So I only had 40 seconds left now and things were about to be wild. I decided to start by going b5 because I wanted to prevent the check. And now after he went a3, I went bishop f5, threatening the queen and asking where it's going to go. However, now the thing is that my pawn was about to get a little bit weak on b5, which was something I didn't really think about. He made a fantastic move, queen b2. And now I started to feel the pressure because I only had 25 seconds left. I had to defend. I wanted to go a6, but then I thought maybe he can go a4. But he went a4 anyways and now I was getting very nervous. So I went f6. I thought actually that I just have a worse position and I thought, oh, how did this happen? But then I found this move. I instantly went bishop e4, threatening that knight. But there wasn't too much going on. He went bishop e2, defending, and I just thought I have to find more ways of attacking because I didn't know what to do otherwise. Like I said, I can't go a6 because then he's just going to take my pawn and then take my rook. So I decided to go b4. I was now sacrificing a pawn. I was getting really nervous because I had just lost one of my most important pawns. But now I was able to get my knight out with a tempo. So he was there with way more time than me. I had 13 seconds left at this point and I was terrified. But now I started seeing a bit more hope because my knight could get in. Now I had a very simple tactic. I mean, I could simply take the knight and then go knight d3 check and then win the rook. But I got a bit nervous because I thought that then he's threatening my rook. So I decided to first move my rook. Also because I only had a few seconds left on the clock. I had like seven seconds left. But then I realized that he can go knight h4 and I didn't know where to go. So I started just playing as fast as I could. He went f3. I went bishop d3. I knew these moves were maybe not perfect but I just had to get moves in. He was chilling because he had so much more time than me. He went bishop e2. I decided to go rook h5 threatening the knight. He went knight f5. He was threatening knight takes g7. I got nervous. I went bishop takes e2 with a second left on the clock. For some reason I did this. But then it worked out because I had bishop takes f3 and I was really excited. And then I was going to be able to win that knight. And now I was so back in the game. Here I won the rook as well and I was ultra winning. I mean I am a full piece up right now which is absolutely incredible. And then I went rook g8 thinking this would be the easiest win of my life. However I need to be a little bit conscious because you know he has a couple past pawns but I thought there's nothing. So here I only had like a second left on the clock. I went bishop check. And now he took my pawn but I smiled and said no you're in check because I thought that I was gonna easily win here. I didn't think that I have to claim because to begin with I forgot that this was an official tournament that is federated. But secondly I was like I'll win easily. So I don't need to claim that illegal move because when you when your opponent makes an illegal move you actually get an extra minute. So right now I was playing with so little time but I did it because I was so sure I was gonna win easily. So I now went c2. I was just gonna try to just finish off the game as soon as possible. I thought this looks so simple like nothing can go wrong. But now you know things were about to get a little bit tricky. So I started getting nervous but I just thought ah it's still such an easy win. So I took this pawn and then I decided to take the other pawn. But now I was losing my strongest pawn. I only had a pawn left and I realized that I cannot really allow myself to lose that pawn because then I won't be able to promote. But now I traded rooks and I'm in a losing position because his pawn is just promoting. His pawn is just promoting and now I'm losing and I couldn't believe it. I was losing. I did this check and then I'm the luckiest person ever because he now allows me to push my pawn and it's gonna be a queen and this is full-on chaos. So now he makes a queen and then I am able to make a queen as well and now I'm still a piece up. However he has these two pawns so he's definitely the only one that can win here. And then he does another check and then here we trade queens and now I knew at least that it was gonna be a draw. So I took this and then here I got a bit nervous somehow that I wouldn't be able to find a way of stopping the pawn but then this became a draw. And I couldn't believe that I had drawn this game but I also couldn't believe that I hadn't told him that I wanted to get the extra time. So now a lot of people in the public were saying, Anna why didn't you claim the legal move? You could have gone a minute and then you would have won the game easily. But I just wanted to be nice and I forgot that this was an official tournament. This guy seemed so friendly and he was smiling and I just thought this was a big mistake. So yeah, always be brutal. Never be nice in chess tournaments because it's gonna backfire. I was nice this game and it backfired. So that was that. Yeah, I deeply regret it. Deeply regret it but it's okay. The lesson is don't be nice in a chess tournament. Actually, the lesson is what my mom always told me. Be kind in life but never in chess. Thank you so much for watching!