Hello everyone,
Welcome to a new lecture from me, and this time, One Move is all it takes. You know the wording from that famous Dua Lipa song, One Kiss is all it takes to fall in love or something like that. I do not remember the lyrics. Well, it is somewhat true when it comes to chess, but this time it's just one move.
Chess is a beautiful game when you get to learn how to play it, but after a while, it comes to realise that it can be pretty emotional as well. For instance, you are playing a game against a friend, and you have done well, followed the opening principles to the core, developed your pieces and castled your king to safety, then somewhere along the line, you just made a simple or better still, silly mistake. That is it, the game is all over. You lose just because of one move. Imagine the game has 100+ moves, which some chess games can have, but you check the game only to see you played well right from move 1 to move 99, only to blunder on the 100th move. That can cut deep, and it is really painful.
I have had my share of painful games where a single move was what caused it all for me, but in the lecture, we will be looking at a game between Sam Shankland against Abdusattorov, Nodirbek.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3 Bb4+ 6. c3 Be7 7. f4
The game was a scotch game with pieces from both sides moving into developing squares, with ease, as both sides followed the opening principle. Shankland welcomes an earlier f4 move, meaning he will be looking forward to an attack on the king's side, probably after castling. It shows he wants a fight and possibly an early attack on the kingside.
d6 8. Bd3 Nh6 9. O-O O-O 10. N1d2 f5 11. Nf3 Kh8 12. exf5 Bxf5 13. Bxf5 Nxf5
As I anticipated, white is going for a kingside attack with the move g4, making it a threat to the black knight on f5. This was not something to be scared about in the game, as black has also developed his pieces and castled his king. Also, black played calmly in defending against white's threat until white finally made the one-move blunder.
27.Rd4??.
The position was alright for both sides until Rd4 came on board for white. It looks like a plain active move for the white rook, but the one thing white did not consider was the Bg3+ that came after. This move allowed black to activate his bishop into a crucial square where both rook and bishop will be controlled, and what comes next are pawn attacks on the white d4 rook, which in turn creates centre breaks for the black pieces. At this point, it was not easy for white to hold up the attacks that followed, as it is common in chess that a single bad move can cause more bad moves. After the one-move blunder, Shankland's position became bad, and it was hard for him to find the best moves afterwards. You can take a look at the game through this link: And here is the PGN game: This is from round 6 of the London Chess Classics, and I must add that ♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
Game Link[Event "Round 6: Shankland, Sam - Abdusattorov, Nodirbek"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-london-chess-classic--elite/round-6/h1MTEH1T/upfCThMy"]
[Date "2025.11.26"]
[Round "6.5"]
[White "Shankland, Sam"]
[Black "Abdusattorov, Nodirbek"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2664"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[WhiteFideId "2004887"]
[BlackElo "2732"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[BlackFideId "14204118"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "C45"]
[Opening "Scotch Game: Romanishin Variation"]
[UTCDate "2025.11.26"]
[UTCTime "14:07:41"]
[BroadcastName "2025 London Chess Classic | Elite"]
[BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-london-chess-classic--elite/round-6/h1MTEH1T"]
[GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-london-chess-classic--elite/round-6/h1MTEH1T/upfCThMy"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3 Bb4+ 6. c3 Be7 7. f4 d6
8. Bd3 Nh6 9. O-O O-O 10. N1d2 f5 11. Nf3 Kh8 12. exf5 Bxf5 13. Bxf5 Nxf5
14. g4 Nh6 15. Nfd4 Qd7 16. f5 Ne5 17. h3 Nhf7 18. Bf4 g6 19. Kh2 Bf6
20. Ne6 Rg8 21. Qe2 gxf5 22. gxf5 Rae8 23. Rad1 Qe7 24. Nbd4 Ng5 25. Bxg5 Bxg5
26. Nb5 Bh4 27. Rd4 Bg3+ 28. Kh1 c5 29. Re4 d5 30. Ra4 d4 31. Qe4 Qd7
32. c4 Rxe6 33. fxe6 Qxe6 34. Rf5 Qh6 35. Qg2 Bf4 36. Qf1 Qc6+ 0-1
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek, has been playing well, with no defeat so far, rather only draws. He is currently in the lead with 1.5 points ahead of Firouzja, who is second. I hope Abdusattorov, Nodirbek, wins the event.
I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.