10 Shortest Grandmaster Defeats
If you think chess masters don’t make mistakes in their games, you should review these 10 shortest games. Many of them ended up with a checkmate, all under 12 moves. This is not a compilation of GM blunders as I presented in Top 10 Biggest Blunders Grandmasters Made at Chess, but rather a compilation of short games lost by the strong players.
Here it is, for you to judge.
Game 1: N. Tchinenoff – R. Maillard (Paris, 1925)
Game 2: R. Reti – S. Tartakower (Vienna, 1910)
Game 3: NN – Du Mont (1802)
Game 4: Molinari – Bordais (1979)
Game 5: C. Gurnhill – H. Banks (St. Louis, 1984)
Game 6: G. Greco – NN (1620)
Game 7: Deming – Cornell (Indiana, 1980)
Game 8: Barney – Mccrum (Dayton, 1969)
Game 9: D. Andreikin – S. Karjakin (Moscow, 2010)
Game 10: A. Zapata – V. Anand (Biel, 1988)
Don’t forget to leave a comment on these games!
If you like these games you might want to check out the following items:
Credits:
Image in this article is from Flickr and used under the creative commons license.
Updated 10.12.2023
About interesting game 9: There’s a comment that 7…Nxd4 would gain a piece. But what about 8.Bxe7 !? Black queen would be trapped…
By the way, the article mentions GM blunders, but there’s even one “NN”! 😉
Karpov lost a game to Christiansen in about 10 moves to a simple yet not often seen piece fork.
If white moves D5 after blacks moves Qe2?
[quote name=”BugHousePlayer101″][quote name=”Sanjay”][quote name=”Sherlock Holmes”]In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?[/quote]
Nd5[/quote]
… After Nd5 Qd7 because the knight was attacking the blundered piece but no more[/quote]
Then d3 and the piece is gone
Losing a piece usually means losing the game, even on 1700 level 🙄
[quote name=”Sanjay”][quote name=”Sherlock Holmes”]In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?[/quote]
Nd5[/quote]
… After Nd5 Qd7 because the knight was attacking the blundered piece but no more
(For game 10) Does losing a minor piece for nothing really merit a forfeit at the GM level?
[quote name=”Sherlock Holmes”]In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?[/quote]
Nd5
Blunders in chess are expected !!
Qb5+ is a big mistake,you cant take the bishop,the correct move against Qe7 is Nd5 threatening queen and C7 pawn,
I really like the Game 9.
At 1st sight, i’d have played 10) Nh6 ???
Ng4 leads to a mate in 2, whatever the black plays.
[quote name=”marcelob2″][quote name=”Sherlock Holmes”]In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?[/quote]
Qb5+ wins a Knight or a Bishop[/quote]
The correct move is Nd5. The black Queen would have to move then, and white Knight’s can take c7+, forking. If 6. … Qe7 7. Qb5+ c6! 8. Qxf5 Nxc3! And black is better.
Qb5+ wins a Knight or a Bishop[/quote]
The correct move is Nd5. The black Queen would have to move then, and white Knight’s can take c7+, forking. If 6. … Qe7 7. Qb5+ c6! 8. Qxf5 Nxc3! And black is better.[/quote]
Actually 8. … Ng3+!, taking the queen. The move Nxc3 just equal the game, that was my mistake…
[quote name=”Sherlock Holmes”]In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?[/quote]
Db5+ wins a Knight or a Bishop
very nice collection.
@ julius donald lopez
if 6… Qe7 7.Nd5 Qe6 8.Nxc7
if 6… Qe7 7.Nd5 Qd7 8.d3
game 9 is so interesting!
In the last game what would happen if Anand had played Qe7 after Qe2?
nice to see some great stuff.
In last game anand have to movf Qe7
d3 win a piece!.
[quote name=”Rahul”][quote name=”Sravan Krishnan”]Good Collection!
In the last game what would happen if Anand had played d5 after Qe2? :-*[/quote]
Simple, White’s next move would have been 7. d3, threatening to capture the pinned knight with a pawn.[/quote]
Is that a mistake in anand plays he takes on a knight for a pawn.and in match 9 D. Andreikin – S. Karjakin (Moscow, 2010)
Knight could have taken queen why it not so happened?
Very entertaining games! A couple of comments: you say that this is “a compilation of short games lost by the strong players.” Anand, Tartakower, and Karjakin are obviously strong, but most of the losers of these games were quite weak. In annotating Game 9, you say “In fact, taking the other way, 7…Nxd4 just wins a piece, but taking this way, loses a game.” 7…Nxd4 would lose Black’s queen to 8.Bxe7. Black is lost, but 7…f6 is his best try. This is a well-known trap; instead of 6…Nge7?, Black should have played 6…Nce7!, as in Gufeld-Petrosian, USSR Championship 1969. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106803
Good Collection!
In the last game what would happen if Anand had played d5 after Qe2? :-*
[quote name=”Sravan Krishnan”]Good Collection!
In the last game what would happen if Anand had played d5 after Qe2? :-*[/quote]
Simple, White’s next move would have been 7. d3, threatening to capture the pinned knight with a pawn.
GOOD GAME
What a great motivational stuff this is! 🙂 Thank You so much for sharing it.
Thanks for your comments and feedback!
Stay tuned, we will provide more excellent stuff shortly! 🙂
Very funny and instructive at the same time. I liked it very much.
THANK U VERY MUCH FOR SHOWING THOSE BLUNDERS! THIS JUST PROVES HOW WEAK SOME OF THESE SO CALLED MASTERS REALLY R!
You are welcome, Mubashir Sami! Your comments is a great motivation for me to write more!