Zukertort Opening — Win

Thursday, October 8, 2026 · vs Kotomina · View game on lichess ↗

A few times this game you either burned a ton of clock (38 seconds, then a massive 104 seconds) and still missed the best move, or blitzed one out in 7 seconds and missed it too — the lesson isn't 'think longer,' it's making sure that time is actually spent calculating concrete candidate moves instead of just general vibes. Next session, try picking two or three candidate moves out loud before committing, especially in those longer-think moments.

• ›Here you played a6, a slow queenside move, but the engine really wanted bishop to d5 — centralizing with tempo and clamping down on White's pieces instead of giving them a free tempo to reorganize. You thought for 38 seconds and still picked the passive option, and the evaluation swung a full point against you as a result. Not a disaster, just a missed chance to make the position uncomfortable for White right away.
• ›Knight to e5 instead of knight to e7 — the engine's point is that e7 keeps things more solid and under control, while your knight jump let White's position breathe a bit more than it should have. Lucky for you, your opponent returned the favor right after with h3 instead of just grabbing on e5, so the position basically reset back in your favor.
• ›This is a case where you took a long 104-second think and still landed on rook to f6 instead of the engine's f4, which would've locked down the position much more concretely. Your opponent had just blundered the move before with queen to f2 instead of h4, so there was real pressure to punish — you didn't find the cleanest way, but the position stayed good enough that it didn't cost you the game.
• ›Rook to f7 here, played in just 7 seconds, versus the engine's c6 which keeps things much tighter. This one reads like a quick, under-calculated decision rather than a deep miscalculation — exactly the kind of move worth double-checking even when it feels automatic.