Bullet Chess #14: How to Hold Your Position after Blundering Your Queen

There have been many times when I unknowingly blunder my queen because I push it a bit too far without realizing that it no longer has any chance of escape. And if that happens, usually we would panic and lose focus. Unless it's a really hopeless situation, losing one's queen doesn't spell the end of the game. That's what I told myself when I blundered my queen in this game.

Don't get me wrong, in the games wherein I lost my queen, most of them ended up in a loss. Although this game is no different, I felt really happy that I was able to hold the position despite blundering your queen. And even though the computer evaluates most of this game as completely better for White, I still think that I was able to minimize the losses I could have incurred and I dragged the game out for as long as I did.

In any case, I blundered the queen from move 14. However, it wasn't game over yet. What I had in mind, as I did before whenever I would be in a very tough spot, is that I need to make the position as murky as possible so as to confuse my opponent and induce them to make a mistake. And as you can see from the final position of the game, I wasn't completely hopeless.

Technically, I was able to dwindle the position down to having a rook, a bishop, and two pawns for the queen which amounts to the same value and though the computer evaluated the final position as still better for White, the difference wasn't as big as the rest of the game.

All I wanted to share was that don't lose hope when you lose some valuable pieces, especially if you're only playing online or even if you were playing an official over the board tournament. It's still something you can learn from, treat that experience as such, and move on. There will be more chances for you to improve in the future.

For reference, this is the annotated game: