Chess Vocabulary: Blunder

 

 

By Ramya Inapuri, Wizard Coordinator & Instructor in MA

 

In chess, the word Blunder means a mistake that results in an immediate and major disadvantage. To “blunder a piece” means to give a piece away. Failing to take advantage of an opponent's mistake is also sometimes described as a blunder.
 
In the image below, we can see an example of a blunder played by GM Gata Kamsky in a game against GM Alexei Shirov, who moved his queen to Qc5 and proposed an exchange.

 

 

 

Black’s move was 1…Qc5

Kamsky did not want to exchange queens, so he moved his lady back to b3.

2.Qb3

However, he missed the fact that his knight was left unprotected (a blunder.) He resigned before Shirov captured his knight (2…Qxa5)