lichess.org
Donate

Our 64 most memorable blunders

@datajunkie said ^

30 d5 game

  1. e4 c5 2. b4 b6 3. bxc5 bxc5 4. d4 d5 5. Bb5+ Nd7 6. dxc5?? Qa5+ 7. Nc3 Qxc3+ 8. Kf1 (I played this move in complete tilt.) Qxa1

I went on to draw the game as white but the opening blunders were horrendus

Oof. Good fightback to draw!

The funny thing is I was winning near the end and actually blundered a repitition.

@datajunkie said [^](/forum/redirect/post/nDiJA7Zh) > > 30 d5 game > > > > 1. e4 c5 2. b4 b6 3. bxc5 bxc5 4. d4 d5 5. Bb5+ Nd7 6. dxc5?? Qa5+ 7. Nc3 Qxc3+ 8. Kf1 (I played this move in complete tilt.) Qxa1 > > > > I went on to draw the game as white but the opening blunders were horrendus > > Oof. Good fightback to draw! The funny thing is I was winning near the end and actually blundered a repitition.

@armaanrao said ^

[Event "RJCC Spring Term 2026"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK/5SNzxtld"]
[Date "2026.03.14"]
[Round "9.3"]
[White "x"]
[Black "x"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[WhiteFideId "343424732"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[BlackFideId "497150"]
[TimeControl "1500+10"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "B20"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense: Mengarini Variation"]
[UTCDate "2026.03.14"]
[UTCTime "16:07:01"]
[BroadcastName "RJCC Spring Term 2026 Advanced"]
[BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK"]
[GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK/5SNzxtld"]

  1. e4 { [%clk 0:25:18] } 1... c5 { [%clk 0:25:13] } 2. a3 { [%clk 0:25:25] } 2... Nc6 { [%clk 0:25:11] } 3. b4 { [%clk 0:25:30] } 3... cxb4 { [%clk 0:25:06] } 4. axb4 { [%clk 0:25:34] } 4... Nxb4 { [%clk 0:24:58] } 5. c3 { [%clk 0:25:41] } 5... Nc6 { [%clk 0:24:57] } 6. d4 { [%clk 0:25:47] } 6... d5 { [%clk 0:25:04] } 7. exd5 { [%clk 0:25:54] } 7... Qxd5 { [%clk 0:25:07] } 8. Na3 { [%clk 0:26:02] } 8... a6 { [%clk 0:24:31] } 9. Nb5 { [%clk 0:25:54] } 9... Qd8 { [%clk 0:24:19] } 10. d5 { [%clk 0:25:27] } 10... Na5 { [%clk 0:24:17] } 11. Nd4 { [%clk 0:23:40] } 11... Bd7 { [%clk 0:24:18] } 12. Bd2 { [%clk 0:21:17] } 12... Nf6 { [%clk 0:23:59] } 13. c4 { [%clk 0:21:04] } 13... b6 { [%clk 0:23:55] } 14. c5 { [%clk 0:19:36] } 14... Nxd5 { [%clk 0:23:13] } 15. Rxa5 { [%clk 0:16:51] } 15... bxa5 { [%clk 0:22:42] } 16. c6 { [%clk 0:16:45] } 16... Bc8 { [%clk 0:20:26] } 17. Qa4 { [%clk 0:15:42] } 17... Nb6 { [%clk 0:20:08] } 18. Bc4 { [%clk 0:14:56] } 18... Nxa4 { [%clk 0:20:00] } 0-1

I was playing white on board 3, tried out a new opening, got a better position and blundered my queen

Very aggressive play. Added to study

@armaanrao said [^](/forum/redirect/post/9Eb5ytKQ) > [Event "RJCC Spring Term 2026"] > [Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK/5SNzxtld"] > [Date "2026.03.14"] > [Round "9.3"] > [White "x"] > [Black "x"] > [Result "0-1"] > [WhiteElo "0"] > [WhiteFideId "343424732"] > [BlackElo "1637"] > [BlackFideId "497150"] > [TimeControl "1500+10"] > [Variant "Standard"] > [ECO "B20"] > [Opening "Sicilian Defense: Mengarini Variation"] > [UTCDate "2026.03.14"] > [UTCTime "16:07:01"] > [BroadcastName "RJCC Spring Term 2026 Advanced"] > [BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK"] > [GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/rjcc-spring-term-2026-advanced/round-9/GD0EZZXK/5SNzxtld"] > > 1. e4 { [%clk 0:25:18] } 1... c5 { [%clk 0:25:13] } 2. a3 { [%clk 0:25:25] } 2... Nc6 { [%clk 0:25:11] } 3. b4 { [%clk 0:25:30] } 3... cxb4 { [%clk 0:25:06] } 4. axb4 { [%clk 0:25:34] } 4... Nxb4 { [%clk 0:24:58] } 5. c3 { [%clk 0:25:41] } 5... Nc6 { [%clk 0:24:57] } 6. d4 { [%clk 0:25:47] } 6... d5 { [%clk 0:25:04] } 7. exd5 { [%clk 0:25:54] } 7... Qxd5 { [%clk 0:25:07] } 8. Na3 { [%clk 0:26:02] } 8... a6 { [%clk 0:24:31] } 9. Nb5 { [%clk 0:25:54] } 9... Qd8 { [%clk 0:24:19] } 10. d5 { [%clk 0:25:27] } 10... Na5 { [%clk 0:24:17] } 11. Nd4 { [%clk 0:23:40] } 11... Bd7 { [%clk 0:24:18] } 12. Bd2 { [%clk 0:21:17] } 12... Nf6 { [%clk 0:23:59] } 13. c4 { [%clk 0:21:04] } 13... b6 { [%clk 0:23:55] } 14. c5 { [%clk 0:19:36] } 14... Nxd5 { [%clk 0:23:13] } 15. Rxa5 { [%clk 0:16:51] } 15... bxa5 { [%clk 0:22:42] } 16. c6 { [%clk 0:16:45] } 16... Bc8 { [%clk 0:20:26] } 17. Qa4 { [%clk 0:15:42] } 17... Nb6 { [%clk 0:20:08] } 18. Bc4 { [%clk 0:14:56] } 18... Nxa4 { [%clk 0:20:00] } 0-1 > > > I was playing white on board 3, tried out a new opening, got a better position and blundered my queen Very aggressive play. Added to study

@JosephSummerhays said ^

I was playing my favorite opening, the Vienna gambit. My opponent didn't castle nearly quickly enough and so I hunted his king into the center of the board. My first mistake was not capturing a pawn luring the king further into the center, in this position:

https://lichess.org/YNTswiKU/white#38
I had seen the move, and I had calculated that it was the best, but I simply forgot it after looking at other worse lines. But it's not the first mistake that gets you, it's the second.

Two move later, as I was kicking myself for not playing bishop takes pawned seeing the king escaping back to the back rank, I totally forgot my queen was hanging.

Our brains do funny things in critical moments of games! Thanks for sharing, added.

@JosephSummerhays said [^](/forum/redirect/post/iBtuvWaC) > I was playing my favorite opening, the Vienna gambit. My opponent didn't castle nearly quickly enough and so I hunted his king into the center of the board. My first mistake was not capturing a pawn luring the king further into the center, in this position: https://lichess.org/YNTswiKU/white#38 I had seen the move, and I had calculated that it was the best, but I simply forgot it after looking at other worse lines. But it's not the first mistake that gets you, it's the second. > > Two move later, as I was kicking myself for not playing bishop takes pawned seeing the king escaping back to the back rank, I totally forgot my queen was hanging. Our brains do funny things in critical moments of games! Thanks for sharing, added.

Out of curiosity, is this restricted to just standard chess?

Out of curiosity, is this restricted to just standard chess?

@nrizwan said ^

Out of curiosity, is this restricted to just standard chess?

No, as long as it's a memorable blunder, any type of chess works.

@nrizwan said [^](/forum/redirect/post/c5YRVMa6) > Out of curiosity, is this restricted to just standard chess? No, as long as it's a memorable blunder, any type of chess works.

This is certainly not my worst blunder, nor a particularly old one, but it probably will be burnt into my brain for a long time.

I somewhat arrogantly berserked and found myself low on time. As is usual in atomic White has a huge advantage and this could not have been truer in my case - but I threw it all away with Bxc6?? I resigned and screamed loud enough for my parents to ask what was wrong:

https://lichess.org/leqeYHRy/white#27

This is certainly not my *worst* blunder, nor a particularly old one, but it probably will be burnt into my brain for a long time. I somewhat arrogantly berserked and found myself low on time. As is usual in atomic White has a huge advantage and this could not have been truer in my case - but I threw it all away with Bxc6?? I resigned and screamed loud enough for my parents to ask what was wrong: https://lichess.org/leqeYHRy/white#27

[Event "8/14/21 OTB tournament: round 5 me vs BV"]
[Date "2021.08.15"]
[Result "*"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "B01"]
[Opening "Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit"]
[StudyName "8/14/21 OTB tournament"]
[ChapterName "round 5 me vs BV"]
[ChapterURL "https://lichess.org/study/doKik8qw/AYqX74ng"]
[Annotator "https://lichess.org/@/chesspawnrookking"]
[UTCDate "2021.08.15"]
[UTCTime "23:16:13"]

  1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Qd2 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qa5 6. Be2 Bxe2 7. Ngxe2 Nc6 8. O-O O-O-O 9. Qe3 e5 10. dxe5 Qxe5 11. Qxe5 Nxe5 12. Bg5 Be7 13. Rad1 h6 14. Bf4 Ng6 15. Be3 Rhe8 16. h3 a6 17. Nd4 Nd5 18. Nxd5 Rxd5 19. c4 Rdd8 20. Nf5 Bf6 21. b3 Ne7 22. Ng3 Bb2 23. Bc5 g6 24. Rxd8+ Kxd8 25. Rd1+ Kc8 26. Re1 Kd7 27. Kf1 Nc6 28. Rxe8 Kxe8 29. Ke2 Kd7 30. Ke3 b6 31. Bf8 Ke8 32. Bxh6 Bc1+ 33. Ke4 Bxh6 34. f4 f5+ 35. Kd5 Nb4+ 36. Ke6 Bxf4 37. Ne2 Be3 38. Kf6 f4 39. a3 Nc2 40. Kxg6 Nd4 41. Nxd4 Bxd4 42. Kf5 Be3 43. Kf6 Bc1 44. a4 Kd7 45. Ke5 Kc6 46. b4 Bd2 47. h4 f3 48. gxf3 Bxb4 49. Ke6 Bd2 50. h5 Kc5 51. Ke5 Bh6 52. f4 Kxc4 53. f5 b5 54. axb5 axb5 55. Kf6 b4 56. Kg6 b3 57. Kxh6 b2 58. f6 b1=Q 59. Kg7 Qg1+ 60. Kh6 Qe3+ 61. Kg6 Qg3+ 62. Kh6 Qf4+ 63. Kg6 Qg4+ 64. Kh6 Qf5 65. Kg7 Qxh5 *

Last game of a local scholastic tournament. One of my first otb tournaments ever I was already 1 point ahead of all my opponents. I already won against the first seed 1900 with a 98% game. After the first few moves my 1700 opponent offered me a draw. I declined of course. I do not consider this a mistake I would have done the same today on principle. Things were moving into a drawn endgame then move 30 I played the only bad king move Ke3 and got my bishop trapped in disgusting fashion. Worse yet it was now a 3 way tie for first and I got a bad tie break due to provisional. Since then I never won an otb tournament outright. Interestingly while this definitely hurt this was not the blunder that hurt the worst. I don't have the game but basically I was playing an otb against 2100 was already having a bad tournament got up a pawn in the opening but then panicking that I had 9 minutes left ???? deliberately sacrificed an exchange and then lost. After that I sort of lost my will to play chess it was a scholastic RR (dang why always in the scholastics) so I couldn't with draw lost the last round against an underrated 1600 with a score of 1/5 definitely not qualifying to the Denker. The good news is over the following two years I gained 200+ elo and stole some FIDE from notable names.

[Event "8/14/21 OTB tournament: round 5 me vs BV"] [Date "2021.08.15"] [Result "*"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "B01"] [Opening "Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit"] [StudyName "8/14/21 OTB tournament"] [ChapterName "round 5 me vs BV"] [ChapterURL "https://lichess.org/study/doKik8qw/AYqX74ng"] [Annotator "https://lichess.org/@/chesspawnrookking"] [UTCDate "2021.08.15"] [UTCTime "23:16:13"] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Qd2 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qa5 6. Be2 Bxe2 7. Ngxe2 Nc6 8. O-O O-O-O 9. Qe3 e5 10. dxe5 Qxe5 11. Qxe5 Nxe5 12. Bg5 Be7 13. Rad1 h6 14. Bf4 Ng6 15. Be3 Rhe8 16. h3 a6 17. Nd4 Nd5 18. Nxd5 Rxd5 19. c4 Rdd8 20. Nf5 Bf6 21. b3 Ne7 22. Ng3 Bb2 23. Bc5 g6 24. Rxd8+ Kxd8 25. Rd1+ Kc8 26. Re1 Kd7 27. Kf1 Nc6 28. Rxe8 Kxe8 29. Ke2 Kd7 30. Ke3 b6 31. Bf8 Ke8 32. Bxh6 Bc1+ 33. Ke4 Bxh6 34. f4 f5+ 35. Kd5 Nb4+ 36. Ke6 Bxf4 37. Ne2 Be3 38. Kf6 f4 39. a3 Nc2 40. Kxg6 Nd4 41. Nxd4 Bxd4 42. Kf5 Be3 43. Kf6 Bc1 44. a4 Kd7 45. Ke5 Kc6 46. b4 Bd2 47. h4 f3 48. gxf3 Bxb4 49. Ke6 Bd2 50. h5 Kc5 51. Ke5 Bh6 52. f4 Kxc4 53. f5 b5 54. axb5 axb5 55. Kf6 b4 56. Kg6 b3 57. Kxh6 b2 58. f6 b1=Q 59. Kg7 Qg1+ 60. Kh6 Qe3+ 61. Kg6 Qg3+ 62. Kh6 Qf4+ 63. Kg6 Qg4+ 64. Kh6 Qf5 65. Kg7 Qxh5 * Last game of a local scholastic tournament. One of my first otb tournaments ever I was already 1 point ahead of all my opponents. I already won against the first seed 1900 with a 98% game. After the first few moves my 1700 opponent offered me a draw. I declined of course. I do not consider this a mistake I would have done the same today on principle. Things were moving into a drawn endgame then move 30 I played the only bad king move Ke3 and got my bishop trapped in disgusting fashion. Worse yet it was now a 3 way tie for first and I got a bad tie break due to provisional. Since then I never won an otb tournament outright. Interestingly while this definitely hurt this was not the blunder that hurt the worst. I don't have the game but basically I was playing an otb against 2100 was already having a bad tournament got up a pawn in the opening but then panicking that I had 9 minutes left ???? deliberately sacrificed an exchange and then lost. After that I sort of lost my will to play chess it was a scholastic RR (dang why always in the scholastics) so I couldn't with draw lost the last round against an underrated 1600 with a score of 1/5 definitely not qualifying to the Denker. The good news is over the following two years I gained 200+ elo and stole some FIDE from notable names.

[Event "My World Open 2017 Games: Game 2"]
[Date "2017.07.02"]

  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 Nxe4 5. d5 Bc5 6. dxc6 Nxf2 7. Qd5 Bb6 8. Bg5 f6 9. Bc4 Rf8 10. cxb7 Bxb7 11. Qxb7 Nxh1 12. Bh4 g5 13. Bg3 Nxg3 14. hxg3 c6 15. Nbd2 Qc8 16. Qxc8+ Rxc8 17. Bd3 h6 18. O-O-O d5 19. Bf5 Rd8 20. g4 Kf7 21. Kc2 c5 22. c4 e4 23. cxd5 exf3 24. Be6+ Kg7 25. gxf3 Rh8 26. Ne4 h5 27. Ng3 hxg4 28. fxg4 Rh2+ 29. Kc3 Ba5+ 30. Kc4 Rc2+ 31. Kd3 Rh2 32. Ke4 Kg6 33. d6 Rd2 34. Rxd2 Bxd2 35. Kd5 Rxd6+ 36. Kxd6 Bf4+ 37. Kxc5 Bxg3 38. Kb5 Kg7 39. a4 Kf8 40. b4 Ke7 41. Kc6 Kxe6 42. b5 Bf2 43. a5 f5 44. b6 Bxb6 0-1

World Open 2017, Game 2. I was still trying to win really hard at the end that I forgot about something important... My floor was 2000 USCF then.

[Event "My World Open 2017 Games: Game 2"] [Date "2017.07.02"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 Nxe4 5. d5 Bc5 6. dxc6 Nxf2 7. Qd5 Bb6 8. Bg5 f6 9. Bc4 Rf8 10. cxb7 Bxb7 11. Qxb7 Nxh1 12. Bh4 g5 13. Bg3 Nxg3 14. hxg3 c6 15. Nbd2 Qc8 16. Qxc8+ Rxc8 17. Bd3 h6 18. O-O-O d5 19. Bf5 Rd8 20. g4 Kf7 21. Kc2 c5 22. c4 e4 23. cxd5 exf3 24. Be6+ Kg7 25. gxf3 Rh8 26. Ne4 h5 27. Ng3 hxg4 28. fxg4 Rh2+ 29. Kc3 Ba5+ 30. Kc4 Rc2+ 31. Kd3 Rh2 32. Ke4 Kg6 33. d6 Rd2 34. Rxd2 Bxd2 35. Kd5 Rxd6+ 36. Kxd6 Bf4+ 37. Kxc5 Bxg3 38. Kb5 Kg7 39. a4 Kf8 40. b4 Ke7 41. Kc6 Kxe6 42. b5 Bf2 43. a5 f5 44. b6 Bxb6 0-1 World Open 2017, Game 2. I was still trying to win really hard at the end that I forgot about something important... My floor was 2000 USCF then.