Goat of the Day

More games from the Qatar Masters Open, with an eye towards finding the goat of the day.

In the runner-up position, we have the young Chinese star Wei Yi (FIDE 2730). After a fairly blunder filled game (at least according to Stockfish), Wei reached the following position as White against the Indian IM Vignesh (2422):

White to move

White is a pawn to the good, and Black has weaknesses, but White's king isn't too secure either, the presence of queens means that White MUST keep up the home guard, and the rook ending would probably be difficult to win if the queens come off (at least according to Svidler and Ramirez).


A long maneuvering sequence ensued. The advantage grew and shrank by small amounts, but eventually a set of rooks came off, White gave up his c- and e-pawns for Black's d- and h-pawns. But around move 64 White took the wrong path and by move 67 White faced the following position:

White to move

White has many reasonable moves here, but no more than a draw. Unfortunately he played 67 Qxc4?? bxc4 68 Kf4 f5 and resigned. Apparently Wei missed that ...f5 was playable, leaving White's king-side pawns disconnected and weak. The f-pawn can't be taken or the pawn at c4 queens, and if White chases the c-pawn down, Black will eat the h- and g-pawns and queen his f-pawn with no trouble. White simply can't queen fast enough on the queen-side. Oops.

But the despite losing with White from a drawn position against an opponent 300 Elo lower-rated, Wei is probably only the second biggest goat of the day. The biggest would be Evgeny Tomashevsky (2744), who lost a won game against Saleh Salem (2622). After a tense game, Saleh had blundered with 32...Bc5 and 33...Rd3, leaving Tomashevsky to ponder the following:

White to move

White has three winning moves here: 34 Nd8+ or 34 Nd6+ with 34...Rxf3 35 Nxb7 Rxf2+ 36 Kg3 Rc2 37 Nxc5 Nxc5 38 Re5 and White emerges a bishop to the good, or 34 Bxc5 which ultimately leads to White being up to pawns.

33...Rd3 does have a couple of points, however. One is that 34 Qxd3 loses straight away to 34...Nf4+, winning the queen. Another is that 34 Qg4 (as played in the game) loses to 34...Rd4 35 Qxe6 (the pin on the e4 rook is quite powerful) Qxe4 36 Qxe4 Rxe4 37 Bxc5 Kxf7 and Black is an exchange to the good. The game concluded with the moves 38 h5 a6 39 Kf3 Re5 and White resigned.

To be fair, White was in time trouble when all of this happened, but it's surprising he didn't see the 34 Nd8+ idea.

Tough losses all the way around!