A Game with All the Right Moves

I played a blitz game recently on Chess.com where throughout the entire game I felt a sense of heightened alertness- that I just understood the position and was quickly spotting threats and tactics. My opponent made a number of weak moves (yes, we’re both patzers), but I felt I found all the right moves- the most forcing, decisive replies to capitalize on his mistakes. After the game I asked my chess engine, MadChess, to analyze the game and suggest where I could have played better. To my surprise, MadChess could not find any improvements in my play.

OK, I thought, I did feel confident throughout the game. However, a super-grandmaster strength engine, Komodo 5.1, nearly 900 Elo stronger than MadChess, is certain to find improvements. Nope.

I ran the analysis in Hiarcs Chess Explorer using the “find only errors, not inaccuracies” setting. I don’t know how many centipawns Hiarcs Chess Explorer considers an error. Nonetheless, I’m proud I played a game so accurately with so little time on the clock.

Even with the “show inaccuracies” setting enabled, MadChess cannot find any improvement in my play from the 23rd move through checkmate on the 37th move. Komodo finds one improvement, suggesting 24. Bc1 instead of 24. Nxd8, to avoid the trade of bishops, I guess.

I played white. Time control was 5 min + 2 sec / move.