You may think you know all the basic principles in chess.

That you’re past the ‘how to avoid beginner mistakes’ tutorials.

Well, think again!

Nobody is immune from ‘easy’ and avoidable mistakes –especially if there’s lack of concentration.

And I would be the first to raise my hand and admit that I have often been guilty of overconfidence that has led me to some painful defeats.

I was reminded of that the other day, when I committed one of the commonest opening sins:

GREED

I was Black, and I faced the English.

1. c4

I don’t particularly like facing this opening because I don’t yet have a reliable reply that I can learn without spending too much of my time in studying it.

So I responded with one of the sidelines of the opening:

1…d5

The game continued:

2. cxd5 Nf6 3.e4

I hadn’t seen this move played against me before.

Apparently, I was being offered a pawn just to make White’s development quicker.

I was feeling good about myself and decided to play aggressively without thinking twice:

3…Nxe4?????????

(I don’t know how many question marks it’s appropriate to use here)

Imagine my horror when I saw my opponent play…

4. Qa5+!

Oops! And I lose the knight in an embarrassing manner.

To my defense, this was a 3 min blitz game, but, I don’t consider it a real excuse.

The truth is, I let my greed take over and failed to calculate White’s 1-move combination hiding behind the pawn offer.

So, the lesson for you is this:

When something looks too good to be true, it probably is.