There are occasions when checking a game that I am surprised at what I see in terms of threats and tactics.
Other times, it is shameful and even de-moralising, to see how much is missed.
Case in point below...
Move 12, plenty of time in a rapid game and I spend more than a minute to end up not seeing the obvious Qxd4.
I'm not sure that a longer time control would have revealed it to me, since its clear that I am not thinking of the correct approach here, despite the fact that e5 was played on the previous move to attack and (sort of) pin the knight to the queen, so I already have an "attack the knight" thought.
So how come the switch from attack the knight with a pawn, does not switch to "attack with the Queen"?
Has the attack by the Queen on the King over-ridden all other thoughts ? Has it pushed this king-threat to the top of the priority list and blocked anything apart from 'defend the pawn' or 'prevent the check' ?
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| 12. Qd4 |
