Black, 872 vs. John-Marc Ormechea, 1371

This was my seventh game in the 2023 US Open, and a stiff contender with round 5 for my worst game of the tournament. Per Lichess, I made only one blunder rather than four; but my accuracy was slightly lower, at 73% (vs. 78%), and most importantly I lasted a scant 17 moves (vs. 31).

I wasn’t particularly pleased with my position coming out of the opening—my pieces felt constrained, and my bishop in particular was useless—but I thought that, in time, I could salvage things. Focused as I was on the queenside, I failed to recognize how dangerous my opponent’s mounting pressure on the kingside was, and soon it was too late. Alas, when I played 16. …gxh6 (my one blunder), the damning response 17. Qxh6 completely failed to register as even a possibility. This sort of “move blindness” seems to happen to me every once in a while, and usually leads in short order to a sudden loss.