At amateur level most chess games are decided by big tactical mistakes. The average game on the popular chess.com lasts only about 25 moves. If I look to my own games the picture is quite similar.

I also noticed that when you do not make big mistakes, you will always be in with a chance to get a good result out of a game. Just don’t blunder!

But that is of course easier said than done. Even my article blunder check didn’t help me. Simply because I did not live up to my own advice. The chess game is very complicated and we tend to oversee stuff in the heat of the battle. Not only us ordinary mortals, but also the big chess stars have their weak moments.

See the diagram. It is the tenth round in the candidates tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk (March 2014). Vladimir Kramnik with white plays against Peter Svidler. Who is better?

My guess: it is close to equal. Although I would prefer to play the white pieces. Vlad’s position seems to be a bit more sound. But it’s the wrong moment for all sorts of positional speculations. The white rook on c4 is attacked by the black knight on b6. So Vlad has to do something.

An idea might be 32. Nd4 Qd7 33. Rc6 but Kramnik decided to play 32. Rd4. What is wrong with this move?