Ben Finegold Visit Day 2

In the semi-finals of the blindfold knockout tournament, Ben was Black against Sonny Kamberi. Unfortunately for Sonny, Sonny hung a Bishop in the middlegame and resigned. Sonny forgot that Ben had a Queen on b6.

Then, in the finals, Ben had White against GM Jaan Ehlvest.



As you can tell from the picture, the opening was a King's Indian. Also notice that the game was being played outdoors and the kids were wearing T-shirts. Wow, it is nice and warm in Arizona in November.

Ben was doing very well, but then............



In this position, all Ben had to do was play Qxf3 and he would have been two pawns up with no compensation for Black, an easy win for someone of Ben's caliber........

However, Ben hallucinated. He saw a quicker win and went for it. He played Qe8+ Kh7 and now, Rc7?? supposedly pinning and winning the Queen. Apparently, Ben thought that his Queen was on d8, not e8, and realized his mistake right after he moved. The game continued Qxc7 Bc6 Qa7+ Resigns.