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xkcd - Nerd Sniping

Randall Munroe

Art of the Nerd Snipe

Strategy
The threat is stronger than the execution!

As always, opinions are my own, not those of Lichess.org.

Imagine you are playing blitz with an increment, and your opponent keeps moving faster and faster. You return fire moving just as quickly, someone hangs a piece, and mate follows swiftly thereafter. This sounds familiar, no? Games are decided by such coin flips...

Your next opponent, seeing your clock's flag about to fall, takes their time and sacrifices a pawn!

https://lichess.org/Ht5ffTq2#40

Horrified, you search for a move... and BEEP the game ends.

https://lichess.org/pMISTQvG#39

Coin flips work better with a weighted coin!

https://lichess.org/8DZDYHCf#82

But sacrifices aren't the only difficult moves to meet... just play a move which doesn't have an obvious response.

https://lichess.org/UZcZIkBj#77

https://lichess.org/aPjK7v4A#98

Who knew that by playing good moves (or at least challenging moves), one could either improve their position or win on time? Happy "dirty" flagging!


Image credit: Randall Munroe