Never Underestimate an Opponent

     
     Just a few moments ago,  I was easily winning a game, and was so far ahead in pawns, that I became careless and allowed white to get a passed pawn on the queenside. Why? Well, because I assumed that since white had shown poor skills during the middle game, he would not be problematic.

     Well, that turned out to be a huge mistake as my king and knight became totally tied down in preventing pawn-promotion  thus providing white time to go picking off my kingside unprotected pawns at his leisure. 

     In short, a theoretically won game was suddenly transformed into a drawn game simply because I had assumed weakness and paid the price for that hasty assumption. Not because I am not familiar with the danger, mind you.  Of course I am since I had repeatedly read about how such blundering opponents suddenly become super alert and triple their concentration in order to even the score, and how the opponent that you had been previously playing is no longer there and has been replaced by a far more dangerous one called a desperado, while you, confidently hoist on your own idiotic petard, are assuming that he is still that other careless guy whom you were just easily beating.

     Lesson? Never relax! In fact, when we are ahead in material, the  sense of imminent possible danger should be intensified in order to avoid this type of frustrating results.