This is the position that was reached after 14 moves against Fritz set to Master Level. I have the White pieces and a solid enough position. However, I unwisely chose 15. Na4 and things quickly fell apart. I assumed that the Black Queen, once attacked, would retreat to c7 where I could attack it with my Bishop after Bg3. Black however, retreated to a7 and this was very different. Suddenly, I was a faced with the threat of a pawn fork from b5 and needed to return my Knight to the square it had just come from. Here are the moves with a brief analysis of the best continuation for White (15. Rfe1):
I certainly considered 15. Rfe1 when deliberating on my moves and it's a sensible move but unfortunately I decided on the Knight move, not realising the danger from the pawn fork. The bishop on h4 is also only defended by the Knight and is more secure on g3. It's vulnerable position on h4 ultimately led to its loss with 25. ... Bxh4 after which there was little point in continuing.
The lesson to be learned here to be always check for basic traps like pawn and Knight forks. The danger in my case was glaringly obvious. Sometimes it's less obvious. Here is an instructional configuration that involves the setting up of a pawn fork:
It's taken from http://www.chesstactics.org/, a site that boasts 20 chapters, about 200 topics within them, and over 1,000 positions discussed.
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