Missing Wins

Hi all,

So far I played at least 100 rapid games on chess.com and I think that the worst problem one encounters is the missing wins. There is nothing worse to have the possibility to win and lose it because you're not able to recognize a pattern. Now in a normal 10 minutes game, it could be normal that a beginner like me misses a win. However, since I want to improve on this aspect I analyzed my games and the problem is that even in analysis, with a lot of time available I am able to recognize a missing win.

Now, I have a lot of games where I am not able to understand why the computer says it is missing wins. For example, in this game at move 7 d4 is considered a missing win. Why?

https://www.chess.com/game/live/31527091869

The computer says the best move is Cc6+, but even with this move, I am not able to see this win.

Then what does it mean to miss win? Does it mean missing a win in 1 move, 2 moves, 3 moves ...?

Can anyone explain to me what does it mean "missing win" for the chess.com analysis engine? After How many moves there should be the winning position?

PS

I have a lot of games with a puzzling missing win, for the moment I publish only the example above. Later, I will publish more examples.

The engine doesn't care about the number of moves to actually get a checkmate. I think that "missed win" just means that there was a move that would have given you a you a winning advantage (meaning that you would win with perfect play, which might not be easy at all) and you didn't play it. I could be wrong though, but the game you posted seems to back that up. You did not miss a checkmate (even the engine does not see one, at least at low depth), you just missed a tactics that would have won a decisive amount of material. Being a clean Rook up without any compensation is just winning. Edit: learning how to convert such a position comes with experience. Just develop normally and simplify the position. The less pieces are on the board, the more your extra Rook is felt.

In most cases, "missed win" represents a missed sequence that allows you to gain an upper advantage over your opponent, but nothing further. "Win" here does not equate to "checkmate". In my opinion, though, Chess.com could have coined a more accurate expression for this.

Quite possibly, "missed checkmate" or something similar will be displayed if a checkmate is indeed missed.

I just noticed that if you play on a computer and you analyze the game, if you pass the mouse on the "Missing Wins" text a tooltip appears saying:

"missed a move that would have gained material or won the game"

this make more sense and better describe what I see during the analysis

Yes, but I think the designation is still reserved for mistakes that lead to a non-winning position, while the best move would have lead to a winning position. For example, if you miss winning material, but the position is clearly winning anyway, analysis would call it a blunder or mistake, not a missing win. The threshold for winning positions is probably somewhere around +3.

The analysis tool is for every chess player. Winning the queen with 7. Nc6+ is a win at most levels, as the material advantage is too big to overcome. For you the goal should be to worry about finding the moves winning material and to not lose material. If you see 1 or 2 move combinations, then those are very important to see. The rest not so much. To miss wins that take more than 2 consecutive moves is acceptable at your level. You'll be able to go for longer combinations when you get more experienced. 

I think so, in fact, I have another game where the winning position was simply catching a knight.

Thank you, everybody, for your reply, I think the meaning of "missing wins" is now clear.

What is not clear is this:

when you saw Nc6+ in the engine analysis, how comes that you were "not able to see the win"? You know that a queen is worth a lot more than a knight, right?

The OP assumed that "missed win" implied that there is a forced mate. That's the whole point of this thread.

Exactly. My point was: if I am unable to see a checkmate in N move with N=1,2,3 ... how I can see it during a 10 minutes game? Then the point of this thread is that "missing win" is ambiguous if you use phones (where tooltips are not available).
Using a computer and mouse if you move on "Missing Win" a tooltip appears that specifies that "missing win" doesn't mean "missing a forced checkmate" but "missing a possible checkmate or the possibility to catch material".

This is the point of the thread.