If you guessed the square occupied by the f-pawn, you were absolutely right. f2 and f7 are the squares upon which the earliest checkmates happen because they are only guarded by the kings. Protecting and exploiting these squares should be part of any opening strategy.
Palatine suffered on 6th Board and 8th Board due to the weakness of f7. Palatine's Steve Skara played the Two Knights Defense against Parth Patel on 6th and failed to properly counter 4.Ng5. Parth's inaccuracies allowed Steve to survive the opening, but his king was stuck in the middle. This proved to be his downfall. On the bottom board, Palatine's Jeff Leach left f7 completely unguarded when he castled queenside and overlooked Max Zwolenik's attack on the square. As sometimes happens in chess, a single oversight led to the complete unraveling of a position.
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