The Chess Campaign - Rapid 21 to 30 (418)

[Part of the Chess Campaign]

I'm now in the Bronze league having finished in the top 15 of Stone but to advance again I'll need to be in the top 10 of the week.

I was also lucky to get a lesson game with Josh where he was impressed with my Caro-Kann opening and that I knew he was building a queen/bishop cannon but still needed to guide me on how to actually win towards the end because I simply didn't see the moves. A rook or queen on the 7th row is really strong!

He also recommended I learn more about the Caro-Kann and have at least two openings for both Black and White, suggesting that I learn the London from Gothamchess. I guess I'll go do that next...

Notation is I either played (W)hite or (B)lack.

21. okadarainmaker (W):  d4 e4 open into slow and steady development and then when I attacked their knight it really put them on the backfoot trying to save it and resulting in them losing all their pieces. Ladder checkmate win (418) up to (431).

22. plutofv (B): d4 c6 open into standard central development where we traded 1 bishop and 1 knight. Then I'm guessing he misclicked his queen into a stupid position letting my king slay her and resigned right after that. (431) up to (448).

23. Jagitry13 (B): Caro-Kann vs variation of Queen's early attack which led to an early exchange of queens. However, since my army was developed at that stage and his wasn't, he got murdered pretty badly afterwards. (448) up to (461).

24. Djeyyk (W): My first attempt using the London system and it smashed his king side castle. (461) up to (473).

25. nitrotastic123 (B): Caro-Kann standard, enemy resigned in mid-game losing position. (473) up to (487).

26. RaviRaj11_R (B): Caro-Kann against early queen attack again, but this time he retreated into long development but too late, I had control of most of the board by then. Eventually got all his pieces and promoted a few pawns to ladder mate. (487) up to (501).

27. El_Don_Devil (W): London open led into very long game where both sides were almost wiped out. I still had a rook and more pawns though, and with queen promotion got ladder mate with 30ish seconds to go. (501) up to (516).

28. onlygoodmove (B): Caro-Kann led to an early 10 move win after sacrificing my white bishop for his knight. Queen/Bishop cannoned into his king side castle for checkmate. (516) up to (527)

29. hamza_therifai (B): Caro-Kann long game and LOST as he played a different counter variation I wasn't prepared for. He was thrashing my forces and got my queen in a king fork, so I congratulated him on chat with a "well played" and he graciously offered a draw which I accepted. We both know he won that one. (527) down to (526).

30. Vreymont (B): Caro-Kann and he used the fantasy counter. I felt I was doing well but took too long to think, then I just started making blunders all over the place. Resigned in a losing position. (526) down to (514).

The Chess Campaign - Ground Zero

[Part of the Chess Campaign]

For those wondering why I'm even doing this, my cousin's son Josh is really into chess and is pretty good as is his grandpa Rick. While I know how the pieces move I have zero in context of planning or anything and historically have lost to pretty much everyone I play, unless they let me win, have a brain-fart, or are less patient than I am. I'm particularly scarred by playing against DL who enjoys ignoring my king and slaying every other piece on the board first before going for a checkmate (no surrendering allowed).

Anyway, thanks to Josh and Rick I learned a few things (because they decided to teach a little instead of just kicking my butt)!

1 - Don't bring out the queen early. I love bringing out my queen early! She also dies early, like after killing one pawn. LOL.
2 - "Develop" the bishops and knights - get them off the back line. I move pawns too much.
3 - Control the center of the board. That's a thing?
4 - En passant. I had a true WTF moment when Josh used this against me. If your pawn takes two steps (first move) and ends up BESIDE an enemy pawn it can immediately be eaten as if it was diagonally in front of it. I had to look up this term as I kept remembering it as "Ovaltine". :P

Armed with this new intel I decided to try play against some online chess AI on chess.com, and by default went against "Larry Fitzgerald Jr. (1250)". I didn't realize that number is their skill level, and got immediately thrashed as his queen broke through my front lines and went on a massacre. I lost in around 10 moves!

It's like this scene from Kill Bill, and my pieces were the ones wearing black!

Ok, time to look for the lowest ranked AI there... Martin (250).