Beating Dash

Merry Christmas to you all! It's Christmas and chess.com has prepared the five bots for us. This blog is going to write on how to beat Dash.

Dashing through the snow, Dash dashes its pieces quickly and attacks your king, putting you into a tough defensive position. However, there are still things that you can do against this aggressive bot. I consider it as the evolved version of Nelson, giving you super tough but important choices.

1. Openings

To maximize your advantage, choose to be white. Next, choose an opening that you are familiar with. Queen's Pawn Opening should generally give you a better start. For King's Pawn Opening, you better be more careful in defenses and try to find different attacking combinations.

The above example may be useful if you want a great starting point from the openings. However, careful defense is still required to win the game.

2. Middlegame

There is not much you can do in the middlegame if you are forced into a defensive position. Fortunately, the bot is not strong in defenses. The bot pieces are quite vulnerable to forks, pins etc, especially during your attack. Occasionally, the bot castles in the middlegame, giving you a short break but preparing a very strong attack. Make good use of the 'short break' to prepare checks for the bot.

The followings are recommended:

• Attack the king directly as much as you can to reduce the material of Dash (easily lose to forks, pins, etc.)
• Prepare kingside attack trick before castling (it didn't really consider whether it is appropriate to castle kingside)
• Trade pieces off the board, especially if you feel uncomfortable or anxious with its attacking style. (This is still recommended even if the trade may slightly worsen your overall position!)
• Reach endgames more quickly. Its attacking style will probably do less harm to you when you reach more familiar positions.

3. Endgames

The endgame part should be less challenging than the middlegame in most cases. Do not panic, and bear in mind the basic techniques of endgames, it should not be too difficult to obtain advantage from it.