
the 1200 bots: maria-bot, elena-bot, and wilson-bot
at this level the bots are starting to be a real challenge for me!
maria-bot:
i felt so thoughtful and good in this game. i recognised the petrov defense, and tho i didnt know book from there, i tried to imagine what i thought the book would do. i felt pretty smart pinning the knight on move 5, which was the last book move.
and then maria-bot blundered, when i would expect it to block the pin. there was a free pinned knight there for the taking and i went d4 instead.
at least maria-bot went straight from book into a position the archive has never seen before! shes an innovator!
maria-bot was determined to blunder both her knights and i was determined to allow it.
looking back in the review, i wasnt as principled and sharp as i felt like i was being.
i wish the bot games tracked how much time u spend. i spent over 10 minutes on some of the moves in the middlegame, but once i thought i had it figured out i tended to do each move in the sequence pretty quickly until all my ideas were complete, instead of stopping to really consider if id missed anything.
so next time, even if my plan is going according to plan, i will take my time if i have time. and i will recognise that rather than starting and completing plans one by one, i should be developing plans within plans to continue my plans as i plan.
elena-bot:
my first game against elena-bot i resigned after blundering my queen early. the bots really are getting better!
on the rematch i went for a strategy where i went for trades that looked even by points but were a positive for me due to my big space-taking light pawn position.
i avoided blunders and did pretty good for me, but once again i was too focused on my own plans to see unexpected opportunities. i felt like my big position was slightly delicate and really wanted to finish developing, castle, and make it solid. so i missed elena-bot’s weakness on g7. twice.
at least i didnt miss any really obvious knights. i gotta remember to look out for g7 and b7 in general. this is how i end up with the enemy queen in my back rank every other game.
wilson-bot:
wilson-bot beat me fair and square the first time. he started with a duras gambit, which i will have to add to my responses to e4 cheat sheet:
my instinct was to decline with bishop d3 but i decided to accept to see where it would go. i had some ideas and didnt think i would end up in a bad position, and it turned out fine.
i blundered my bishop going into the end game, but managed to fight to recover…
and then i blundered my other bishop.
i tried to still fight for a win but i lost stamina, made some missteps, and it was just a sad long dragged-out endgame.
my rematch with wilson-bot was a close one, full of mistakes.
it opened with bird, and i responded with c5, which is what the pet openings course taught. i was proud of remembering that. then it turned into a sicilian defense: mcdonnell attack, according to the analysis. and things evolved from there.
the move i absolutely shouldve seen was that this threat from the knight was not so big a threat.
i saw the potential king/bishop fork if the knight goes e3, and i couldnt see a good way out of it. my pieces were so cramped. i tried looking for counter threats and other distractions. i considered sacrifices. i thought about moving the first bishop, which would save the bishop, but whats the point if i get forked anyway?
i pre-emptively castled to become unforkable, leaving the bishop to die, and went on a retaliatory pawn rampage, sacrificing a pawn and a knight for no reason.
wilson-bot was up 6 points for a lot of the middlegame, but i tried to rally and stay sharp. and after all the trades and chaos were through, suddenly i had a nice open field facing a nice exposed king to check, and i was able to gain back all my points and more.
when i was trying to simplify down into the endgame, i miscounted the trade and lost my lead. pure laziness cuz i felt so comfortable in my lead. so it was a hard fought endgame, especially after i accidentally hung my second rook. i refused any trade that would end in a draw, and made use of my king+pawn endgame practice to bring home the win.
wilson-bot and i are now 1-1, and i could go for best of 3. but im more interested in moving on to bots who are not so forgiving of blunders, because i really shouldnt be making so many blunders in games where i have infinite time.
i have a feeling the 1300 bots are going to require a better effort!