Adventures in botland: beating all the bots with no hints or takebacks

Recently I started commuting to work again, and decided I'd try to beat all the bots on chess.com. I used alternating colors, and no takebacks or hints (the three stars).

Well, most of 'em. Working on the super GMs now!

I'm strong USCF A/weak expert, so some of these were pretty easy, but things got progressively tougher as I went on.

Adaptative-Beginners

Natasha was definitely the toughest (2000 strength). The adaptive bots are pretty cool though -- I like how they adjust their style and strength.

The beginners bots are all really bad (all < 850). I beat the entire set in a single train ride (about 55m).

Intermediate

Not much to speak of here: Mateo is the toughest, and he's on the 1400 strength. The funnest thing about these bots is their different expressions and language styles -- all over the globe, lots of colorful statements and attitudes.

Advanced

Now things started getting a lot more challenging. Antonio, the first one, is 1500 strength, and Oscar, the last one, is 2100 strength. I played so many games against the masters and creators and I don't remember much about these guys, but I do remember the final row giving me some fits. More about what makes the chess.com bots different, though, when I hit the masters and creators!

Masters and Athletes

The athletes are all pretty weak, not much there. But the masters: these bots are tough, ranging from 2200 to 2450. Their styles range widely: Noah, the first dude, has a solid, dry style. Nora is loves to attack with her queen. Ahmed loves to move his f-pawn (lots of Dutches). Sakura trades right into the endgame and tries to outplay you, etc etc. Wei -- 2450 strength -- definitely gave me the most fits, I had to play her 20+ times before getting the scalp.

The masters share a similar property to the very strong creators, which I'll cover in a bit, that makes them, for me, easier than standard bulletproof chess computers.

Creators

Some of these cats (MrBeast, Harry Mack) are super weak (<1000). But: GothamChess (2500), Aman (2550), and Eric Hanson (2600), wow, these bots are VERY STRONG. Aman loves talking about his beard, btw. Hanson took me longest to beat -- probably 30 games plus!

The chess

I ran up a lot of games against the stronger players, and learned some interesting stuff about how to beat them.

1) Openings

They all tend to have their own customized repertoire. I haven't cross referenced it against the actual humans, but, knowing chess.com, the bots' repertoire's are probably the same as the players. It's really great practice to play them in their favorite openings over and over, really lets you learn the nuances of the opening. But sometimes they have holes in their repertoires which they will consistently play. For example, against Aman, I learned that it likes to play this goofy ..early e6 sicilian where you can close the center and launch a kingside pawn storm. It took me three of four shots, but when I finally beat it it was the same brutal attack pattern: f5 to close the center, the g4, h4, g5, sac-sac-mate.

I played e4 almost exclusively against the bots, and ...c5 and ...e5 as black against 1 e4, and Benonis against d4.

2) Endgames and mysterious mistakes

Something weird about almost all the bots: they weren't super great at K+P endings, or B vs N endings (for ex, if you have the N in a closed position, or the B in an open position). Every once and awhile, they make these really dumb moves, that I don't think a 2500+ player would ever make. I suspect that the chess.com programmers programmed them to sometimes select the 2nd or 3rd best move, but sometimes, in forcing endgame positions, the difference between the first and second move can be disastrous? I'm not sure.

Regardless, all the other bot I've played in my years of playing bots (circa 1996) don't do this. They just defend tenaciously, crush you with superb tactics, suffocate you with flawless openings, play exquisite endings, etc.

3) King's gambits

Very few of the bots

3) A game!

So, sadly, I didn't save any of my games as I was using the iphone app, which doesn't appear to have a way to save the game easily (just copy PGN). But, here's a fun game versus of the GM bots, none other than the pride and sorrow of American chess, Paul Morphy!

Bro just used stockfish to beat them all

this is pretty old, but wow this is super interesting. I myself am struggling with the sakura bot, but I love your commentary.

Thank you for the feedback! (And, well, to the gentleman the posted before you … sigh.)

Yeah the Sakura bit gave me fits! Good luck with your quest

All the bots are overrated. I am an 1400s and can beat a 2300 bot. But still, congrats!

Is it possible that you can send a game between you and the Sakura bot? I would love to see how you beat them

an interesting read!