{"id":4578,"date":"2017-02-03T10:55:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T18:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2017-02-03T10:55:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T18:55:30","slug":"my-worst-game-ever-against-the-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=4578","title":{"rendered":"My Worst Game Ever Against the Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since my last post was about my best game (possibly) against the computer, fairness requires that I now show you my worst game, which I played yesterday. As ghastly as it is, there is still a fascinating train-wreck-in-slow-motion beauty to it.<\/p>\n

Shredder — Dana Mackenzie<\/strong><\/p>\n

(40 moves\/10 minutes)<\/p>\n

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. Nf3 …<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"silly<\/a>Position after 4. Nf3. Black to move.<\/em><\/p>\n

One thing that constantly amazes me about the computer is its ability to find holes in my opening knowledge. Here, for instance, humans always play 4. fe. It’s just a given. So when Shredder sprang 4. Nf3 on me — a perfectly reasonable move that has almost never been played before (only 3 times in the chess.com master database) — I had no idea what to do.<\/p>\n

Probably best for Black is 4. … ef, when either 5. ed or 5. e5 transpose into perfectly playable variations of the King’s Gambit. That’s one good lesson for me from this game — if the opponent plays something weird, see if you can transpose into something you know.<\/p>\n

4. … de 5. Nxe5 Be6?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was trying to discourage 6. Bc4, but I missed the fact that White’s next move wins a pawn.<\/p>\n

6. Qe2! …<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting in the way of his own development, pawn-hunting with the queen… Nevertheless, computers can get away with this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

6. … Qd4? 7. Qb5+ Nbd7 8. Qxb7 Rb8 9. Qxc7 Bd6?<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Shredder, 9. … Bc5! 10. Nd1 Bb6! and I am still very much in the game, even two pawns down. The main point is that 11. Nc6 is met by 11. … Qc5 12. b4 Qf8! and White’s queen is trapped. Let’s be honest — this is the sort of position that only a computer can play well.<\/p>\n

10. Nb5 Rxb5 11. Qc8+ Ke7<\/strong><\/p>\n

… and here I was still daydreaming about my attacking possibilities after 12. Qxh8? Nxe5 when I was rudely awakened by<\/p>\n

12. Nc6 mate!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"silly\"<\/a>Final Position.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lessons from this game:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Always go pawn-hunting with your queen. It’ll be fantastic.<\/li>\n
  2. Don’t bother developing your pieces. Black has developed all of his pieces here; how well did that work out?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If your teacher tries to teach you not to go pawn hunting, or to develop your pieces as rapidly as possible, just show him this game and tell him he’s wrong.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Since my last post was about my best game (possibly) against the computer, fairness requires that I now show you my worst game, which I played yesterday. As ghastly as it is, there is still a fascinating train-wreck-in-slow-motion beauty to it. Shredder — Dana Mackenzie (40 moves\/10 minutes) 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9,171],"tags":[1485,432,3677,1661,383,5,2665,1245,3417,1932],"class_list":["post-4578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-openings","category-ruminations","tag-debacles","tag-development","tag-education","tag-embarrassment","tag-humor","tag-kings-gambit","tag-pawn-hunting","tag-shredder","tag-train-wreck","tag-vienna-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4583,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions\/4583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}