Chess960 SP274

Playing against the Stockfish AI level 6 at lichess.org proved once again a bit too challenging for me. If I am going to play against an AI there again, it will be this same one, because I think it is currently the most suitable one for me as the AI level 5 was not much of a challenge and AI level 7 and 8 would be even tougher. But again, I have only played one game against AI level 5, so it is not enough to judge it properly. This game went quite badly for me starting from my first move. I carelessly played 1...e5 thinking that it should not be that bad of a move, but after 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Ng5 I already thought that I had messed up this game. I had to reply with 3...Nd6, then the pressure kept building with 4.Nce4, to which I again had only one reply 4...Ke8. By moving both of its knights twice, the AI had been able to make me lose the right to castle. While the knight maneuvers were annoying, I am not sure how much the AI gained from that aside from me losing the right to castle. I thought that I should be okay even after Ke8 because I was able to develop my pieces quite easily and the AI had not done much except move its knights around the board. I did even get better development because the AI had to keep moving the knights. After 7...d5, I anticipated 8.Nc3, which I thought to be a good move, but Stockfish AI level 6 moved its knight to g3 instead. I was not really worried about that move, but 8.Nc3 would have been definetely more annoying move to face. I played 8...Rd8, because I wanted to play Kd7, followed by Kc8. That plan did not immediately come into fruition because the AI played 9.e4 and I can no longer play Kd7, because that would lose a pawn for no reason. I instead moved my d-pawn one square forward to d4, trying to block the path of the bishop on a1.

I usually defend my bishop pair almost too much, but when the AI played 10.Nf5, I did not save my bishop for some reason, but instead played Kd7. If I were to end up in a similar position in the future, I would probably just move the bishop, maybe to a3. I think the game continuation was okay too, up to the point when I took on e4 with my bishop, it was just too risky. I did notice quite soon that the pawn grab was a mistake. Well, I thought that it was a mistake during the game that is, but actually it is a good move. After 18.d3 I was of course confident that I will lose the game. At some point I did notice that the bishop on c4 did not have many squares to go to, but for some reason I did not even consider 18...b5. Well, I may have considered it, but thought that I have to prepare it with c6. That was a huge mistake and had the AI just taken my bishop with the pawn, I would have indeed been in a losing position. The game continuation 19.Ba3 b5 was only good enough for an even position. It did not last long as I self-destructed with the move 20...fxe4. I did not even think about the possibility to play 20...d3, which was the only chance for me to try to hold the draw. The AI was kind enough to offer me one last chance to win the game when it played 23.Bxb5, but of course I took back with the pawn, when I should have taken back with the queen. That mistake decided the game as the AI did not give me anymore chances. I have added one analysed game to these two posts: A20 English Opening: King's English Variation. General and C64 Spanish Game: Classical Variation. I have also added one mate in one, three mate in three and one mate in four puzzle today. Until Monday, my fellow chess960 and chess enthusiasts!!

Game number two. This can be viewed in the video below and you can hear what I thought about the game while I played it.