The Week of the Bongcloud - pt. 1

      I recently wrote an article about the history of the bongcloud. This article did pretty well, which inspired me to undergo this experiment. For the next week, every game I play, I will use the bongcloud opening. Every. Single. Game. I will document what it has been like, and the effect it has on my elo. Before we begin this journey together, go read my article on the history of the bongcloud attack if you haven’t already. Now that you’ve done that, let’s dive in.

Day 1 - Sunday 18, April, 2021

      I begin this challenge with a blitz rating of 842. I’m aware that this is quite low, but this is on my alt account, and I don’t play blitz often. Due to the fact that I have barely played any blitz games on this account, I will also gain a lot of elo per win.

      I went into this challenge with confidence. The confidence payed off when I won all of my first three games by resignation. This early win streak quickly boosted my rating to 1000.

      I dropped a lot of  rating points when I lost my second game. The thing about this game was that playing the bongcloud at the beginning really spelled my downfall. It forced me to give up not only a pawn, but also center control and any chance at a decent pawn structure.

      I was able to recoup my lost points however, when I won my next game on time. This brought me back up to 1001 elo. The rest of the games were fairly uneventful, with a mix of wins and losses, and I finished off the day with a rating of 968.

Day 2 - Monday 19, April, 2021

      Today I decided to play three minute games with a two second increment. I thought that maybe playing the bongcloud would throw them off, and they would run their time out. At first, this strategy did not go as I planned. A few early losses brought my rating down to 902. Things were not looking good.

      After my 3/2 strategy failed, I went back to 5 minute. The bongcloud just didn’t seem to be as disorienting to people as I thought it would.

      For my next game, I tried a new strategy with the bongcloud. Instead of retreating the king after I had brought him out, I pushed him forward and tried to use him to defend my E pawn. I thought I had finally cracked open the mystery that is the bongcloud… I hadn’t. My opponent mated me in 6. Despite the humiliation, I will show the game below so that you can learn from my mistakes.

      I quickly comforted my bruised ego when I followed this game up with a nice win. The next game was tough. My opponent was white, and opened with their queens pawn. This meant that by playing the bongcloud I would be giving up my  pawn and gaining literally nothing. But I am a man of my word, and I gave up that dang pawn. This of course led to a downhill game. In the end, when I was down by six with under thirty seconds, I thought all was lost. Then I saw something, a glistening window of opportunity. I pulled off the most annoying chess move in the book; a draw by repetition. This draw gained me nine points, and after a handful of uneventful games, I finished the day with a rating of 909.

Day 3 - Tuesday 20, April, 2021

      Before I started my games today, I decided to do a little research. I watched a video of none other than Magnus Carlsen walking through the different variations of the bongcloud, and how to play them. If you read my last piece on the bongcloud, you know that Carlsen is something of a bongcloud savant.

      I hopped into my first game and decided to play one of the variations Carlsen discussed in the video. This is the 1. F3 2. F2 variation.It began pretty well, and I was able to set up a few checkmate opportunities, but my opponent evaded them. I started to slip when my king, who do to his initial move was unable to castle, was left exposed, and my opponent realized that. They became very aggressive, repeatedly delivering checks on my king until they eventually delivered the final blow.

      I used the same bongcloud variation on my next game, this time as black, and I played a very solid game. My opponent was again very aggressive with his queen, but I was able to counter that. I thought that all hope was lost when I blundered my knight, but I didn’t give up. I put pressure on the queen and was able to make him blunder his rook, at which point he resigned.

I'm playing as black in this game

      I continued to test out this new variation, and had mixed results. Using the f3, f2 variation allowed me to keep my queen and bishop mobile, while not having to waste time bringing my king back. Sadly, I finished the day two points lower than when I started, bringing my total rating to a disappointing 907.

Day 4 - Wednesday 21, April, 2021

      Today I wasn’t able to play too much. I’m very busy with school and just started studying for my finals. Luckily, I was able to find some time to play, and I continued to use the f3 f2 variation of the bongcloud.

      My first few games were very clean, and I won the majority of them. They all went to endgames, and I was able to utilize some rook-and-pawn and king-and-pawn endgames I have been practicing. These games allowed me to bring my rating to a cool 920.

      Other than those few endgames, nothing remarkable happened today. I was able to become more solid with the new bongcloud variation, which is probably my go to now. At the end of the day, I logged out with a 931 blitz rating.

The rest of the week will be released this Sunday, make sure to check in.

 - daishukyo