The grob: what NOT to play
dear viewers, today is a very important part of the chess what NOT to play series, this is an ACTUAL opening and not one of the meme ones I heard my friend talk about occasionally. This is surprisingly a real opening and now you may be thinking "wait, none of the other openings were official?!", and to that I say, NO. The Botez gambit and the bongcloud or not official openings and just internet memes to chess. But they are still openings nonetheless, and though this opening is terrible, it isn't as bad as the other two sorry excuses for openings. We will still be doing experimentations because it is still a bad opening and I want to see if I can beat winning in 35 moves, as that was what I hit the last time, which was what was covered in my previous blog, click here for the blog. But you may also be thinking "how the SIGMA did the MASSIVELY CRAZY series start, and why isn't it FADING?" and just so I can fill you in on that, here is the backstory of it all.
BACKSTORY
So, about a week ago, chess player and blogger @VOB96 made a forum on which footballer are you based on your blogging, all pretty normal, right? Of course I need to sign up for this so I was I think the first or 3rd person to register myself there, by the time the thing was updated, 27 other human beings entered. Still nothing wrong with any of this. But of course I HAD to check where I was or else I would have exploded wanting to know. And, I am at a terrible position of second last, of course not last because that would really suck but still not exactly the same as 10th place. The description said that focusing on the main subject (chess) would help so that really boosted all my confidence into making this blog series, I didn't really pour much effort into the first blog which was about the bongcloud but for the second one I may have done the best writing I have ever done in my history of blogging. And it was all about the Botez gambit, which was the link that was at the start of this blog. But now to show you the actual opening, one opening that you should not play. The...
GROB
So, while looking for a video on it, I noticed one that said 76% win rate, like, no it isn't. I don't know which 5 year old is view farming for this video but I know that it is definitely one that I would like to throw out a window right now. But here is the opening.
I really hate myself for this. But why you may ask? Well look at this game and the one from the last blog, I got the win in the exact same amount of moves as last time I played Juan. That does not mean that I played the same but that I played worse since the grow is better than the Botez gambit. How could I let this happen? It was such a clear path for the win there and I screwed it up so badly. Like, at least this computer is being a bit glitchy and he wasn't talking but he was so annoying while he was continuously ruining my plans with his weird defenses and I also missed that I could've taken his queen twice for free during that one game. I really need to get my senses hightened if I want to survive 550 elo bots. Hopefully I play a bit better...
Finally, a good game, no, the BEST game against a bot I have played against so far. Only 25 moves to beat this failure of a bot, but not only is that a record for me but I just made biggest difference in moves to win for bots. Of course these are just personal ones but I went from 51 moves to win to 25 moves to win. That is a staggering 26 move distance between games. Which is pretty crazy when you stop to think about it. I didn't think the game against him would be that easy, I was expecting something like Juan where he would go and instantly start spam defending the instance I tried to attack him. But no, I actually enjoyed this game as well and am delighted to have played so well as well. But that seems to only be 550 elo, so now that we are facing 700, even getting close to beating the record is tricky...
So I am actually super happy with the score of 35 moves to beat Noel since he is of a higher elo and should be harder to beat. I also beat him 9 moves faster than the previous time that I had played Aron. So the only thing I can really complain about in this game is that I didn't beat that sweet 25 moves, but even that isn't enraging for me. There isn't really much to talk about except he sacrificed his queen just to be checkmated a move later. But besides that this game wasn't all that interesting, so moving onto the next bot. One with 21 more elo that me. So will this be easier or harder? Let's find this one out after I finish the game and post it down below...
I did not anticipate how bad she played, she was just handing away all of her pieces for free! And beaten in only 29 moves with a pawn checkmate is crazy. Just the fact that it even was a pawn checkmate just blows my mind. I can't believe that someone of such high elo could just give away her pieces like that. Maybe she just wanted to drop some elo? We will probably never figure out this answer but I do hope chess.com sees how flawed these bots are. Mainly because they don't play like someone their elo would. Anyway. Since I don't want this blog to be super long or anything like that, I will only do the first two intermediate bots. That is, if I can even beat them in the first place. But everything is worth a try. So how this game went? Here is all the info from the game...
So, bad news. It took me a whopping 61 moves to beat Maria! That's the worst that I have played in this entire series, though it is better than last time since last time I played Maria with the Botez gambit and lets say the experimentation had to end for at least one of us. And that one was me. Her position kind of deteriorated from the very move she took my rook. The trap on her bishop was the prime key to being on top. I honestly believe that the queen trade at the start secured me that win as well but it wasn't really AS important as the other key reasons. But honestly it wasn't even that difficult to defeat her in the battle of chess. But the next one will surely bring challenges to put me in my place. Or will it? Lets see...
I do not know how I went from dying the last game out with 61 moves and transitioning into a dark 34 moves. I can't believe a bot from such a high elo could lose like that. Especially the fact that he fell for a royal fork. If you don't know what a royal fork is, it's a fork with the king as one of the victims. I think. Or its the fork with king and queen. The second one makes a lot more sense than the first one but still, such play from 1100 is unheard of. Absolutely inaccurate and definitely needs to be fixed by @CHESScom . Well, that was definitely a long read for you, all of that should have killed you by now. What's this, you're not dead? Well, then, I didn't even think to include the origin of this opening in this blog. So here is the introduction to the origin a little late. The...
ORIGIN OF GROB AND CONCLUSION
Well, the origin should not be that long as a story, and I know that you are hoping that it isn't as long as the experiments section. Well, I am very ashamed to say this but the person who made the opening from a Swiss international master called Henri Grob who lived from 1904 to 1974. But apparently the opening was originally called the Spike opening and that name is apparently still used occasionally today. Wow, I didn't know that origin was so lifeless, but now that you know all that the blog that you are reading is practically finished. So how will this opening legacy stay living, well, it is kind of obvious, it's something to NOT play. And I hope with the bottom of my heart that you actually read this blog instead of skipping all of it and saying good job. So goodbye for now, until my next blog!
