
Beating the Holly bot
As you have probably seen by now, chess.com released new bot for the holidays. I'm not sure if they're permanent or not, but they sure are fun!. Beating the first few bots were easy. Powder, Eve, Santa, and Dash gave me no trouble at all. Holly, however, was a different story.
I was a fool to think that a computer rated 2000 was easily beatable. I've beaten 2000 rated players before, so I thought that Holly bot wouldn't be a challenge. That was before I spent hours trying o beat it. I played bullet against her. She flagged me. I played blitz and was outmatched. I play rapid and got destroyed. Every opening I knew I tried. It seemed as though Holly had gotten the best of me. That is, until I found a way to beat her.
The Kings Gambit has a reputation here in the chess world. It often forms double-edged positions where both players launch attacks or die trying. For whatever reason, Holly played a rather dubious line. I analyzed the game soon after my victory, and to my surprise Holly had made a critical error in the opening, allowing me to make a brilliant (!!) sacrifice to tear open their king's safety. So without further ado, here is my annotations on my Victory against Holly. Enjoy