50 Botez Gambits in Fog of War Chess
"i honestly think this mode is criminally underrated" -an opponent whom I strongly agree with
Game 12 of my 50-game Fog of War chess Botez Gambit series (Game Archive):
What I see when I have mate-in-one on the board.
Full vision from after the game.
Giving up my queen on the third move. It was a Botez Gambit.
Why I Love Fog of War Chess More Than Chess
In regular chess, there's no way you'd get this checkmate while down a queen, knight, and bishop.
But in Fog of War chess, material isn't everything, king threats can sneak up on you, and you can get amazing games like this all the time:
(Yes, I got this same mating pattern twice.)
Why Fog of War Chess Is The Best:
- With best play draws happen less than 1% of the time, and while white is favored, black wins a substantial percentage of games.
- There are no long calculations, since you can't see the whole board.
- There is bluffing, risk evaluation, and evaluation of winning chances in potential board states.
- Comebacks are very possible. Rarely are you ever out of the game. Best Comeback Ever against 4th-highest-rated player
- You can be mediocre at regular chess and excel at Fog of War chess. (I'm 1700 blitz in regular chess, and have a winning record against Grandmasters in Fog of War.)
My Botez Gambit Series Rating Progression
After 50 Fog of War games playing the Botez Gambit (queen is capturable by move 3), my record is 41 wins and 9 losses.
I expected my Botez Gambit FoW strength to be around 1800, but now it's almost 1900.
Here is the full Botez Gambit 50-Game Archive.
So what's the deal? Why am I winning so much without my queen?
First, note my regular chess.com chess rating is about 1700 blitz, so 1500 points less than Hikaru, but I think there's a good chance I could adopt Hikaru in Fog of War chess, judging by his play here (the title of the video is a misnomer; his play is beginner-intermediate level):
My peak Fog of War rating is 2155 (#9), and I'm typically ranked 15th-30th on the site:
The current Fog of War leaderboard (see "Leaderboard" here).
Lastly, I'll leave you with the best Fog of War chess video on YouTube.
It's from GM Illingworth, a Top 20 player: Fog of War Chess - Grandmaster Strategy!
