In Love
In Love
I have been in absolute love. That is in love with duck chess. Who can resist adding ducks to the chessboard? Recently, I played my highest rated opponent in this variation. The time control was blitz 1 minute with 1 second bonus. I had the black pieces against a 2114. I will be notating the duck as an orange highlight like a did with my first blog on duck chess back in October.
In case you don't know how duck chess works, it is played just as normal chess, but with each move, you get to move a duck to any open square, which basically allows you to block your opponent's line of sight or prevent forward movement. There are no checks, so if you are able to capture the king like a normal piece, then you win the game.
The Game
My opponent started the game with c4, the English, and he decided to place the duck on d6. This is because his English setup centers around controlling the light squares, especially d5. Black often counters with his d pawn, but by blocking d6, I will not have this asset. I counter by developing my knight and putting the duck on e3. This makes developing and controlling the center of the board difficult for white. As such, white continues to play with hypermodern style by fianchettoing his bishop, fighting for the center of the board from a distance.
The game continues with white playing a3 and developing their queen early. I castle my king short, but I also decide to try and fianchetto my second bishop. To do this, I utilize the duck to block off the line of sight of my opponent's bishop to my rook. However, when I stop using the duck on e3, he immediately plays e3 to gain more space, and he places the duck on b7, stopping my bishop from developing.
The game continues with both of us continuing with development. White continues to be persistent about putting the duck on d6 to prevent me from pushing forward and fighting for the center. I similarily shift my placement of the duck to d3, where I will not concede movement of the d-pawn, as well as block off the movement of white's queen. White also decides to trade their powerful long diagonal bishop for my knight. This may be because in duck chess, the knight is generally not restricted by the duck, however, this leaves white's light squares surrounding the king extremely vulnerable.
White tries to play a little more aggressively on the queenside by placing b4 and placing their dark square bishop on the long diagonal. However, I proceed by trying to play a bit of a trap by lining my bishop with white's queen and putting the duck in between the two pieces. This way, white is forced to move their queen, as the duck will have to be moved. White does see this trick and moves aside. White also decides to trade my knight for his bishop. This results in a game, where white has two knights which can surpass the duck, while I have the bishop pair.
The game continues with white finishing their development with their knight and removing their rook from the line of sight of the bishop. White also shifts the location of the duck to block the line of vision from the bishop. In order to buy some time on the clock, I decide to take the opportunity to push forward my d-pawn and cause chaos in the center of the board. Soon, we are fighting for control of the center of the board. I also shift the duck to block the queen's sight to the center of the board, but my d pawn is left isolated, as white places the duck on c6, stopping my c pawn from potentially supporting the fragile d pawn.
White rotates their knight, and they are able to pick up my d-pawn. In the meantime, I am shuffling my pieces, trying to coordinate some sort of counter-attack. I soon have all my pieces on the backrank, as I try to rotate my bishop to the kingside to take advantage of white's weak light squares. However, white moves the duck to prevent my bishop from rotating, so I decide to push my queen towards the kingside instead.
White tries to target, my queen, but I am able to counter-attack by sidestepping the attack. In the process, white tries to bring in his other knight to act as interference. But I am able to get my knight to the king side and completely entomb the king to the corner of the board. Now, if I am able to get my queen to the long diagonal, white is going to have some problems. White does find white looks like a fork of my queen and rook, but they hang their second knight, lose control of the long diagonal to my queen, and the trade is potentially a rook for two knights, which is beneficial for me.
I bring my bishop and retrap the king. White is now obligated to place the duck to prevent the queen from seeing the critical g2 square. White does pick up my rook for free, but I am applying serious pressure to his king. White also blunders by sacking his knight, which I can take because my rook is not hanging, as I can block the rook's line of sight with the duck so that I don't have to recapture with my crucial bishop and lose grip of the king. I am also blocking white's queen from the main action and the rook's open file with the duck, posing problems for white.
Ultimately, white continues to shuffle their pieces and trying to break through. But I continue to apply pressure and using the duck to stifle the movement and range of white's pieces. In this position, I was technically down a point in material, but white would time out on move 34, while I still had 21 seconds remaining on my clock. And so, I was able to pull off a win in the end. But what are your thoughts on this game? What do you love about chess? Let me know!
