The Real Question

The Real Question

This year has certainly been a big year for the world of chess. A lot of drama and controversy has been surrounding the chess world, especially with what could be potentially one of the largest scandals in chess history. But I would like to present to you the biggest question that has been around for a long time. Is bullet chess real chess? 

What I am about to show you is an abomination. Conclusive evidence of the reality of bullet chess. Both of these games are 1 minute games with no bonus. 

The First Nightmare

At first, I was playing this game as I would any other bullet game. I would play c4, the English, while black would play something of a Scandanavian with d5. This allows me to take on d5 and attack the queen with momentum. I am also able to get a relatively comfortable position and control of the center with d4. 

My opponent on the other hand would try to go in for a fried liver attack, but I was ready to counter by giving a check with Qa4, forking the king and knight to force the knight back. But then, disaster struck. I mouse slipped, playing Qb3. 

I decided I would start goofing around since I was sure that I was going to lose the game. So I decided to try and bring the king to the center of the board without getting checkmated. I would move my king around and take the b pawn first though. I didn't want to embarrassingly lose my queen too. 

I continued the game by just moving my pieces around and harassing black's bishop. But notice despite my seemingly random attempts to get his bishop, black is actually starting to fall behind in development and time. I still had 55 seconds, while he had gone down to 40. 

We trade bishops and I take with the king to move towards the center. Black continues to try and target me extremely vulnerable king. By move 16, my king is at the front of the battlefield, and I have hung a mate in one. Black can play Qd6 checkmate. 

But he doesn't find the mate and checks with the knight instead. For the next few moves, black tries to hunt down my king, and mind you that my king is completely in the center of the board with no protection. Almost half of my moves up to this point have been king moves, and I have been moving very fast. My king went from the back, to the center, to the side of the board. 

Black continues to hunt my king down on the side of the board. He finds a fork and wins my knight while opening the g file to bring in his rook. Just look at the position and you'll see that my king is being hunted by the rook, queen, and knight. There's a mate in 13, but I am up a lot of time now. He has 20 seconds while I have 32. 

But in the heat of the speed, black makes one blunder by hanging his knight and the eval goes from mate in 13 to +6.6 for white. There is no attack on my king despite it being out in the open. But I would blunder right back by hanging my knight and black has to simply pick up my knight. But instead, black blunders back by moving his king and hanging his queen. Only in bullet. Only in bullet.

And all of a sudden, the tables turn and I begin hunting down the black king. He is down to 5 seconds, while I still have 20. 

And the game ends in a time scramble, where I decide to just gobble up all of black's pieces and sack my queen for his rook because he will have fewer pieces to use for a time scramble and on move 44, black times out while I have 7 seconds remaining. 

This is Just a Dream

Now if you look at my bullet rating, you'll notice that I've dropped quite a bit, so I wasn't feeling all too great. So in this game, I was just doing what any sensible player that is having a bit of a drop would do. Play the Van't Kruij's Opening and follow with d3, c3 and b3. Now, black plays solidly and takes full control of the center with c5, d5, and e5. 

At this point, black tries to go for a pawn break, but I let him take so that I can develop with momentum and soon, the position actually isn't so bad for me. I have a head start in development and control while black only has e5 out. 

We get a queen trade and black begins rapid development of his pieces. But I decide that the best course of action is to play a bongcloud and cause confusion for my opponent by making several mistakes in a row. But my opponent is far more strong willed than the first game because he just plays good improving moves and is not falling behind in time. 

The game continues with us trading both of our knights and opening up the e and c files. I have control of the c file, but putting my king on duty of the e file may not be the smartest choice. 

Black continues by taking control of the e file and I blunder a pin of my rook, losing my rook for a bishop. But black is relentless and develops his light squared bishop to connect his rooks and prepare to dominate both open files. 

Black takes control of the open files, but he allows me to kick out his bishop and he hangs his bishop, shutting down the e file. So he double stacks on the c file, but notice that my bishop pair are working together and are actually causing serious problems for black because he can't infiltrate and it won't be long till my rook joins the game. 

I am able to open the e file and take control of the file while black builds up his a and b pawns to open up the c file. However, I have a pawn that is knocking on the footsteps of promotion. 

But slowly but surely, I coordinate my bishop pair and king to push forward towards my passed pawn. Notice the piece cluster that I've created in order to protect my king despite it being in the center of the board. I also lock the queenside to play on the kingside and center of the board. Our time continues to be evenly matched as well. 

I continue by pushing my g pawn to apply pressure on the king side. Black would blunder a pin by my bishop, allowing me to win one of his rooks for a bishop, and I am still moving ever so slowly towards my passed pawns. My bishop and rook also coordinate together to push the black king to the back so that it remains inactive. 

And the result is that black begins shuffling his rook back and forth because he has run out of moves. In the meantime, I am able to set my rook and king in position to trade rooks and the passed pawn, while my bishop is able to start picking off the rest of black's pawns. However, this is where I start getting into a time crunch with 10 seconds remaining while black had 12. The next moves til the end is trying to promote and prevent stalemate. 

And so, on move 63, I was able to deliver checkmate with 2 seconds left on the clock while black had 3 seconds.

In both of these games, I violated all opening principles and had many absolutely game-losing moves and positions that would have resulted in absolute obliteration in a rapid or classical game. But I would end up winning because there isn't much time to think about the position.

Shouldn't there be some level of thought-deep calculation in chess? But yet, I will still play bullet chess for several hours on end because I enjoy it, so does the fun in bullet make it real? Let me know what you think about bullet chess!