Humor At the Highest Levels
*Big announcer voice* In a world where chess players are viewed as nerdy and stodgy, one blog seeks to bring ... STONKS TO THE CHESS WORLD!
Today we cover some cheating, an opening, and a controversial top-level game, all in the lovable format of overused internet memes! Enjoy!
BuT hE's a GoOD cHeSS pLaYeR!!1!
The Gotham Chess / Dewas_Kipas controversy took the chess world by storm a few weeks back. Gotham called out a cheater and lost to him. The cheater was banned. All of Indonesia said Gotham was dumb, Dewas_Kipas was an amazing chess player, HE WOULDN'T cheat! Of course, we all hold in living memory the demise of Tigran L. Petrosian (not to be confused with *the* Tigran Petrosian), so such a suggestion is silly on its face. There were many other convoluted explanations about how Kipas may have performed so well without cheating, but the article below seems to be the final word....
https://www.wired.com/story/bird-feed-seller-beat-chess-master-online-harassment/
Remember folks, you don't get banned by Chess.com because you were mass reported or reported by a streamer, you get banned...because you cheated...
Friends don't let friends play the Traxler...
I saw a pretty long Facebook thread recently where it was repeatedly suggested that the Traxler be played against the Knight Attack. The game from this meme illustrates why that is a really bad idea. Of course, this was played at a very low level and black blundered a lot even after playing 4. ..., Bc5, but if white knows what he's doing the Traxler really just loses a pawn and misplaces the King. Be a man and play the Polerio defense already.
Fun fact: this meme contains the complete game so you could play it through yourself and analyze it to see the Traxler (or as I prefer to call it, the Trash-ler) fail in glorious fashion.
Deeze guys...
And, of course, how could we not meme about what was perhaps the funniest game in top-level chess since the very inception of chess!
Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura gave us a wonderful show by playing the Bongcloud Counter Gambit, end game variation in their last preliminary game of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. Though this opening has been making more appearances in recent history, with Hiarku playing it against Jeffry Xiong in the 2020 St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, some commentators were disappointed in this turn of events. Notably, Agadmator complained that many wanted to see some real chess, but some choose to see the humor and joy of this miniature. Here we see top-level chess players transcending stereotypes and just having some fun, and that is something I personally love to see.
The Bongcloud Immortal!
There are many reasons to love a particular chess game. A brilliant tactic, a stunning sacrifice, an unusual approach; these and any number of other things might strike one's fancy. And I think the Bongcloud Immortal, as I affectionately call it, contains something we can all appreciate; chess pros going mainstream.
They *can* play chess at the highest levels and they prove it every day, but with the Bongcloud Immortal, Magnus and Naka proved that they are real people living with us in the internet age, and like us, sometimes they enjoy just making a meme.
Thanks for reading this post! Please take a moment to follow my blog if you'd like to see more content like this. As always, all these memes are original unless otherwise noted. Keep having fun and playing chess!
