How can I beat Isabel in a game?

I've been working my way through the bots on the site, and have been having trouble with Isabel (1600). 

I can frequently beat Nelson(1300)  due to his aggressive use of the queen. Antonio(1500) and I  have pretty good games - he often wins, and his commentary is polite and jovial, but I can sometimes pull out the win. 

When I play Isabel (1600), it seems I never have a chance. She looks friendly enough judging from her avatar, and she says seemingly nice things, but I can read between the lines and I think she's being sarcastic and mocking me. She also says "Jaque!" when she puts my king in check, which really makes my blood boil.

I tried a few games with Wally(1800) and lost as well, but the games seemed closer despite his higher rating. It occurred to me that the bots might all have different plying styes in addition to their rating differences, such as the aforementioned fact that Nelson(1300) likes to use the queen. 

Does anyone here play Isabel with success? Any pointers at beating her?

I had her beat and forgot my bishop like a dope lol.... Still, it's an indication 🙌🙂👍

Miguel has destroyed me for 3 days straight, ruthless. Won't even give me a sympathy win

Miguel looks pretty tough. He could probably beat Isabel.

You definitely had her on the ropes. Great job. I noticed your game was a lot more open than when I play her. I think something about my opening style forces games into more closed positions where I end up blocking my own pieces. 

I think I'll compare my next game with her to yours a bit more. 

I played Isabel a few times while trying to give commentary. Here's one game.

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Here's another one, it dragged on a bit as I lost my way..... I'm getting destroyed by the 1900 bots last few days, I'm glad this ended with a victory or I'd be shedding a few tears, 1900 bots are plain mean 

After the queen trade it's a lost endgame because of my queenside majority and black's passive bishop / weak queenside pawns. I don't play it perfectly, but they even help by giving away a bishop

(playing a game is a lot easier than making a video... or at least it is for me because I'm not used to it yet)

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But yeah, still the same ideas. Rush to get the back rank pieces off of their original squares, and limit pawn moves to only a few.

Obviously middlegames are a lot harder because there's a lot going on... but at least following opening principles is the best way to set yourself up for success.

Amazing llama36, I was going to message you and ask if you could play him. 👍🙌

I've just run through the game and I just think it was solid play both sides, up to these 1900 bots I've won on a blunder from my foe followed by trading down..... I've been hitting a wall here. Time to start learning how to play chess I guess

Oh, that warmed my heart watching that. Thanks for sharing. I watched once and will surely review the video several times. I thought I understood opening principles better than I did, but there were a couple of points that you mentioned that I have not been following.

She’s no cake walk in the park. I used the Sicilian and Réti:

https://www.chess.com/game/computer/22934827

https://www.chess.com/game/computer/22928159

@llama36 I'm also curious if you have other instructional videos available. I tried to view the video you shared on youtube, but it's not working for some reason. Thanks again. I'm looking forward to the next match with my bot nemesis.

Thanks for the positive feedback! Sometimes when people ask questions on the forums I think it would be fun to make a video as a response (either reviewing their game or something like this), but this is the first time I've done that.

The video still works for me so I don't know. Maybe if you have a link it will work?
https://youtu.be/pOqYBuTVxrU

Nice video. Thanks for posting it.

She’s dumb at endgames