Potato Salad is not 1400

I'm not great at chess, but I can usually beat a 1400 bot. Looking at game review vs the Potato Salad bot, which claims to be 1400, it appears to be playing at basically whatever level it needs to to win - e.g. 2000. This is bloody annoying... Am I the only one to notice this?

Very helpful, thanks!

I have a feeling if you play an opening precisely (not because you're great, but because you've played that opening a lot), it ups its Elo. Here's some of the Elos for it from game reviews:

• 1550
• 2000
• 2000
• 1450
• 750 (what a terrible game!)
• 2000
• 1550

The times I beat it, I had to play at 1850 and 1700 Elo.

If you beat it, then you are either lucky, having a great game, or someone who usually beats ~ 2000 elo bots.

I'm an 800 that practices against these intermediate bots and while I've been able to beat Chesster at least once every 10 to 15 tries, I seem to stand no chance against Potato Salad. And they're both 1400 supposedly. At least his character is cool enough to make it palatable(?

Even my 300-rated friend could beat potato salad

Finally managed to beat the bot, it played at 66.2 accuracy which must've been the first time it notably blundered. It's definitely stronger than Chesster, that's for sure. It also always plays the same sequence against my opening, I don't think its response deviated in moves save for one or two games.

My experience with him was ridiculous.

I played two games with him (excluding two where I blundered in the opening; I'm not counting those as "games" because they never even really started).

On the first game, I got utterly steamrolled without mercy. He made zero mistakes and played with a Karpov-level positional skill that no 1400 should have.

Then, on the second game, he played so incredibly badly that I genuinely thought Martin had forcibly taken over for him. First, he gave up three pawns and his castling rights for seemingly no reason. Then he gave up his queen (again, for seemingly no reason) and later lost both of his rooks to simple forks — one after another, back to back.

This is ridiculous. Can we at least have some consistency?

I beat it again. According to game review, I had to play at 1900 and it played 1550. Admittedly, I'm only ever playing as black - not sure if that makes any difference.

I've beaten potato salad every time I play him

Potato salad is not hard to beat

Have any one beaten the grill master

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought potato salad was harder than other 1400 rated bots. Normally I can beat 1400 bots with relative ease, but I've struggled with potato salad.

Im going to play potato salad 3 games I'll tell you the outcome i usually destroy him

exactly he soooo trash

Just destroyed potato salad

I’ve had the exact same experience — sometimes Potato Salad plays like a 2000-rated engine, perfectly punishing every inaccuracy, and other times it blunders like it’s Martin in disguise. It’s not just about rating — it feels like the bot adjusts its strength based on your playstyle or accuracy. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if it were just consistently strong or weak, but the inconsistency makes it hard to actually learn from the games.

Also, I’ve noticed it tends to play the same lines if you repeat openings, which kind of makes it exploitable once you find a crack. Still, definitely not your average 1400.

Idk

You gotta play some moves they not ready for