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Why Grandmasters Are Playing the Worst Move in Chess (theguardian.com) 58

Posted by msmash from the thank-god-it's-friday dept.
An otherwise meaningless game during Monday's preliminary stage of the $200,000 Magnus Carlsen Invitational left a pair of grandmasters in stitches while thrusting one of chess's most bizarre and least effective openings into the mainstream. From a report: Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States had already qualified for the knockout stage of the competition with one game left to play between them. Carlsen, the world's top-ranked player and reigning world champion, started the dead rubber typically enough by moving his king's pawn with the common 1 e4. Nakamura, the five-time US champion and current world No 18, mirrored it with 1 ... e5. And then all hell broke loose. Carlsen inched his king one space forward to the rank where his pawn had started. The self-destructive opening (2 Ke2) is known as the bongcloud for a simple reason: you'd have to be stoned to the gills to think it was a good idea.

The wink-wink move immediately sent Nakamura, who's been a visible champion of the bongcloud in recent years, into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Naturally, the American played along with 2 ... Ke7, which marked the first double bongcloud ever played in a major tournament and its official entry to chess theory (namely, the Bongcloud Counter-Gambit: Hotbox Variation). "Don't do this!" cried the Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko from the commentary booth, looking on in disbelief as the friendly rivals quickly settled for a draw by repetition after six moves. "Is this, uh, called bongcloud? Yeah? It was something like of a bongcloud business. This Ke2-Ke7 stuff. Please definitely don't try it at home. Guys, just forget about it." Why is the bongcloud so bad? For one, it manages to break practically all of the principles you're taught about chess openings from day one: it doesn't fight for the center, it leaves the king exposed and it wastes time, all while eliminating the possibility of castling and managing to impede the development of the bishop and queen. Even the worst openings tend to have some redeeming quality. The bongcloud, not so much. What makes it funny (well, not to everyone) is the idea that two of the best players on the planet would use an opening so pure in its defiance of conventional wisdom.
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Why Grandmasters Are Playing the Worst Move in Chess

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  • Pass (Score:3)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Friday March 19, 2021 @03:10PM (#61176978)

    Okay, that is way too nerdy for me. No soup for you, NEXT!

  • Not sure it's hilarious (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So these guys were playing a game with no consequences and didn't play to win. Maybe it was a nice day and they wanted to finish quickly so they could get outside.

    • Re:Not sure it's hilarious (Score:5, Funny)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Friday March 19, 2021 @03:24PM (#61177012)

      > "which marked the first double bongcloud ever played in a major tournament and its official entry to chess theory (namely, the Bongcloud Counter-Gambit: Hotbox Variation"

      1. First ever tournament bongcloud = check
      2. First ever bongcloud counter-gambit: hotbox = check
      3. In the history books = check
      4. Made it to the front page of slashdot = legen.... hahaha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      So these guys were playing a game with no consequences and didn't play to win. Maybe it was a nice day and they wanted to finish quickly so they could get outside.

      Well, they already are in the tournament, so the game was a mere formality to both of them. The thing is, they could play seriously, or they could play for fun. A chess tournament isn't one where you generally think they play for fun, so one guy thought to heck with it, and the other guy simply played off it.

      They're typically serious events where

    • Maybe it was a nice day and they wanted to finish quickly so they could get outside.

      The more likely explanation is that they wanted to have more time to prepare for their next games, which would be in the knockout stage of the tournament, starting the next day.

  • Lame (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Friday March 19, 2021 @03:16PM (#61176996)

    No, Duncticus, it isn't named the Bongcloud because it is bad. It is named that because it looks insane.

    It is actually fine, if you're good enough to understand all the tactics.

    I'm only 2100 rated, and I've had people play a variation of it with 1. e4 e6 2. Ke2 and in fact, it very difficult for both sides. If you think you can just attack the king because they made a bad move, sorry to tell you, you'll probably lose. It isn't the best opening, but it is better than many other uncommon openings like 1. b4.

    Peter Leko is right; "don't try this at home" on account of having seen two of the top players playing it. You have to be really good at wide variety of tactics. But if you know you're better at tactics than your opponent, and you spend some time learning this silly opening, then it is fine.

    The claim that it is the "worst move in chess" is just a blatantly stupid thing to say.

    • Re:Lame (Score:5, Funny)

      by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Friday March 19, 2021 @03:40PM (#61177082)

      I tried this opening with my nephew. Before I knew what had happened, he sank all my battleships via the go plinko maneuver.

    • If I recall correctly, Bobby Fisher played a variant of the bongcloud moving his king with like 4/6 of his opening moves. It was against a real opponent and he won.

      I am not at 2100, but I assume the proper response is to ignore the bongcloud and focus on your own development first, then pivot to the attack.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ed1park ( 100777 )

        It's suspected that Fischer played against GM Nigel Short in a number of secret online matches. He played the "bongcloud" before it even existed to throw people out of memorized lines of play.

        He was a known critic of modern chess because of all the memorization. So he invented a Fischer Random Chess.

        Wow. I tried posting links but I get a Filter error. I give up on posting here anymore. Sad.

        • Wow. I tried posting links but I get a Filter error. I give up on posting here anymore. Sad.

          Slashdot is the only forum I know that doesn't take BBCODE, just HTML.

      • Bobby Fisher was a freak of nature. So far above his contemporaries that he *had* to do crazy shit just to keep it interesting.

      • This is a little-known secret; the starting position is very solid, and it is hard to attack it. Moving the king back and forth leaves you with a defensive position, so it is bad; but randomly shoving the other pieces forwards is even worse, just positionally! If your opponent feels compelled to attack, because you're playing a "bad" opening, then you might get an advantage. They have to keep their cool and control more space, but also leaving themselves a decent pawn break. And if your opponent is better w

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )
      I'm 0 rated. ...Make that a "1" because I know how to move the pieces, which reminds me of a story.

      My dad first taught us little kids how to move the pieces in chess. At one point, that was ALL we knew. So we tried playing once while dad was at work. The first move was where the rook barreled over its own pawn, the pawn on the other side of the board, and the opponent's rook behind that. The second move, by the other player, mimicked that first move. Then the third move was where the rook would roll
    • I guess with correct play it does not lead to disadvantage, even though it does not look like it. In comparison, b4 is maybe not strong, but has been occasionally played for maybe a century and leads to "normal" positions. It has not been common, but not out of the question even in classical chess. It is hard to imagine using the bongcloud and doing anything other than careful defense for the first fifteen moves.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      I'm only 2100 rated, and I've had people play a variation of it...

      Nerd.

    • The fact that they threw the game after a few more moves throws everything you just said into question.

    • No, Duncticus, it isn't named the Bongcloud because it is bad. It is named that because it looks insane.

      It is actually fine, if you're good enough to understand all the tactics.

      I'm only 2100 rated...

      LOL! Only 2100 rated? I have a 0 rating, but I do know one thing. If you have a 2100 rating, you are probably in >95th percentile of players.

      But as a novice player, I do have to question the wisdom of giving up your ability to castle on your second move. Seems pretty dumb, but what do I know?

      The claim that it is the "worst move in chess" is just a blatantly stupid thing to say.

      So in your estimation, what would be the worst opening in chess?

    • No, Duncticus, it isn't named the Bongcloud because it is bad.

      Stockfish scores it at -2 after 1.e4 e5 2. Ke2. So bad.

      • And yet, all 4 games with over 2200 players on lichess, white won!

        Computers are good at completely different things than human players; arbitrary complexity doesn't matter, and they have no such concept as familiarity with a position or tactical setup.

        That said, if you leave stockfish running, the evaluation goes down and down. At depth 30 it is at -1.3, and that's only the top two lines. The third line is only at -1.

        That's half moves, so if you make the very best possible 15 moves in a row, you'll be sligh

    • If you think you can just attack the king because they made a bad move, sorry to tell you, you'll probably lose.

      Sorry to say this since I'm sure you didn't mean it like that, but this statement is profoundly dumb. A large portion of the strategy against an equally skilled opponent is to put them into a position where they make a mistake (bad move) and then you capitalise on that as much as you can.

      • No, you just don't understand what the heck I'm talking about, because you're a patzer.

      • If you think you can just attack the king because they made a bad move, sorry to tell you, you'll probably lose.

        Sorry to say this since I'm sure you didn't mean it like that, but this statement is profoundly dumb. A large portion of the strategy against an equally skilled opponent is to put them into a position where they make a mistake (bad move) and then you capitalise on that as much as you can.

        In that case the Bongcloud can be a brilliant move in the right circumstance.

        Games aren't just about playing a carbon-copy of yourself with a slightly different skill level, they're about figuring out your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the opponent and trying to play the game in a way that works to your advantage.

        Bongcloud is bad opening meaning that people don't study it or prepare for it. So if you open with Bongcloud you can find yourself in a "weak" position that you are very well prepared for

  • I can see a new trend in competitive chess: Play chess to win, but both opening moves are the same or mirror-image "very stupid" opening move, drawn at random from a short list of "stupid opening moves."

    The challenge is to be prepared to play when the board starts off with both players in the same bad position.

    • A chess position is "bad" only if it favors the other side. Offbeat and bad aren't the same thing.

    • This is how computer on computer chess tournaments are played, only the initial moves are normally drawn from a book of reasonable or even good openings.

  • ...but sometimes those "dumb" moves (ok, not in this case) can surprise as Lee Sedol found out after Alphago played the now (in)famous move 37.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • And then all hell broke loose

    Did it really, though?

    • And then all hell broke loose

      Did it really, though?

      Some guy moved a game token on a game board.

      And then... and then...! some other guy moved another game token on the same game board! Shocking! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

      Yeah, the hyperbole might have been a bit much. I'd have modded you up if I'd gotten points today.

      • You see far more hyperbole in your average football game - which is a far stupider endeavor that literally revolves around giving each other brain damage. Perhaps not intentionally, but pretty much unavoidably.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      No, nor did mayhem ensue, although there were a measure of hijinks and possibly monkeyshines.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        I did go back and watch the clip. It was rather amusing to watch two people at the top of their game have a good laugh screwing around.

    • Did it really, though?

      Yes definitely. Have you seen a competitive chess game? It's the kind of place where if you cough you get banned for life. No doubt this move caused people to ... you know ... gasp. That is the literal definition of all hell breaking loose the the chess world.

  • They article points out they had already qualified, so it seems they were just fucking around, right? It doesn't really matter what the opening move was. The match didn't have any impact on either player. I guess you had to be there to truly understand all the ruckus this caused in the match hall.

  • AI (Score:2)

    by theCat ( 36907 )

    Humans need to find moves that break strong AI. Chess is a good place to start.

  • From a report: Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States had already qualified for the knockout stage of the competition with one game left to play between them.

    The outcome of the game was meaningless, it would have changed nothing. But instead, by employing the Bonghead Opening Gambit they brought world-wide attention to an obscure chess match in Norway.

    Despite what the chess grandmasters say, I'd say this game was well-played!

  • There was a game [youtube.com] a few months back where Nakamura played against Xiong (another GM), and the game was meaningless to Nakamura (who had already qualified for the next round) but not to Xiong (who hadn't yet), and Nakamura played the bongcloud just to show who's boss.

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