How To Beat Chess.com Bots : Nelson
Beating the tricky bot will be a piece of cake!
Hello and Welcome to my chess blog!
If we haven’t met, Hi, I’m Tato, a chess player. I like to share my experiences and learnings in chess to help people improve their level.
Today, I’d like to cover a different topic, specifically for chess players.
Many players, including me, like to play chess online. We usually play on sites such as Chess.com, lichess.org and many more.
Many beginners, who don’t have much time playing online, usually play against computers/bots for fun.
One of these bots, called Nelson, seems to be hard for such players, so I’ll provide tips that will help you beat him easily.
Now, I chose the White pieces, because it’s easier, but you can choose Black later. I’m just trying to showcase my steps better.
Here are my essential tips to beat Nelson easily :
1. Activate The Pieces
2. Make sure your King is safe
3. Try to trade Queens
4. Take free pieces
5. Finish the Game!
Now, I didn’t play this game perfectly. I just made some sensible/easy moves to beat him.
1st Step — We started with this opening below.
Now, note, how Nelson only developed his Queen, while my 2 minor pieces are already out.
This bot is quite bad at piece activity, so use it accordingly.
It’s important to note that Nelson may play bad openings but knows how to use chances and take free stuff, so play wisely.
Later, we got to this position.
Ok, it’s very clear now. While Nelson is wasting precious time with this Queen, I open the center and attack his Queen.
Note, that with my moves, I try to leave no chances for him, so eventually he’ll crack.
2nd Step — Nelson is aggressive with his Queen and thus likes to attack my King sometimes.
After a couple of moves, we got to this position.
Now, it looks like I’m losing a pawn, but I rather give him my center pawn temporarily than neglect my King safety, so I castled to defend my King.
A couple of moves later, we got here.
Notice how my King is safe and my pieces are active, while Black is very passive and keeps moving his Queen.
Forcing Nelson to make bad moves on purpose is what helped me to win this game. If you don’t give him any chances, he’ll eventually crumble.
3rd Step — Now, after the essential steps are completed, it’s time to get rid of Nelson’s biggest strength — Queen.
When you’re playing him, you may get annoyed with his Queen movement, but once you trade them, Nelson basically becomes powerless and starts playing worse.
So, I tried using this to my advantage.
Now, I’m close to trading Queens with him. If I manage to do it, I can outplay him and eventually win the game, sooner or later.
Luckily, Nelson quickly accepts and I get a comfortable position.
4th Step — Since we traded Queens, most of our job is done.
A couple of moves later, we get to this position.
After we traded Queens, I used my strong pieces to target his weaknesses in the position.
Since he neglected piece activity, things will only get harder from now on.
In the position above, he has to give up one pawn or another. There’s not a way out.
A couple of moves later, we got to this position.
I put both my Rooks on the same vertical, to target his weak Bishop.
While my pieces are dominating the board, his pieces are seemingly “dead”, eventually causing a slow downfall and defeat.
Now, the bot makes a big mistake and doesn’t notice the threat, while I take the opportunity and capture the free piece.
Thus, I gained a big advantage with little effort.
After this big mistake, Nelson makes another one, which basically means game over.
5th Step — Now, after we gained this massive advantage, it’s time to finalize things.
Soon, we landed in this position.
Now, I’m pretty sure that all of you can easily win this.
All you have to do is promote your pawns and then easily checkmate his King.
In order to save time, you can view the complete game to understand this blog and concept better.
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Happy reading!
