EXPLODING PIECES in Atomic Chess

have you ever heard of the style of chess  where there are explosions on the chessboard   i'm not talking about when you lose a game and  get angry and throw the pieces all over the place   i'm talking about atomic atomic was developed  in the late 90s as far as i know and it just   hit chess.com variants today so i'm going to  show you the basics and i'm going to play a   few games in the pool i'm also going to include a  url in the description to a website with different   atomic openings okay let's go the first rule of  atomic chess is that when you capture a piece   your piece blows up and the piece that you  take blows up so on a very elementary level   that looks something like this okay if i go  here both of these things disappear now the   next concept that you have to understand is on the  square that the capture occurs surrounding pieces   will explode pieces not pawns so if this happens  you'll notice that this pawn does not disappear   however if this night comes this knight will  in fact disappear if this capture were to occur   okay you can also accidentally blow up your  own pieces uh for for instance if you know   let's just say something like this notice when  this capture occurs black will be exploding   every surrounding piece including their own the  way you win in atomic is oh there's two ways   you have to capture something that's adjacent to  the enemy king so in this position if the queen   were to take here that would result in a victory  for black okay now there are also ways you can win   like checkmate why because you cannot  capture on a square adjacent to your king   that would look something like this if this queen  came out this way this move would be checkmate it   would be checkmate because you cannot capture the  queen since the king is adjacent and you cannot   blow up your own king by that logic the king can  also not capture anything but there's one really   fun rule about atomic it's the fact that the kings  can touch literally you can attach the king to   the enemy king why well think about it this is  the king safeguarding itself against explosion   because you would be taking the enemy king with  it that happens in very advanced games oftentimes   way further down the line but this is the one mode  of chess where kings can actually hug each other   i should show you a few openings  right i think that makes sense   in atomic you can win in two moves you can play  the move knight f3 and if you land the knight on   e5 like let's say black just copies you this  is already winning since now you have a fork   that's just cannot be stopped whatever black does  you will take the pawn and the king will explode   next so often times knight f3 gets played at an  elementary level uh and it is considered the best   first move in atomic and black should play f6  black is actually forced to play f6 uh because   if black doesn't then then you can play knight e5  and you can win playing d6 doesn't work because   we'll just go the other direction and if this  now i think knight f7 is good you can also take   this and blow these up knight e6 is not good since  this would only be a trait of a bishop for knight   knight f7 guarantees that you at least win the  queen for example so that's bad uh there's also   fun uh other concepts where you can kind of block  a queen attack with like just the pawn uh what   i mean by that is let's say uh in a in just in a  very drastic example something like check b5 here   is an untouchable pawn because the the queen would  explode if it took it so you can kind of leave   pieces hanging sometimes like this um that's kind  of it my favorite thing to do is to play knight f3   i also like e3 it can be very tricky in general  these two moves in the beginning are very good   most openings are pretty decent just make  sure that you remember when you capture stuff   that you open the door for for other pieces let's  just uh let's just go play some games i'm going   to play 3-2 i'm going to play random people  and i'm like 1800 now in the variance portal   my first opponent is 1485. so let's play e3 and  i will tell you if people message me oh my gosh   are you the real gotham which has happened the  few times that i've been playing this uh for fun   okay that's a very good move now if i  go back to this i lose so i'm gonna play   queen f3 now if my opponent goes for  knight e4 uh i will play queen takes   and i will win that's a decent move trying to  go g4 now i have knight h3 if g4 i just go to   g5 and i win so very important here actually is  my opponent okay now my opponent loses by force   even though they get my queen they  cannot stop me from taking on f7   okay and my opponent resigns okay what was the  best move there for my opponent after knight h3   i'm honestly not sure because i'm threatening  to take this probably something like e6 and   then if i were to take queen f6 and you would  think that's a free queen but remember that my   queen would explode if i were to take that  queen so that wouldn't work and i shouldn't   do something like this because as juicy as that  looks queen takes pawn is uh is just very good   okay let's go let's play another game generally  3-2 uh challenges lead to games very quickly   okay this person is 1498 they also have levi  in their name which is good i'll show you one   counter trick against knight f3 you don't always  have to play f6 you can play e5 and it's not great   if they know what they're doing but i'm just  sort of hoping that perhaps they don't perhaps   they don't even know why they're playing knight f3  okay it seems like they don't e4 uh bishop c4 is   very rarely a threat because you have d5 so i'll  play knight to c6 i think that should be okay   probably not the best move probably better to  go like this now they're threatening to win   but i have d5 and they might forget that they  open this if they take and then they would lose they didn't okay very good so now if i take  i'm opening i'm also getting rid of that   and i'm threatening to win and they  missed it this time okay now i don't want   to win every game in three or four moves  i i do want to get a a challenging game at   some point but there's not much that i can do  about controlling who i'm playing or not okay this this person this person is just okay okay  okay okay c6 to corral the night   so the night can't move the night some  sometimes people try to crawl forward okay if i win this game in two turns i'll  be very upset again that you should not   take this early because you're opening your  opponent's queen and we win in two moves   again let me go see if there's a way  that i can set the challenge to be a little bit higher rated perhaps doesn't look like i can so then i'll just keep playing three two okay  sounds good okay 1660. this should go a little   bit easier or longer not easier okay knight f3  f6 very good e3 a decent first move my opponent   wants knight g4 i will stop that with h3 and if he  goes there that's fine c6 is a weird move what is   c6 all about now what if i go bishop to d3 with  the idea to take and win material like that now   knight f5 here is good if i take the knight wow  look at that and he's threatening to go here okay   this is this is a lot better than  it was before what if i play knight e5 i go 95 that threatens to win   pawn takes would blow up the knight  context would blow up the knight so that probably is a good move if that were to happen queen h5 looks very good  but i'm not so sure whoa d5 that move loses   immediately actually to not knight f7 because  the queen would move but to knight d7 and now   the the bishop on f8 cannot run away you just  can't run away here and knight takes f8 is winning   because again remember you cannot capture  anything that would be adjacent to your   king's position okay i said it was going  to be a bit of a longer game but turns out   that i i was wrong it's not going to be a longer  game unfortunately well that's okay you keep going   at some point i must come across like an atomic  grandmaster okay i don't think curious monkey   is gonna be the atomic grandmaster how about  this rather than going straight for the kill i   will play a bit more reserved just please don't  blunder knight e5 okay very good so people have   seemingly learned this in the last day because  yesterday people were not doing this knight f5 uh   d4 now my opponent really should develop before  doing anything else knight e3 losing your yeah   like i knew that was gonna happen but that's not  what you want in fact this is already lost for   black if i were to play queen h5 and queen d5 uh  which would result in a fork both here and here i guess i'll just do it i guess i'll just do it  it's it's in my opinion it's kind of silly to yeah now queen f7 and king d7 and i  take this and it's uh that's a win   a lot of 14 and 1500s a lot  of new players it seems like okay knight f3 e5 i'm basically whoops i'm  basically hoping for somebody to go night okay   very good so this is my tr this is my trap line  now knight f7 here looks uh very oh d4 is the   best move i think i'm not mistaken of course  don't take because you would lose your queen um how about d5 i'm i'm in trouble after d4 i i  think the point is that after i'll show you after   i'll show you after 96 luckily i  can get rid of the knight so 96   i now no longer have to deal with the the  pesky knight that's a good move of course   remember i cannot take the bishop  let me oh but if i go here they take oh wait a second wait a second i'm in a lot of  trouble here and my opponent is threatening this oh my if i go here my opponent will take removing  my knight from existence the bishop then attacks   this and if i were to move my queen bishop  e7 wins the game because my king can't escape   oh my i think i have to sacrifice my queen i  didn't see anything else maybe i could have put   my king on d7 and move my queen somewhere  else i'm not even sure my i i don't know   if my opponent realized how strong the move  that they just played was but uh this is bad   okay so now we've gotta really work to get  back into this game i'm gonna hide my king this is the good thing if you've  made it this far in the video   then that's a positive because no you could  have just left you could have been like oh   gotham's beating up all these you know not  very good players i i don't want to watch this   so now i have to go like this will  my opponent sacrifice the queen oh my gosh this person is destroying me i have to go knight f6 now they will  take probably oh my oh there's just that wow i just lost all my pieces i'm totally lost here  if i go g5 then check and queen comes down to e8 if knight f6 then take and i lose this and if i  were to go like the best move here is bishop b4   but then just c3 wow that's completely  insane i just got wiped off who is this unbelievable this person is so  strong anonymous superstar over here wild stuff very very well  played now pawn takes just wins actually wait a second does it just win hold on there is one trap here one trap i just  realized when my opponent plays this move   i'll go here and this looks like  mate but i blow up the king first that was that was short-lived excitement king d1   yeah now it's just game over queen takes  is just made not made but my king explodes wow majestic creek absolutely demolished me turns out e5 isn't so good after all that was a wild game okay knight f3 everything  my opponent played there was really good okay   i'll show you a new meta here with knight d4   trying to go knight f5 the best move here for  black is knight h6 to stop that from happening look at that now i don't know what to do   maybe g4 to prevent this knight from  moving anywhere maybe i don't know   i'm just making stuff up in my opinion atomic is  a lot more fun when you don't know the openings c6 knight c3 a big center is good in atomic too so e5 and  d5 would be really strong here for my opponent   uh while that knight is supposed to stop me from  playing knight f5 now that you've allowed me to   go knight f5 i'm threatening to take and that  will be a big kaboom a very very very big kaboom   kaboom the aforementioned kaboom has  occurred queen b6 here will threaten my pawn but then i'll just play d4 queen b6 actually  looks very good looks like it's just over but   uh i can block on the diagonal with e3 or  d4 and then i would be okay most of your   atomic games will probably not last 10 moves  i mean if people are blundering they might but i would uh i would think otherwise so b4 prevents  again the knight from moving if he takes then   okay sure not a problem that's life this will  go d4 i want to bring my queen out i mean i   can't really take but i'm maybe something  like this that would win the game having   said that if i go to d2 he will go  to h6 so and then maybe i'll go to d3 so some i don't know we'll see we'll see we'll  see we'll see f5 all right once this don't just   take queen h4 would win there for black queen h4  man that's mean very mean i'm gonna play h4 myself   so that my opponent cannot play  queen h4 that's how you have to   think in atomic you have to think like how  are they going to uh how are they going to   create an attack on you don't just take  things because you want to see them go kaboom   they took in g4 but now oh what knight of   this i'm gonna do what that guy did to me  see i'm learning from the best here bishop g5   how long how long could okay this this is the  first moment i really could have played bishop g5   now i'm attacking this probably next e3 and  queen h5 just win just have to make sure   i'm pretty defended okay i'm also threatening  this move which would blow up the queen so   don't forget that adjacent pieces yeah and  since i get the check first i'm gonna win   this game because you cannot go here now and i  think queen e8 is mate if king f8 this is made actually sadly it's not oh that's made that's  made that's first of all that's made in normal   chess and it's made in atomic so that's  pretty cool i'll play one last game   one last game hopefully i don't get majestic creek  again i did not get majestic creek again i got e3   what's the best move here for  black is it knight f6 oh boy oh boy this guy's playing what i play that's not good i don't actually know the theory at  all so i think i'm gonna go with e6   now this loses to knight e4 please don't make  my final game four moves long don't take on b7   don't do it knights are way too tricky here  again if he doesn't know this idea he plays   that idea which is an idea i'll play bishop  b4 i think or c6 but bishop b4 prevents his   knight from moving so now he can't play uh he  can't move his knight because i would take here   okay now he can't move his neck as he'd hang  his king also now this is a threat because if   he were to take he would lose his knight right  so now i can play knight d4 attacking his queen this would blow up his own knight so actually  this is not even quite a threat since   the night is on a mine square this would explode  the night so i would take the king i'm not even   sure if this is a legal move i it must be but i'm  actually not sure i'm not sure if it's programmed   to be illegal or not but knight d4 here is a good  move so so you need space in atomic is really what   what what this is all about you need space you  need more space and you need to be very careful   with uh weakening your king so quickly that first  game e5 f5 was it's just not it's not a good idea okay my opponent is deep in thought here he  could very well sacrifice the queen might   even be the best thing because if you don't  sack it i don't know i might have some stuff   i might get my knight in  there make you lose a piece very long thought here from my opponent as far as computers in atomic okay he does  sacrifice the queen after all he goes from my   bishop in my rook um if i go here okay now this is  a check of course my opponent will take the bishop   not much to think about but then it's it's easily  winning because i'll play oh wait what hello   okay i'll castle i mean i'm just leaving it no  still don't want it oh i still be very careful   you can you can always lose in atomic chess oh  boy wait this is very bad actually but i have   knight e4 maybe or night she knight oh man if i  go h6 he goes 95 threatening this and my queen   oh god it's never too late to lose oh  my what do i play nike for night g5 i   don't want to lose my queen knight e4  knight g5 i would take knight e4 this   there is nothing g5 no i was  just losing my queen i'm so sad i can't believe that just happened so 94 here it looks like i'm just gonna lose my queen there's  nothing i can actually do here i'm gonna play h6   and then i have to move my my my my guy  here out of the way wow unbelievable okay king h8 now taking here is actually  also kind of potentially very reasonable   because that just leaves me with  queen and bishop two rooks in a   in in this oh and he goes for  that i'm playing an expert   i am playing an expert okay let's bring this  bishop down here this just looks very annoying maybe bishop e1 was better i do  believe the queen here is superior   but who really cares what i believe i'm pretty i  seem to be pretty terrible at this game queen g5   or maybe this way that could be the way that could  be the way i mean all you need with a queen is a   direct line of attack that's what you need hmm  bishop takes is probably winning because i remove   yes that's winning because now this is mate  big mistake there for my opponent now queens   are just super difficult to deal with and now if  f4 which is a good move queen g4 sneaks around   and we win bishop takes c3 very important move  it's an instructive moment even in atomic chess   and that's mate and we win wow i have no idea  what what happened in this game i don't know if   if my opponent had gone here this would have been  a totally different game they got greedy i guess   they wanted two pieces instead of one here i would  have probably done the same i would have moved my   bishop down and then it's a game and then it's a  game i don't really know what's happening here but   the queen is just too powerful so lesson learned  queens and nights op welcome to atomic chess

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 975,614

Rating: 4.9534183 out of 5

Keywords: Gotham Chess gives lessons, Gothamchess lessons, gothamchess openings, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess guide, gothamchess e4, gothamchess, gothamchess rating climb, automate chess, automate chess eric rosen, automate chess hikaru, fog of war, fog of war chess, fog of war chess hikaru, fog of war chess eric rosen, chess variants, chess variants hikaru, fog of war chess strategy, fog of war chess variant, fog of war chess magnus, atomic, atomic chess, atomic chess rules

Id: tv9XetsDzeU

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020