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Some of the chess.com bots are programed to play some interesting openings. Today, I discovered that Karim, the strongest rated beginner bot rated at 850, seems to always play f5 in response to e4, which is the Důras Gambit. This is a terrible gambit with a Stockfish evaluation of over +2 in favour of white on move 1!

Basically, white can capture the pawn and there is basically no compensation. The light-squared diagonal to the king is open, which is a risky business in the opening. I actually played Karim a number of times to capture a particularly aesthetic version of the win, but pretty much, it’s all bad. Don’t be like Karim!

I suspect no normal human will be playing the Důras Gambit, but the general warning regarding f-pawn moves hold. This does work better for white as they get to move first. Even so, the King’s Gambit (moving the f-pawn on move 2) is risky business, and the Vienna Gambit (moving the f-pawn on move 3) needs to be done with care.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/computer/11424425

[Event "vs Computer"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.15"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Karim-BOT"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B00"]
[WhiteElo "1253"]
[BlackElo "850"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[EndDate "2022.05.15"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. e4 f5 2. exf5 Nc6 3. Qh5+ g6 4. fxg6 e6 5. g7+ Ke7 6. gxh8=Q h6 7. Qh4+ Ke8 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. Qxg8 Ne7 10. Qxf8# 1-0