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This is the first episode in a five part series playing, and hopefully defeating the all new cat meme chess bots!

Scaredy Cat is the first of a gang of feline chess bots, unleashed by chess.com in 2023! He’s still rated at a rating of 800 ELO, which is no mean feat for a cat!

I challenged poor Scaredy Cat to a game and unfortunately, he made a mistake on move 2 against the Vienna Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Qf6), and then blundered his queen on move 3 (3. Nd5 Qf4). Poor kitty!

I felt like I was bullying poor Scaredy Cat in this game! But who is this “Mittens” who he’s speaking to at the end of the match?!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/computer/29735457

[Event "vs Computer"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.01.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "ScaredyCatBot"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C25"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game"]
[UTCDate "2023.01.04"]
[UTCTime "01:32:40"]
[WhiteElo "1381"]
[BlackElo "800"]
[TimeControl "1/0"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "01:32:40"]
[EndDate "2023.01.04"]
[EndTime "01:39:59"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/computer/29735457"]
[BlackUrl ""]
[BlackCountry ""]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 {Vienna Game} 2... Qf6 $2 {[%c_effect
f6;square;f6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] Scaredy Cat made a mistake [+1.75]}
3. Nd5 $6 {[%c_effect d5;square;d5;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] Stockfish
calls this an inaccuracy [+0.53] but White is still ahead and it's a very direct
way of forcing Black to make another queen move} 3... Qf4 $4 {[%c_effect
f4;square;f4;type;Blunder;persistent;true] And occasionally... they will make a
terrible blunder [+9.6]. Poor kitty $1} 4. Nxf4 $1 {[%c_effect
f4;square;f4;type;GreatFind;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true]} 4... exf4 5.
Bc4 Nf6 6. e5 Nc6 $2 {[%c_effect c6;square;c6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] More
kitty is so rattled, they hang their knight as well... [+12]} 7. exf6 gxf6 8.
Qh5 a5 9. Qxf7+ Kd8 10. Nf3 {[%c_arrow
f7f6;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false,f6d8;keyPressed;none;from;f6;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false,f6h8;keyPressed;none;from;f6;opacity;0.8;to;h8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false,h8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h8;persistent;false,d8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false]
Developing is fine, but I missed an obvious fork of the king and rook...} 10...
Bc5 $2 {[%c_effect c5;square;c5;type;Mistake;persistent;true]} 11. Qg7 $2
{[%c_effect g7;square;g7;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false,h8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h8;persistent;false,d8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false][%c_arrow
f7f6;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false,f6d8;keyPressed;none;from;f6;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false,f6h8;keyPressed;none;from;f6;opacity;0.8;to;h8;persistent;false]
I don't know why I didn't see this in the game $1} 11... Rf8 12. O-O h5 13. Re1
Bb4 14. c3 Bd6 15. Nh4 Ne5 16. d4 Nxc4 17. Ng6 b6 18. Nxf8 b5 $2 {[%c_effect
b5;square;b5;type;Mistake;persistent;true] Unfortunately for kitty, this hangs
[+M2]} 19. Qxf6+ Be7 20. Qxe7# {[%c_effect
g1;square;g1;type;Winner,d8;square;d8;type;CheckmateBlack]} 1-0