---

Playing chess on the Chessnut Air, on a brilliant summer’s day in Sydney, Australia, listening to Vivaldi’s “Summer” from “The Four Seasons”, is just about perfect!

Chess.com has released a new bot, the Luk.AI bot. “Luk.AI is a self-learning AI modeled after NBA superstar Luka Dončić. The more games he plays against Chess.com members, the stronger he gets!”

This game was played against Luk.AI while he was rated 551 and unfortunately, he was shredded by the mighty Vienna Game – the destroyer of fools and bots! Luk.AI played a very “500-ish”, a wayward queen to h4! Wayward queens don’t work against the Vienna Game as the e4 pawn is already defended so my second move was to develop my king’s knight and immediately attack the queen.

Luk.AI retreats his queen to f6, which makes it liable to attack with the strong thematic move in the Vienna, Nd5 – forking the queen and the c7 pawn. Luk.AI is now forced to make the third queen move in the first five moves, with the queen returning to her opening square! This is a great example of why you shouldn’t bring out your queen early unless it is part of a coordinated attack! Stockfish evaluated the game at [+5] advantage to White at the end of move 5 – equivalent to Black losing a pawn every move in the opening!

With the massive lead in development, I now make a very Vienna-ish power tactic – an attack down the f-file with a capture-sacrifice of a piece on f7. This draws Luk.AI’s hapless king onto f7. I develop my queen to f3 with check. Luk.AI retreats the king to the back rank, but to the wrong square.

And on move 9, Nxe7 delivers a stunning double-check checkmate against the bot, just in time for the end of the third movement of Vivaldi’s “Summer”!

Historical note: did you know that Antonio Vivaldi died in the city of Vienna?

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/computer/42959115

[Event "vs Computer"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.02.18"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "LukAIbot"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C25"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game"]
[UTCDate "2023.02.18"]
[UTCTime "01:06:41"]
[WhiteElo "1455"]
[BlackElo "551"]
[TimeControl "1/0"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "01:06:41"]
[EndDate "2023.02.18"]
[EndTime "01:39:32"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/computer/42959115"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.82046355.78x78o.ebd68214df6f@3x.jpg"]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/245425421.309e579e.78x78o.671d8ac51b6b@3x.png"]
[BlackCountry "127"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 {The Mighty Vienna Game: destroyer of fools and bots $1} 2... Qh4 $2
{[%c_effect h4;square;h4;type;Mistake;persistent;true] LukAI bot is going
through the wayward queen \"phase\" - a mistake [+2.7]} 3. Nf3 $1 {[%c_effect
f3;square;f3;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 3... Qf6 4. Bc4 Bc5 $2 {[%c_effect
c5;square;c5;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
b8c6;keyPressed;none;from;b8;opacity;0.8;to;c6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c6;persistent;false] A mistake - knights
are often better before bishops when developing in the opening [+5]} 5. Nd5
{[%c_arrow
d5f6;keyPressed;none;from;d5;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false,d5c7;keyPressed;none;from;d5;opacity;0.8;to;c7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false,c7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c7;persistent;false]
A powerful thematic move in the Vienna when Black's queen comes out too early}
5... Qd8 6. Nxe5 Ne7 $6 {[%c_effect
e7;square;e7;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
b8c6;keyPressed;none;from;b8;opacity;0.8;to;c6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c6;persistent;false] An inaccuracy [+8.5]}
7. Nxf7 {Knight sacrifice to draw the king to f7} 7... Kxf7 8. Qf3+ $6
{[%c_effect f3;square;f3;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] No necessarily the
most accurate move, but direct and Black must play extremely accurately to
survive mate} 8... Kg8 $4 {[%c_effect g8;square;g8;type;Blunder;persistent;true]
LukAI moves the king in the wrong direction, we we get a delicious double-check
checkmate $1} 9. Nxe7# {[%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,g8;square;g8;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow
e7g8;keyPressed;none;from;e7;opacity;0.8;to;g8;persistent;false,c4g8;keyPressed;none;from;c4;opacity;0.8;to;g8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g8;persistent;false]} 1-0