I recently ran across an entertaining chess YouTube channel called GothamChess. It’s worth a look if you have any interest in chess. (If you don’t, I fear that this post might not be for you.) I hadn’t played for years, and I was never very good, but the videos inspired me to pick it up again, at least for a bit. So I downloaded the chess.com app and started playing against (easy) bots.

The one I’ve played against the most is called “Martin,” and he has a purported rating of 250, which, if you’re unaware, is pretty bad. But it’s enough to be fun for someone of my skill level. I played him a bunch tonight and was doing really well. But the last game I played… well, I don’t want to spoil it. Let’s just say it left me speechless.

I’ve put the game below with a dramatic recreation of my thought process for each move, and a little bit of analysis of some moves which chess.com and the stockfish engine pointed out to me after the game was over. Martin played white and I played black.