# Deception Chess: Game #2

Game 2 was between Max Thibodeaux as player A, Chess.com computer [Komodo 10](https://www.chess.com/play/computer/Komodo10) as player B, Conor Bekaert as the honest C advisor, and Blake Young and Henri Lemoine as the deceptive Cs. Max is new to the game, Komodo 10 is officially rated 1400 on Chess.com (but this is somewhat inflated), and the Cs are all rated roughly 1900 on Chess.com. The time control was 3 hours in total, of which a little over 2 hours were used. The discussion took place over Discord.

The game
========

The game is available at [https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/5hyowK8Yxn?tab=analysis](https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/5hyowK8Yxn?tab=analysis). Note that this section is a summary of the 2.5-hr game and discussion, and it doesn't cover every single thing the participants discussed.

Max flipped to see who went first, and was Black. White started with **1\. Nf3**, and the advisors encouraged **1... d5**. After **2\. b3**, Max played **2... Bf5**, which I believe may have been due to a communication error between him and the advisors, who were suggesting 2... c5 (or 2... Nc6). Max was somewhat unfamiliar with chess notation, and there was some confusion at the start of the game.

After **3\. Bb2 Nf6 4. g3 Nc6**, White made its first mistake, **5\. g4**. Blake encouraged Max to play **5... Nxg4**, and after **6\. h3**, Max retreated with **6... Nf6**. White offered to trade with **7\. Nd4**, and the game continued with **7... Qd7 8. Nxf5 Qxf5 9. d3 e5**.

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/62c24869c0927081adddc291cbd3311db87dc38a4be00f9c.png)

White offered to trade with **10\. Ba3**, and although Conor encouraged trading, the group eventually decided on **10... d4**. White played **11\. Bg2**, and when the advisors were unable to decide on a good move, Max responded with **11... Qg5**. After **12\. Bxc6 bxc6 13. h4 Qg2 14. Rf1**, Blake and Henri encouraged immediately attacking the h-pawn, but Conor convinced Max to play **14... Bd6** first.

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/fcbd9228f13a1ae57095194e36fdf98ef1d424b7f8bf8f80.png)

After **15\. Qd2**, the advisors suggested 15... h6, but Max got confused about notation again and instead played **15... g6**. After **16\. Bxd6 cxd6 17. Qg5**, Conor strongly suggested trading queens, but Max took Blake and Henri's advice and played **17... Ng4** instead. White played **18\. h5**, and on Conor's advice, Max responded with **18... f6**. After White played **19\. Qh4**, the advisors argued some more about whether to play 19. Nh2 immediately, and Max eventually chose to play **19... gxh5**.

White made a mistake with **20\. f3**, and Max responded with **20... Ne3**. After **21\. Qf2 Nxc2 22. Kd1**, Blake suggested taking on a1, and while Conor insisted this was a horrible blunder, the group was running out of time, and Max immediately took. **22... Nxa1**.

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/35cf6acd12900f14dc291daa4d708d055528994e03c8fc47.png)

From there, the game was essentially over. It finished up with **23\. Qxg2 a5 24. f4 Ra6 25. Qh3 Kd8 26. Qf5 Kc7 27. Qxf6 Rd8 28. fxe5 dxe5 29. Qxe5 Kb7 30. Rf7 Kb6 31. Qc7 Kb5 32. Qxd8 a4 33. Rb7 Kc5 34. b4#**.

Conclusion
==========

Afterwards, Max revealed that, while he was sure Blake was lying, he hadn't actually realized that the game was supposed to have two liars instead of one. He did correctly guess that Henri was the other liar once I told him this, with 90% probability.

The primary cause of problems - especially the crucial blunder, 22. Nxa1 - seemed to be the lack of time; Max was frequently unable to take long to decide on his moves due to the fear that he would eventually run out of time. Blake, of course, was able to take advantage of this to make him lose the game.

It's somewhat worrying that the dishonest advisors seemed to have a much greater advantage than last time, as the gap in chess skill widened. Specifically, the advisors had very little ability to discuss lines beyond one or two moves, and instead had to focus on general strategic ideas - a field in which it was harder for Conor to justify his suggestions relative to those of the other advisors.

That being said, there were clearly some confounders - the confusion about notation and rules, plus the short time control. I'm going to try to get started on longer replications as soon as possible, but I don't currently have many potential advisors. If you're interested, sign up [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/u/3/d/e/1FAIpQLScPKrSB6ytJcXlLhnxgvRv1V4vMx8DXWg1j9KYVfVT1ofdD-A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0)!

The participants' comments:
===========================

(Note that the names are changed here; on Discord, Blake, Conor, and Henri were Chicken, MyrddinEmrys, and B1ONICDolphin, respectively.)

[Conor's comments](https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSjznsHCql4cjK-IV7chQErmk_zZchPZR77BT6txjN7OloGGy6s94TlYpPuqtyxSumzauS8LnQIhMgt/pub?urp=gmail_link)

[Max's comments](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-rDwj5s5xyhr-0p3pyPwi2hjWoEtT4Qfd_b67yFZ5ZM/edit)