@mcgeefamilyraleigh It depends on the database one uses. Had she used the lichess amateur database, she'd have seen thousands of games before that date. If she looked at a GM database using only classical time controls she has probably told the truth.
"This cow had a rough upbringing" "This is probably one of the scariest things for a cow to encounter" "Opponent was too afraid of the normal cow" LOL eric is a special flavour of dry humour
I lol'd at Eric saying (something like) "Cow complete. Now, how do I salvage this position?" Since Eric enjoys playing dubious gambits, I would have thought he would be more optimistic about playing around with the cow. But then, about game 4 or 5 where he mentioned "this position is so passive!" that I realized my mistake: Eric likes aggressive play, and the whole idea of the cow (according to Anna) is to play passively, like a cow, wasting tempo and waiting for the opponent to get overly aggressive with their pawns.
I'd absolutely love a King's Indian only titled Tuesday. Basically playing the KID and KIA setup every game. I saw Alireza deployed it against Wesley So in Rapid recently with great success so it seems to be making a return as a viable weapon even at the top level (which makes my KID heart happy)! Would be really interested to see your take on it against strong oponents!
@@ldcldc6371 I will confess that I don't know the actual KIA theory. My approach if the oponent goes for early d5 and c5 is just to play it like a KID up a tempo which seems to work fine at my level (2100-2200), but it is definitely not the most testing strategy. When it comes to move order I have experimented with both nf3 first and g3 first. In my experience Nf3 first leads to more KID flavoured positions, but you do run the risk of getting move ordered into a more Pirc flavoured line if the oponent responds with nf6 and e5. Also the London setup can be a bit annoying if you don't know how to handle it, I've seen Eric have some really scary attacking games using the London vs King's Indian. But if you prepare those specific lines then Nf3 is probably the most King's Indian-esque in my opinion. However I will add that I personally decided on g3 as the first move but that is entirely because my other black opening (against e4) is the Modern. And I have had so much success by playing a Modern Tiger type setup with early a3 and b4 and leaving the night on g1 for a pretty long time. To me it seems to benefit more from the extra tempo as white than than the lines with Nf3 first since it throws a lot of people out off their usual plans and forces them to recon with some very unpleasant choices on the queen side. I am definitely no opening theoritican though so take everything I say with massive spoon-full of salt.
KIA is a setting. Whichever way you prefer. I played 1.g3 and basically got an accelerated KIA with often f4 early. (g3, Bg2, d3, Nd2, e4,... (f4).) Had fun doing it.
I love how you willingly rotated the knight to g3 in the first game because cow opening and a few moves later proceeded to rout it back to it's normal square 😂
First Game - Awesome. Really showed the glaring weaknesses of the Cow but you kept things interesting for long enough that you gained an advantage. Great game! Fourth and Fifth Game - I feel like you're just a bit better out of prep than your opponents here. They're not quite punishing the weaknesses of the Cow and they're not familiar with the position. Great games Eric!
I love how in half the games Eric just undoes the cow to get his knights and bishops to good squares. In the first game, within the first 17 moves, his knight wastes 5 moves going from g1 -> e2 -> g3 -> f1 -> h2 -> f3
Cowboy Eric herding his opponents into unfamiliar territory ending at one time just a point behind Magnus and Hikaru on the scoreboard . Great games Eric . Perfect video to watch on a travel at 2 in the morning .
@@george5954 Now I am not the sharpest animal in the barn, but Holstein? Think he's joking. Of course the position could have arisen many times in the past in casual games no one wrote down, but I dare someone to find an actual game between Bronstein and Holstein :)
There are no trappy lines, the whole point of it is to give up initiative to be safe and defensive. It's an opening for beginners to safely get their pieces out
Did anyone else in the comments have to take a break from this episode to go load up a chess game and play the cow opening for yourself? I did. I won one game and decided to quit while I was ahead. Now I'm just going to watch the pro!
You could try to play attacking chess with the cow opening and transfer it more like the kings indian attack or the kings indian defence structure. You could mix it up, so you could use it to surprise the opponent. Maybe the cow opening could be developed to surprise the opponent into other openings with h4, h5 or f4, f5 or a4,a5 and combine it. This could be interesting, like a gambit opening
@11:26 isn't it Qb7#? If so, I'm thrilled to have spotted it, and I'm not mocking Eric (he's 1000 points higher rated than I am), and I know it's hard to see everything when the clock gets low. If I'm wrong, please let me know what I missed ;)
Before i see the results i have to say... Y'all better remember that all of you made fun of Anna for trying to make her own opening and now that no one knows how to deal with it . ALL OF THE SUDDEN the cow content starts rising in popularity lol
The funny thing is she used it against PIA who because she likes to develop her position was giving her time to develop this properly. Then when Pia tried to play she was faced by this. It's actually stronger as black, because before white finds what's actually happening he loses about 3 moves. The only problem black loses about 5 moves in this opening, but that counts the one he's behind. I actually didn't play chess for about 30 years, but I was able to beat up Stockfish level 2 today. I actually prefer strategy games because the result of combat depends also on random factor, and sometimes a flimsy weak rat suddenly kills a division of infantry. It's funny what happens when people don't have contingency plan.
You could move the Knights to the "normal" square on the opposite side (for example, N on E2 to C3). I assume you're aware of this -- but does this follow the spirit of the opening?
Only watching now ... thanks for the games, instruction; I don't play serious like yourself, or the nightmare Alphazero, but chess is art, and I like to paint so it goes hand in hand.
Cow opening summary. Eric: "Okay, cow opening complete. Now I can focus on trying to fix my position." I thought the whole idea of openings was to get a good position.
knights get misplaced and white totaly gives center to black and initiative, litteraly white starts at disadvantage from oppening,and unless you are tacticaly much stronger its not good
I want you to develop a full Theory of Cow and unleash it in a future Titled Tuesday, instead of just playing it for the memes. Maybe do it as a collab with Anna.
Nice achievement with the cow opening 👏. I would like to see more very rare openings from your side when playing in the next titled tuesdays. Maybe that way you can put your opponent outside of their comfort zone and maybe score >7/11.
16:06 I checked in stockfish and I saw that pushing pawn like you did is the best move but I don't understand how you calculated that at all. I wouldve taken it with knight which would get me in a terrible position haha
the idea is to actually temp the knight to take the “free” pawn, but it’s really a poison pawn. because then the rook pins the b7 pawn to the king, which would let the queen take knight. the knight has to move, but now you have a new problem: the A file is half open and you’ve got white’s A pawn looking to storm. doing it the way eric did it actually somewhat helps him by using white’s pawn as a shield from letting the queen have an open A file. it’s moreso theoretical than tactical, which makes it a really hard decision. personally i would’ve taken the pawn, but that’s why i’m 1500 and eric is an IM lol.
