We finally got THE drawback! :_gothamAH:Master your opening with ChessReps: chessreps.com/iwantcheckmate

"I'll check you upside down and all around"
---IWC, 2025

Drawback chess is definitely the favourite child

I can almost hear the last opponent screaming "Why am I still playing? Why have I not lost yet???" As his King charges into your position.

19:40 your chance of getting 7 light square moves is 0.78%

Why could he not move his king to E2 (20:30)? E2 is a light square, and I don’t see any threats there 🤔😅

26:55 "Just check, check, check! Never stop checking your opponent! Check here! Check there! Check literally everywhere and anywhere! Check this way too! I'll check you upside down and all around!"
That was HILARIOUS! :D

I think you've nailed Ichtiophobe quite correctly, that you can just have multiple recapturing moves every time. Opponent was quite bad, however, doing a lot of weird stuff with his easy peasy drawback

20:30 Uh, could you not have just moved the king to e2?

Guys, I think he’s officially run out of VERBS so he’s resorting to ADJECTIVES

14:40 HE SAID THE NAME OF THE DRAWBACK!!!! ABSOLUTE CINEMA!!!!!

20:27 What was a problem with king to E2?

I feel like this game would benefit from a "draft" mode where, let's say, both players choose from the same set of 5 drawbacks of similar difficulty.
This way there's some added skill of picking the drawback, and it becomes actually possible to deduce which one your opponent has picked, and use that to your advantage. Plus, at an advanced level I'd imagine there'd be stuff like bluffs and sacrifices made to discover your opponents drawback.

0:27 winds of fate: every turn, you will randomly be unable to move either left or right
11:30 (lara) stand your ground: your pieces can only capture if they are attacked
17:44 sponsor: chessreps
18:19 (if you reveal - I reveal) colorbind: can't move to squares of one color, re-randomized every move
21:15 (maximilianLian) ichthyophobe: you can't make the move that stockfish would make

1:05 "and obviously, i've been unable to set up the london system so this game is pretty much resignable"
2:01 "i could sac the knight at some point - not right now, because i can't move right"
5:22 "the idea is relatively self-explanatory we move her onto a light square to move her onto another light square to be supported by a light square bishop to give checkmate on a light square. there's a very small theme here, called light squares. and at the moment they're weak"
8:07 "they're both forward-moving moves. forward-moving moves?"
12:47 "maybe i'm so focused on developing my pieces that i didn't notice my own batter. coming from me is spectacular"
17:32 "this also explains why their knight was bouncing around like it was in a bouncehouse"
20:06 "and now we've unlocked pretty much infinite light squared moves"
20:19 is there anything wrong with Ke2?
21:24 gasp "oh, we got it, we got it!"
21:36 "i still think it's not that hard, 'cause i can just play like a dumb cow opening" where's the person who's been asking for a cow?
24:02 "i think this is 'ichthyophobe'. the more i've been sitting here staring at it - i know actually i should be staring at the board - but the more i've been staring at this i'm pretty sure i remember this being 'ichthyophobe' "
24:37 "even though this is still a weakness, if the opponent can't attack it, i mean is it realla weakness?"
26:52 "i just have to give them like ten different checks and then i'm fine. just check again, just check check check, never stop checking your opponent, just check here check there, check literally anywhere and everywhere. check this way too, i'll check you upside down and all around"
27:03 i love how top stockfish move was king takes king

Ichthyophobe is interesting. I'm guessing it's considered to be so difficult because you have to play around it in ways that aren't super obvious. You have to double-defend every piece, you can never get checked in a way that has only one response, you can't go for checkmate until you have a huge piece advantage, etc. That being said, you dealt with it quite nicely. It was also cool when you were getting ideas from the banned moves lol.

20:26 , just boungcloud the king?

26:18 was a weird play by the opponent - a royal fork that you would normally be able to easily recapture. It only makes sense if they somehow expected your drawback to save them, which it did, but then when you blocked they didn't capture the free queen.
Perhaps they were hoping that your drawback would enable them to get a mate, but that seems overly optimistic instead of just grabbing the queen and being massively up in material.

4:42 there is a beautiful  tactic if not for drawback chess here

I really like the cats on your drawback videos

Absolutely love this series. Very practical for better chess learning as it gives you new ways to deal with problems.

I think everyone is confused as to why he didn't move his king forward at 20:30