I Just Lost To A Cat In Chess

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[@chess]

oh Mittens, you little menace

[@mackajezis]

IS THAT CHESS ITSELF?

[@juangrajeda9880]

Oh my

[@phen-themoogle7651]

Whoever came up with the idea for Mittens needs a raise. Most entertaining troll I've seen in chess or on your site :)

[@dy1an748]

meow

[@im_lilly736]

Here before this blowup

[@Tuniphero]

I saw mittens rating and went, 'Oh, finally an opponent I can beat!' and then got whipped by a mate in 16 moves

[@oneslap01]

Ah I just resign after 28 moves

[@RubyPiec]

i got mated in 28

[@zainadriel8529]

Dude I got clapped in a few moves mittens is ranked 1 elo becuz she has 9999++ elo. Yes ++ ELO. So, I got completely whipped

[@user-ej7sr3ow8b]

Martin: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?

[@ec.6937]

lol i got mated in 27

[@rogiertp]

so happy to see this, I was so mad when I beat all the bots, moved on to Mittens and lost five times in a row

[@attheshirmpd5800]

he can beat 3200 elo bot elo lol

[@Chris1J1Marx]

Actually same man xD

[@Clownpierce-qm6vz]

xd

[@donaldjones9830]

That’s hilarious

[@Piece_Of_Clay]

@@attheshirmpd5800 it a she

[@reginaldfish0]

Mittens is probably Martin's cat

[@hanifnizar8780]

It is playing like stokfish

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

😂

[@hanifnizar8780]

Don't underestimate the power of a 1 elo cat

[@youzhang7348]

By one Elo, they meant 1,000,000 Elo.

[@Bigchessman]

What if mittens is magnus'es cat though?

[@Hunter-xu6zp]

"Man put low expectation on a 1 Elo Mitten, live to regrets it"

[@Tw1fty]

LOL fr

[@zainadriel8529]

So true I got whipped 3 times in a row already expecting more then 10 rn

[@matthewbeley6994]

Doesn’t live

[@iphoneapple5623]

this cat's elo has 1 in it for sure

[@Ruppl4s.T]

dhar mann vibes

[@pervoonlee1596]

Really thought Mittens was an easy opponent, I cried.

[@aldoclasher7890]

Same I lost basically

[@Notasinglething]

@@aldoclasher7890 no you didnt I think you just got so badly oblizerated that you forgot what happend

[@iasonchen4492]

@@NotasinglethingFRRR💀💀💀

[@iasonchen4492]

@@aldoclasher7890no u didnt

[@MZIH]

Just drunken bishop gambits him lol

[@arrowofkira5658]

I heard mittens beat stockfish 15 (3200) so mittens is really ridiculously strong. I really like all the other cat bots, they're cute and fun bots to play against for a lot of people that aren't super high rated.

[@akitteninabowl8872]

Mittens just got lucky. He's max level engine in disguise ( 3200 ).

[@luuduonghy659]

I think there must be an error which make the bot too strong Originally it would be at elo 2000

[@U20E0]

@@luuduonghy659 someone else said that it’s difficulty setting is random, which makes sense.

[@bDe4d]

I have created a game between him and stockfish 15.1 and stockfish won in late game thanks to one of 2 pawns that promoted to queen. Fun fact: after losing the bot basically calls you a cheater

[@kaifnbr1172]

stockfish 15 beats mittens

[@bencomer2339]

My theory is mittens really is 1-rated and exclusively plays random moves, but she’s very, very lucky

[@mikahamari6420]

And what's the best, statistics can never be sure about it.

[@baohungpham8271]

but he has time stone

[@jaideepshekhar4621]

Yeah. Don't you dare say that cute cat's cheating. Just look at it!

[@xXMindSoulXx]

*she, mittens is a girl

[@wisemysticaltree2866]

@@xXMindSoulXx ok ma'am nobody cares about a cat's gender

[@actualrealbozo]

probably stockfish level 15 disguised

[@fishy8886]

Yeah she is

[@ClinskyGaming]

@@c-r0w yes

[@chakraborty4562]

I played with him and got 80.0 accuracy and he got 94.5,he was black

[@Yute01]

@@chakraborty4562 The cat played 99 percent accuracy against me 😭

[@wrswrftp]

My guess it's that it's an adaptive bot with a really wide range.

[@youcantsolvethis]

Its funny how mittens is 1 rated but he can beat litereally everyone

[@desaturatedair]

except for a funky stockfish named "15"

[@Speak22wastaken]

He’s number 1 of course he can beat anyone

[@kleelee6246]

Youcan'tsolvethis That True But If You Practice More In Chess You Can Beat Mitten

[@SciDarkReal]

@@kleelee6246 if the rumors of mittens being > 3000 are true, then you really have no hope as of what i could find, the highest rating ever achieved is 2882, and even reaching 2900 seems borderline impossible, meaning there'd be at least a 118 elo gap between carlsen and mittens in other words: we're fucked (all of this is up to speculation and coming from a bored 670)

[@jairosolutan1045]

I was skeptical when i saw the 1 rating I was anxious when the highest level bot was 1400 I got scared when the bot started saying they've played against me before I got mated in 16 moves.

[@OutstandinglySteve]

I like how he tries to explain why en passant is the optimal move En passant speaks for itself

[@abandonedhhhv]

Hans Passant

[@bonjourjesuisquelquun]

Nope it's "En passant"

[@RubyPiec]

holy hell!

[@kingsley.]

@@bonjourjesuisquelquunwhat

[@Ghost-hy1tl]

I really appriciate him explaining things, im trying to get better at chess

[@OcteractSG]

Makes me feel better. I lost to Mittens playing the Vienna-my strongest opening.

[@Eeeeerrttr]

I lost playing the kings gambit, my strongest opening too.

[@AshDeep]

Lmao noobs i never lost to mittens. Cuz i never played them

[@HylianKirbo]

@@AshDeep You're the real winner here

[@loalsaloalsa9643]

Ima play bs mittens with the BONGCLOUD

[@pig6293]

@@AshDeep you fool i never downloaded chess in the first place!

[@Randomreplacement]

Even putting aside mittens the other cats seem underrated as well.

[@neonicplays]

I think they’re rated right, scaredy-cat is 800 and I beat it, I’m on a losing streak at 300 elo I suck at chess

[@neonicplays]

@Bloody Eyes Gaming they’re evolving

[@minephlip]

well i think that's a bot thing. I'm very bad against human players but i can beat the bots all the way up to 1100. Against people i'm 500

[@darhiusdwayneramoso2937]

I was like "hahaha an elo 1 bot I wonder how this cat blunders" 3 minutes later Me: resigns with the bot 17+ more material than me

[@slendercube7817]

I’m actually watching this right after I raged against mitten

[@Omar_Merican]

OMG thank god...I'm not the only one who raged against Mittens! 😭😂

[@Super_1987]

31:26 I think there was a way to save the bishop if we move the pawn to c4, that would deliver a check to the king and also it would have created an escape route for our bishop (the problem is that by doing so we are losing a pawn which is a disadvantage and maybe it will lead to a bad position... but still the bishop would be saved)

[@alexus6137]

I really like the video and hoping to see more gameplay from you. It's very interesting for me because you explain every move and what you're thinking. Keep up the good work 👍

[@Daydream-Lover]

I looked at the position at 9:25 in stockfish and found something interesting. The engine considers c3 to be an inaccuracy and Bd2 as the best move. If bxc2 is played the best follow up is not to take back, but to play Qc1 which is a crazy looking move. The idea being to allow the pawn to take your knight to activate your rook and when the queen moves to c7 you can take the bishop and have a substantial lead in development.

[@jojojoestar4720]

His true rating is 3267, someone revealed that when doing stockfish vs mittens

[@bluettarius2017]

Is mittens the most powerful bot? Even better than custom?

[@cationr]

@@bluettarius2017 yes it beated 3200 maximum once, i think it's rating is bounce cuz if u weak like 400 rated, it'll play like 800 and if ur 2800, it'll play like 3000

[@bluettarius2017]

So my score is 1400 so does that mean it play 2800?

[@milkcarton5172]

@@cationr I don't think it's bounce. I'm 1784, and mittens had a correlation with that of a 3000 anyway (atleast from what I was using)

[@bluettarius2017]

But our scores are kinda similar so expect the bounces to be similar

[@yeetdanoob]

mittens probably ate stockfish and gained its powers

[@paulaljonlocsin5387]

if that really happens i guess chess will be doomed

[@CaliforniaCarpenter7]

Yep, Mittens is an ice cold assassin. Checkmated me on the back rank before I was even half developed. Beats getting smoked by Mrs. Clause at least!

[@colescalisthenics]

The moves with your bishop and knight when checking his king I would never have thought of, pretty cool play

[@etacarinae0]

That's max level engine. I used hints and all the games were drawn

[@JustAnOrdinaryDemon]

Damn, my engine failed me.. it was win for Mittens

[@tristan6773]

I find mittens wins like >10% against the engine.

[@guyplaysgames]

0:16 Scarey cat 4:14 angry cat 8:17 Mr. grumpers 15:14 Catspurrov 22:41 mittens :3

[@franklinturtle9849]

28:20 Opposite bishops is much harder to draw if you still have other pieces on the board. Opposite bishops is only drawish when it's just the opposite bishops.

[@ninjanoodle2674]

I played Mittens yesterday and got wrecked. It played with 98% accuracy and all I could do was try to drag the game out while slowly losing.

[@lutimstrickshots9253]

Coincidentially, I tried the Mittens bot a couple minutes before you uploaded this. I saw the new cat bots and the one that intruiged me the most was obviously Mittens, thanks to the '1' rating. I thought I would win the Scholar's Mate, but boy I got smashed. I think Mittens is like this meme cat that just started playing chess because it likes the game but uses a top engine. Still, I think Beads was a better name.

[@SciDarkReal]

oh my god

[@Yes-uz9gq]

Smashed?

[@SciDarkReal]

._.

[@ValkyRiver]

a yllaer saw senttim litnu (tac) reyalp detar-1 elots dna hsifkcots eta ehs srewop s’hsifkcots fo lla

[@mpeterll]

I did exactly the same as you, except that I blundered playing too quickly and hung a rook against the 1200 cat so that one took me two attempts.

[@geminigalaxy9623]

31:24 play pawn c4 check then bishop a5 saves your bishop

[@elendarulianreo]

27:23--after Bxa2, it felt like Rb5 was the move, because it takes away almost all the squares the bishop could use to move again, other than f7, and stops it from coming back to attack your g2 pawn. Putting the rook on a1 led it to it basically being stuck once black's pawns advanced.

[@krokotitus8396]

I played against Mitten, first thought "wow, it knows theory, lower rated Bots don't, that's strange" Then I got destroyed Later I played the lowest mode (with Stockfish) and it was a draw

[@drewmah8735]

MIttens is actually a flerken. Have you analysed the game to see how Mittens moves compare to what Stockfish suggests?

[@mikaelkepler3547]

31:20 Why you didn't gave the check on c4? Either King, Bishop or b5 Pawn would have to take it, but you would let your bishop alive and maybe still manage to win the game (that part would be on you, I am just 900 rate xD), but anyways it's always amazing to watch your videos. I really like that you explain why did some move was either good or bad and suggest some better move and explaining why that would affect your game in the future. Thank you so much for spending precious tome making those videos for all of us!

[@iq4347]

Very simple solution to mittens, setup a Lovely mate in one board and just wash all your problems away

[@kangjohan78]

4:09 "Scaredy cat tried their best." Dunno why but that line made me laughed so hard...

[@ardellandaya1965]

From everything I’ve seen, Mittens is a modified top engine bot with adaptive play. It’ll change its play depending on how you play. Play worse, it plays worse. Stockfish 15 demolishes Mittens though. Probably because Mittens is designed to play with its food and is a literal troll. It has many times set up for moves and traps and not taken the pieces because it can do other things in the meanwhile. Designed to impress and destroy humans (unless you’re Hikaru), and did exactly that

[@nicholasgad2781]

I went through a game (with engine reviewing). Mittens consistently plays 2nd best engine move, and occasionally lower moves for minor mistakes. But you have to be a computer to take advantage of those mistakes. Maybe a GM might see them, but they usually not exploitable directly.

[@Zinaida7224]

Mitton's rating is one, possibly meaning #1 where Mittons is stronger than all the grandmasters combined

[@Gravitraxbro]

Right before you resigned, I think you could have played c4+, creating an escape square on c3. But I'm only 700, I probably am wrong.

[@Mothuzad]

You're right, but it would have just been a slower death, being down by yet another pawn. That entire endgame was suffocating despite the open board.

[@Gravitraxbro]

@Mothuzad Technically, if this was a real person, this game could have been a blitz or bullet game and Mittens could have run out of time. Technically. Technically.

[@mahausman4807]

Have never seen nelson focusing so much can tell just by how he’s talking

[@SpottedZebra]

Maybe mittens is one of those self-adjusting bots. I'm only 1550 and ignoring the ones I lose immediately in the opening from trying new things that didn't work, it usually gets down to an even end game before I get outplayed and lose there, like 4 pawn and 2 rook or 4 pawn / rook / bishop. Would think I could never get that close if it just plays at master level straight up.

[@iXNomad]

Actually you can beat him, you have to use Stockfish, but that's not enough. You have to play something with the stable advantage form the beginning. The best is Ruy Lopez. This bot hates it.

[@Xeroxia]

31:08 Doesnt c4 save the bishop? its check and the bishop can move to the other squares

[@leafeon468]

Mittens is definitely doing some anal-bead-level cheating, but that actually makes him very easy to beat. If you go to "Custom" at the bottom when selecting difficulty and change the timer to 1 minute, Mittens takes about 4 seconds to make every move and will run out of time after around 15-20 turns. I'm a 1200, and just by playing stalling moves and making sure to not make any major blunders, I managed to win against Mittens through a closed Guicco Piano position.

[@nameredacted7622]

Idk what kind of hardware you are using but when I play mittens on bullet it only takes 1 second per move. Bot always either gets checkmate in 20-30 moves or I run out of time trying not to get caught. Cats a beast.

[@srijanrawatmahendra7173]

yeah i also beat it with your technique

[@RajaRimbaHere]

It takes less than 1 sec every move on my phone 😭

[@xXMindSoulXx]

*her, mittens is a girl

[@tonybarfridge4369]

She doesn't care. She's a hustler, and 4 second moves is just a trick.

[@rickastley7182]

Idk in Mittens round you can go c4 open a way for bishop and check the king

[@jordanthomas8542]

I already suspected that something was wrong when I saw mittens rating I analysed the game and I made 3 inaccuracies and still lost!

[@lutimstrickshots9253]

Mr. Grumpers meows for himself.

[@Jameschild1]

31:17 c 4 check so the bishop can run

[@yalexyalex2782]

Mittens is a computer chess hustler. Got us all.

[@lutimstrickshots9253]

The cats meow for themselves.

[@ekentkoyy]

only way to save the bishop there is losing a pawn. you can play "c4+". if "Bxc4", you can play "Bb4". if "Kxc4", you can play "Ba5". but i don't think saving the bishop does too much. because this two squares are not good for bishop at this endgame.

[@deusmiles9340]

In the resigning position you had pawn check and you save the bishop at the cost of some material and m a y b e you can play for a draw

[@ThisHandleIsNotTakenYet]

Man, I got my first loss in 2023 because of mittens 😭 I thought he's a easy opponent but damn, that little cute bastard just crushed me in 20 moves!

[@ValkyRiver]

a yllaer saw senttim litnu (tac) reyalp detar-1 elots dna hsifkcots eta ehs srewop s’hsifkcots fo lla

[@mihiyotrixie3779]

26:25 wouldn't bishop b5 be a better move? I'm just a begginer but that looked like a good move

[@skettycat0409]

I feel like mittens is Hikaru's cat

[@roblodocus2539]

Interesting Mr Grumpers played Qa5 against the Sicilian wing gambit. I’ve had the bots play that against me in my slow campaign against them. I’ve recently had Oscar and the Alex Botez bots play it but I didn’t think to see a 1200 bot play it too. It definitely seems to be tricky to have bots emulate human play styles at any rating. They have a different feel.

[@pabloroman8346]

- Bro, I'll be away for the weekend, can you check the cat for me? + Weird request but ok *moves rook to e5 *

[@ClyFwend]

Mittens is just a young cat that can beat literally anyone Edit: I BEAT MITTENS!!

[@JustAPokemonCommentingOnVideos]

mittens is the magnus of the cat universe ; the current world champion

[@yagnajay5122]

Not Stockfish

[@Jack-kj4dr]

You did not beat mittens.

[@ClyFwend]

I did beat her

[@Jack-kj4dr]

@@ClyFwend what’s your elo

[@hahaalexasendthistorodrick]

I love how they used the image of that one cat standing

[@vijaykumar18081993]

I always go from low rated bot to high rated bot. Went for Mittens first, got trashed spectacularly

[@shadowof1155]

I saw some people saying that even stockfish 15 had trouble against mittens lol deffinately not afraid to show those danger mittens 🐾☠️

[@MangoMasterGaming]

i put him versus a 3900 stockfish and he won

[@warny1978]

Mittens is a cat, it plays with mice before killing it. We are mice. It stuck me in the depth of my side creating a big zwigzang, then started to eat me alive.

[@pixeltrash2661]

Idk if im wrong, but you cold of moved the pawn from c3 to c4 to make a check and thene the bishup cold move to a safe square like a5. Also sorry for bad spelling xd

[@indypop1816]

Saw mittens and lost… I was so mad and was waiting for a vid

[@lakymos3124]

See games against stock fish 15 against mittens it is super crazy.

[@GodzillaFreak]

1 isn’t the elo, it’s the rank

[@ncs9667]

They better start working on a Nelson (Lopez) bot!

[@Anon-pq6jd]

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting my ass beaten by a cat. When I tell ya I've never been this angry at a cat before ...

[@bodo_b8828]

The best I came up with was a draw. I used the help function in every move, so i think Mittens is just Stockfish

[@Venotix]

The help function is just stockfish's move So you're saying mitten's draws max level stockfish okay...

[@xxxmaysilssss690]

@@Venotix stockfish draws against stockfish, duh

[@neonicplays]

@@Venotix mittens beats max stockfish it’s been done

[@recjawjind7261]

From what I saw, Stockfish 15 beast Mittens. Pretty sure Mittens is basically just a version of Stockfish, but she sure aint Stockfish 15

[@cloverisfan818]

i won by using stockfish

[@lethallohn]

After testing with Stockfish 14 NUEE offline, Mittens is definitely just Stockfish. It obviously doesn't make the best moves all the time because of the low depth it's ran at. Mittens actually has some funny dialog if you get to move 41 and beat it.

[@popff7]

whats the dialog

[@U20E0]

what dialog

[@lethallohn]

​@@popff7 After Move 41: "You have triumphed in existing for longer than many before you. Hehehe. Meow." After Checkmate: "WHAT???? HOW!!!!??? YOU CHEA-I mean…meow! Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe-"

[@killerzer0x74]

So after observing mittens for a bit, it seems to love picking a specific piece and trying really hard to make it obsolete, once it sees an obsolete piece, it straight up forgoes taking it just to develop its board better, it also massively prioritizes denying a large amount of spaces over taking pieces, it also seems to like forcing the player to move their king upwards and nailing them on row 4 or 3. Overall...I’d love to see Magnus face it and maybe break down it’s strategy better.

[@dodgerfan4ever303]

I had stock fish play Mittens and they drew by repetition of moves I’m not kidding

[@tyquil825]

31:26 you can move your pawn to c4

[@Nullicity]

and lose instantly

[@xubo3666]

This is my new favorite chess channel!

[@jennifer8756]

13:01 he would have lost his queen but the pawn disappeared into thin air

[@advitiyamishra1509]

Nelsi you had a pawn sacrifice on c 3 which make a space for the bishop

[@Bruh-bk6yo]

I thought the same like "oh, 1 elo, cool!" I saw this cat was thinking 5 seconds at his first move and then I said "yeah... veeeery funny......"

[@NorbYyY_GG]

1 elo, but 2000 elo in disguise

[@lifeofrasheed]

You have to set the timer (1+0 preferably) to bullet to beat mittens, it thinks for way too long... That's how you get your revenge

[@chickennuggetjonny7221]

I dont get how people underestimated mittens, those first dialogues are a dead giveaway

[@graycadmon]

You just know that (1) rating is an integer overflow.

[@gamercraft2600]

Well, there’s one foolproof trick to beat mittens every time! Turn on the “custom game” setting, and start your game. Now, there is a strategy to follow for every move. You click the light-bulb button, and follow the move it tells you. Do that every move to secure a simple victory against mittens. After the third time you’ll get a warning about how you’ll get less crowns for winning. Ignore it.

[@crocogator665]

If Mittens is like 3000, then I guess it's not bad that I (technically 1300 rapid, but I've only play bullet for the last year, where I'm 1000) managed to still be in an equal position (+0.06 as white) by move 15 without really trying, though I blundered to a tactic on the next move and got checkmated 4 moves later.

[@zaphiromaglaque3706]

Man this is my fav chess player of all time

[@EfotbumTheOG]

I saw mittens and felt bad for it so I threw the first game just so it has some fun too. I played 3 more games with it and lost all my feelings...

[@Xhadp]

In addition to figuring out its rating I think the community should also try to figure out if the cat bots have some sort of "gimmick" and not just being another chess engine bot. What clued me in I am seeing people disputing Mitten's rating with some saying as high as 4K while others are saying it seems easier against a human player and playing closer to 3K or even lower. So my first guess is that it knows how to play against the website's own engines which can be used to obfuscate it actual ranking and prolong the "newness" of the bots so that you don't just see that it is stockfish rebranded. E: Another idea I am seeing floating around is that it acts as a +X elo rating compared to the account it is playing against which would help explain why it might struggle against regular bots when viewing it but able to crush the top level engine it has.

[@iosonounitaliano3336]

Interesting. It seems to be at Level 25 rating (3200 ELO) when paired with websites' top engines: I made it play 4 games with 3 different website engines and it drew all 4 games but lost to Stockfish in another one. Or its performance might change depending on how strong you play but its ELO surely varies within a minimum and a maximum amount of points. I definitely have to try to pair it against weaker bots or play it myself and see how it performs.

[@jeremiah35.46]

mate in two on scaredy cat he just couldnt see it

[@regalstar1028]

I saw something Mittens' elo rating was supposed to be ?? But it had to be a number so they put 1, someone also put it up against the 3200 ai and the ai lost.

[@lutimstrickshots9253]

Catspurrov purrs for himself.

[@canter1ter]

1 isn't his ELO, its his place in the world

[@conquerin2937]

Im a 800 Elo player and got a close game with Mittens. Idk how i ended up like that, pretty sure he was up most of the time by like +3 or +4 but for my 800 Elo i think i did decently

[@bobbyb5710]

i played it and analyze, some moves "komodo" thinks are wrong so i would guess its not as stockfish but around 2600-2700

[@noahanderson9565]

they should’ve named one of the cats catastrophe

[@matthewbeley6994]

I was confused why it was 1 I told my friend and then we played a match together and he’s pretty pretty good we got mated in 20

[@hijustacommenter10yearsand10]

I just played him and immediately knew I screw up

[@spodreman7732]

Ngl I was hoping the cat bots would move multiple pieces at once (due to not understanding the game and not being able to hold the pieces the same way humans would on a physical board).

[@GeoStreber]

I fear no man, but that thing *meow*, it scares me.