Immediately started using this opening. 1. It works exceedingly well. 2. It's absolutely hilarious watching them make their first move quickly and confidently after the first pawn... then immediately taking a minute and a half to figure out what just happened after moving my king.
@@travelandshred4690 , people at 1000 elo and below, can only win from something they learned, fried liver or scholars mate or whatever it may be. The moment they realize none of it works here, they surrender as for all they know they no longer have adequate material to mate.
Just had a game of blitz, 3|2, spent the whole game playing safe and defensively while keeping my move below 2/3 seconds, I won because they ran out of time. I had something 1 minute and a half.
The bongcloud actually forces a draw because the opponent won't have the courage to play for a win after experiencing such disrespect (as proven by nakamura - carlsen)
Hikaru played for a draw because Magnus offered a draw. They were both qualified to proceed in the tournament had they drawn, so they decided to rest their brains for upcoming games.
The hidden beauty of the Bongcloud is that the king is improving the morale of all the pieces by charging in first. This will help later down the line when you have to sacrifice all your pieces just to regain tempo and position.
as a 600-700 player I agree, I just psychologically attacked my opponent in to giving me his queen, both rooks his white square bishop and one of his knights all for him to resign out of utter shame.
as a 800-900 player i agree, i just used the bongclouds psychological powers and they immediately started playing as if it was giveaway blundering all of their pieces in half a move
as a 1200-1300 player, I absolutely agree with all the above comments. The bongcloud is simply scrumpdidlyumptious and fills me with great joy every time the hhhhhh
It’s weird that I’ve been losing with other opening but win with the bongcloud at the lower rating. As if a psychological warfare is being played and while they keep trying to attack they blunder instead because they aren’t sure of how to proceed with the bongcloud. I love this opening. Granted you be defending most of the time trying to improve your position but opponents tend to overextend and that is your chance for a counter attack. Most noob at the lower rating knows many main line theory but when it comes to bong cloud they seem to be clueless of how to approach it. I recommend trying this opening to troll opponent because one if you lose it doesn’t stress you out since it’s a meme opening and 2 if your opponent lose its humiliating to lose to so it’s a win win for you.
One of the first things people understand in chess is openings, because a game ALWAYS has an opening. by chucking the book out a window you force them to improvise, which low elo players aren't good at
It's like doing weird things in a practice swordfight. neither of you are trained in how to deal with weirdness, so people score hits. People become the most trained at fighting the most common openings. the less common, or more wild, that opening is, the more it forces the other player to use their natural game-sense and fight-intelligence on the fly instead of drilled training
Same I play 10 minute games my main account is rated 1100+ I made a new account to play bongcloud every game, even as black (bongcloud defence) and so far I'm rated 1312 after 16 games. Something about the move is really visually offputting to play against.
@@mikenolan9440 Taunting when you're already crushing your opponent is worth nothing. Taunting at the start of the game by shooting yourself in the foot while maintaining eye contact when the opponent has all the means necessary to beat you is way better
Thank you for this excellent video. I played about 20 3-2 games on lichess today and won half of them. 2-3 called me a "fucking cheater" after I beat them with it. This is fantastic. I use it as my main opening now. I'm like 1500
@@s3rj81 Cheating in Chess is literally the most boring game to cheat in. You’re just doing whatever your engine tells you to do. It is also a game where your opponent can’t run away from a cheater.
I just was in a tournament some days ago and in the blitz category in the last match my opponent played this. I was completely confused but just went with it. Eventually I won but was really confused why he did that. I spoke to him and just said “oh it was just for fun” and until now I discover that was an actual opening
The equivalent Bongcloud opening in Starcraft 2 (where you immediately pick up and move your main base to some other spot on the map) is just as funny, but can actually work against players of equal skill level just by tying their brain into knots trying to work out what is happening. I think someone got to "grandmaster" rank doing only that build.
There's a couple other strats you can use to fuck with people that are pretty similar; I'm pretty sure I've seen someone fuck off with a worker to an obscure corner of the map, leaving the starter base idle, to make their opponent think they're AFK. Hilarious results.
@@Hexagonaldonut lol ye, RTS games have some of the funniest cheese plays. AoE can be great too (though slow). For SC2 check Pig commentating games by Florencio or other cheesers :)
I don’t know why but I’m laughing so hard rn. I thought this was going to be some professional wizardry type move, so when the king was moved up to E2, I was so caught off guard
I made a opening called the pall. Its where you move all pawns forward by one square. One of my distant grandfathers said he has never seen an opening like so
I have played for like 5 bongclouds opening so far and won 3 of them . I can say the disrespect causes your opponent to do more blunders and eventually lose the game.
The bong cloud is a lot like my favorite Magic card, One With Nothing. You’ll most likely swiftly and extravagantly lose the game, but there’s something so incredible and enticing about using a self destruct option against an opponent; and when it somehow miraculously works, its something quite special.
Just beat a 323 rank with this opening. By the end he was so neurologically damaged that I got a free capture on a newly made queen and his last rook. All he had left was a pawn.
Just used the bongcloud in 3 minute. It took my opponent one and a half minute to play his third move, and I ended up mating with 1.26 left, 80 accuracy and a brilliant move. I have found my opening.
I usually just go for a slow hippo setup after playing the bongcloud. It's remarkably playable even in slow bullet, as so few players at my level (1700) know how to punish it.
Man thank you for teaching me this masterpiece. It legit made my rate rise lol.i think it is due to the sheer intimidation the opponent feels seeing ke2 making their iq instantly plummet to single digit. Furthermore, it makes your opponent panic for it absolutely spoils all his anticipation of opening stage of the game-they may have studied all the possible branches o of kings Indian defense but the moment you make the second move it all goes to hell and they either go full offensive with their Queen trying to mate your right away and end up in even worse position than you or play excessively carefully letting you fix your position and even gain initiative. Very fun to play. I’ve been playing only bongcloud for the last few days and i won more games than i lost lol.
I'm happy that this move has gained an actual name and a following, Me and my classmates has been calling it the Lelouch opening from Code Geass when I was playing with this against them, though didn't have much success and stopped. This vid gave the answer I was looking for years back.
ok so i was at the chess club everyone was watching our game with me and my coach but when i made that glorious 2nd move they all died from laughter and im still in jail rn :(
I feel like this happened at some point in history., like two countries were at war and one man suggested to use the King as bait to spring an ambush on the enemy, hoping that the enemy's troops were dumb enough not to see it coming
I don’t even play chess, but I completely respect this play. I usually run the dumbest strats in games just for the extra bit of trolling. It works in the best ways imaginable.
if i were an alien species, surveying Earth from my spaceship, and I watched this video, to learn a little about this species. I would keep flying and move on to the next galaxy.
The thing about this opening is that nobody in their right mind would ever think to study it, so all opening theory that you know about it is an advantage.
The bongcloud is actually extremely good in bullet, because no one knows what to do and then they lose on time, or scramble and blunder and then lose to checkmate. It is also one of the only openings that enables the King to be used as an active piece. If you go e4 Ke2 Ke3 then you defend the center.
I don’t play chess I play Magic, but I’ve heard about the similarities and didn’t really think much about it beyond the complexity. That is until I heard the explanation for why someone would use this maneuver. I didn’t realize the higher level players were meme lords too. God speed gentlemen you have my respect.
Have played this opening a few times in blitz chess, last time my opponent actually reciprocated and brought his king out front as well so they could do battle together.
the CORRECT way of playing the Bongcloud, from my observation of stockfish games at higher depth, is to: 1. Lock the centre, don't open up! 2.Mobilise ALL your pieces to the kingside, attack beggining with pawn storm.
Coming back here a month later, I can't believe how many games I started winning, like it's strange. I play the mouse slip variation .......guys the Bongcloud is real. Ben can you please make a video on the Coca Cola gambit
This is the video that got me into chess. I clicked b/c I thought it was a fake opening. Now I'm so much better than my friends that I'm back using this vid for education instead of entertainment.
Chess was so boring until I learned of this move and it's progression of "castling". This really throws a wrench in some people's strategies it's hilarious to watch and winning after using it is just superb!
You know it's a good move when it forces you to "castle manually"
I was laughing my ass off, there has to be no greater disrespect and stupidity than castling manually, especially after the bongcloud opening
My favorite thing about the bongcloud is that it is called an attack because, and I quote, “It certainly isn’t a defense”
its an attack because, the king advances to the central board
Ah yes. It’s an attack because the king is going after the e5 pawn.
its an attack because your opponent cant comprehend what just happened
It's like disabling yourself by cutting off an arm before breaking into a house.
@@Zyczu55 Well, if you make the stupidest decisions, and you can’t comprehend them, neither can your opponent.
the beauty of the bongcloud is it immediately makes any openings your opponent has studied redundant
As the saying goes, Improvise, Adapt, Blunder, Face humiliation.
obsolete, not redundant
But then you get smacked in the board.
Only if you follow it up with a botez gambit
Ah yes, you expected to face a respectable, intelegent opening, unfortunately, such an expectation was, predicatable.
Immediately started using this opening.
1. It works exceedingly well.
2. It's absolutely hilarious watching them make their first move quickly and confidently after the first pawn... then immediately taking a minute and a half to figure out what just happened after moving my king.
First game i tried this with opponent immediately resigned after moving my king
@@travelandshred4690 , people at 1000 elo and below, can only win from something they learned, fried liver or scholars mate or whatever it may be. The moment they realize none of it works here, they surrender as for all they know they no longer have adequate material to mate.
Just had a game of blitz, 3|2, spent the whole game playing safe and defensively while keeping my move below 2/3 seconds, I won because they ran out of time. I had something 1 minute and a half.
@@Jake420Yeah sorry, I was using the bong cloud opening.
Same xD 2 games 2 wins...the second one was so confused, he blundered his queen after only 10 moves😂😂
The bongcloud actually forces a draw because the opponent won't have the courage to play for a win after experiencing such disrespect (as proven by nakamura - carlsen)
I mean... Imagine if Hikaru just played for the win that day and still would've been clapped.
Man can't recover from that. Gotta play it safe.
They are super gm and i am 1000 thats the difference
shhhh, you are giving GM Xiong vietcong flashback
Hikaru played for a draw because Magnus offered a draw. They were both qualified to proceed in the tournament had they drawn, so they decided to rest their brains for upcoming games.
That's why i counter-bong-cloud my opponents to secure my reputation in case of a loss
This opening is so awesome and legendary that the 3 minute video about it is 4 minute long
Indeed, but why 4.12 ? surely there could have been 8 more seconds of information!
@@malstainkey Sad times.
@@malstainkey4:12 is 4.20 minutes long. :)
The hidden beauty of the Bongcloud is that the king is improving the morale of all the pieces by charging in first. This will help later down the line when you have to sacrifice all your pieces just to regain tempo and position.
"Pawn will remember that"
As a 400 - 500 player, this opening truly has a psychological effect on my opponent as he blundered his knight allowing for a force checkmate
as a 600-700 player I agree, I just psychologically attacked my opponent in to giving me his queen, both rooks his white square bishop and one of his knights all for him to resign out of utter shame.
as a 800-900 player i agree, i just used the bongclouds psychological powers and they immediately started playing as if it was giveaway blundering all of their pieces in half a move
As a 1000-1100 players i concur this opening has lead to 14 consecutive wins
as a 1200-1300 player, I absolutely agree with all the above comments. The bongcloud is simply scrumpdidlyumptious and fills me with great joy every time the hhhhhh
As a 0 - 0 player, what's chess?
Why watch 15 minutes of Gotham chess videos of Opening theory when you can watch 4 minutes of greatness.
YESSSSS!
Tbh idk if he made a vid on the bongcloud
Better watch Nelson.
@@sleepmind9292 nelson is the goat boo levy
It’s weird that I’ve been losing with other opening but win with the bongcloud at the lower rating. As if a psychological warfare is being played and while they keep trying to attack they blunder instead because they aren’t sure of how to proceed with the bongcloud. I love this opening. Granted you be defending most of the time trying to improve your position but opponents tend to overextend and that is your chance for a counter attack. Most noob at the lower rating knows many main line theory but when it comes to bong cloud they seem to be clueless of how to approach it. I recommend trying this opening to troll opponent because one if you lose it doesn’t stress you out since it’s a meme opening and 2 if your opponent lose its humiliating to lose to so it’s a win win for you.
One of the first things people understand in chess is openings, because a game ALWAYS has an opening. by chucking the book out a window you force them to improvise, which low elo players aren't good at
It's like doing weird things in a practice swordfight. neither of you are trained in how to deal with weirdness, so people score hits. People become the most trained at fighting the most common openings.
the less common, or more wild, that opening is, the more it forces the other player to use their natural game-sense and fight-intelligence on the fly instead of drilled training
Same I play 10 minute games my main account is rated 1100+ I made a new account to play bongcloud every game, even as black (bongcloud defence) and so far I'm rated 1312 after 16 games. Something about the move is really visually offputting to play against.
the bongcloud is probably the only equivalent you'll ever have for in-game taunts in chess
Promoting another pawn when you already have 2 queens
@@mikenolan9440 Taunting when you're already crushing your opponent is worth nothing.
Taunting at the start of the game by shooting yourself in the foot while maintaining eye contact when the opponent has all the means necessary to beat you is way better
Instead of taking your opponent's queen just move your queen right next theirs.
Grob opening lol
@@mikenolan9440 promoting to a knight when you already have 3 knights
2:33 "minor positional mistake" LMAO
It is pretty minor compared to whatever tf you just played
I died laughing when I caught it.
Thank you for this excellent video. I played about 20 3-2 games on lichess today and won half of them. 2-3 called me a "fucking cheater" after I beat them with it. This is fantastic. I use it as my main opening now. I'm like 1500
I didn't know you can cheat in Chess 😭🤣
Ah yes, cheating by using the BONGCLOUD opening
@@s3rj81 You can use an engine, and that's cheating.
@@s3rj81 Cheating in Chess is literally the most boring game to cheat in. You’re just doing whatever your engine tells you to do. It is also a game where your opponent can’t run away from a cheater.
@@s3rj81 2:37 "Just play flawlessly"
Video: _download stockfish_
It been so long honey the children missed you
I just was in a tournament some days ago and in the blitz category in the last match my opponent played this. I was completely confused but just went with it. Eventually I won but was really confused why he did that. I spoke to him and just said “oh it was just for fun” and until now I discover that was an actual opening
bro really risked it all in the grand finals of a tournament
I plyed bong cloud for trolling
@@alt-f4 Risk? Lose a Tournament.
Possible Reward? Be a Legend.
Worth.
I love how he says to wait until the opponent makes a minor mistake and blunders and entire rook🙂
Average 300 elo experience
he sacrificed THE ROOK
My opponent blundered a queen trying to checkmate me with this opening so is possible 😂
No one else explained bongcloud. Very nice video.
I will now exclusively play bing cloud opening as white as I climb out of 300 elo
The equivalent Bongcloud opening in Starcraft 2 (where you immediately pick up and move your main base to some other spot on the map) is just as funny, but can actually work against players of equal skill level just by tying their brain into knots trying to work out what is happening. I think someone got to "grandmaster" rank doing only that build.
There's a couple other strats you can use to fuck with people that are pretty similar; I'm pretty sure I've seen someone fuck off with a worker to an obscure corner of the map, leaving the starter base idle, to make their opponent think they're AFK. Hilarious results.
@@Hexagonaldonut lol ye, RTS games have some of the funniest cheese plays. AoE can be great too (though slow). For SC2 check Pig commentating games by Florencio or other cheesers :)
FCKING LEGEND
uThermal's channel is a hell of a drug
@@zerglingstew8220 i watched every single video and i'm do not even play SC2 . (no joke!)
I lost to a 500 rating guy who used bongcloud once, so I thought it was some godly move and tried to learn about it.
💀💀💀
Imagine if this was the opening deep blue used against Kasperov.
Or Niemann's anal beads vibrating up a BongCloud play
3:18 The laugh is priceless. 10/10 would rewatch it again.
Humiliating people makes me feel special inside...
"your position inexplicably gets better" that's my favorite part of Chess!
I don’t know why but I’m laughing so hard rn. I thought this was going to be some professional wizardry type move, so when the king was moved up to E2, I was so caught off guard
I made a opening called the pall. Its where you move all pawns forward by one square.
One of my distant grandfathers said he has never seen an opening like so
Call it the Berlin Wall
“All you need is for your opponent to make a minor positional mistake…”
*blunders rook*
I have played for like 5 bongclouds opening so far and won 3 of them . I can say the disrespect causes your opponent to do more blunders and eventually lose the game.
"If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow." - Lelouch vi Brittania
Love how much attention to detail you put into that wiki page. First video of yours I’ve ever watched and I’m super impressed
The bong cloud is a lot like my favorite Magic card, One With Nothing. You’ll most likely swiftly and extravagantly lose the game, but there’s something so incredible and enticing about using a self destruct option against an opponent; and when it somehow miraculously works, its something quite special.
Fucking love that card
The bongcloud opening is amazing. I didn't think Chess, the most skill based game out there, would even have a disrespectful move like this.
Thank you. You gave me the perfect opening against my random classmates who only know how the pieces move and say that they’re the best in chess.
Just beat a 323 rank with this opening. By the end he was so neurologically damaged that I got a free capture on a newly made queen and his last rook. All he had left was a pawn.
Just used the bongcloud in 3 minute. It took my opponent one and a half minute to play his third move, and I ended up mating with 1.26 left, 80 accuracy and a brilliant move. I have found my opening.
Watched this video and just won a game with 85% accuracy
I usually just go for a slow hippo setup after playing the bongcloud. It's remarkably playable even in slow bullet, as so few players at my level (1700) know how to punish it.
Man thank you for teaching me this masterpiece. It legit made my rate rise lol.i think it is due to the sheer intimidation the opponent feels seeing ke2 making their iq instantly plummet to single digit. Furthermore, it makes your opponent panic for it absolutely spoils all his anticipation of opening stage of the game-they may have studied all the possible branches o of kings Indian defense but the moment you make the second move it all goes to hell and they either go full offensive with their Queen trying to mate your right away and end up in even worse position than you or play excessively carefully letting you fix your position and even gain initiative. Very fun to play. I’ve been playing only bongcloud for the last few days and i won more games than i lost lol.
Damnit I missed this guy's videos, this is the content I subscribed for
"If they are better at chess than you... why are you playing this opening? [laughter]"
Truly the best line from it.
I'm happy that this move has gained an actual name and a following, Me and my classmates has been calling it the Lelouch opening from Code Geass when I was playing with this against them, though didn't have much success and stopped. This vid gave the answer I was looking for years back.
ok so i was at the chess club everyone was watching our game with me and my coach but when i made that glorious 2nd move they all died from laughter and im still in jail rn :(
I just played the bongcloud for my first time and got two brilliants in a row in the game review, thanks for the spectacular opening.
I bet the two brilliants were the first move, and the second move. The computer just can't calculate the raw power.
I feel like this happened at some point in history., like two countries were at war and one man suggested to use the King as bait to spring an ambush on the enemy, hoping that the enemy's troops were dumb enough not to see it coming
0:36 is so great
If they are better at chess than you, why are you playing this opening?-classic
The answer is: To have an excuse for losing.
I just played a game using this… it’s insane how much it feels like losing until you end up checkmating with your king on their side of the board
This is my certified bullet opening because it grabs at least 5 seconds of time as they try to understand the move Ke2
This is the first and only video I’ve watched about playing chess, if I ever do play then I will immediately do this and see where it goes :)
I haven’t played chess since like the 5th grade and I can say without a doubt your videos have gotten me back into loving the game lol. Love the vids
I imagine McCloud blowing a fat fog onto the chessboard, and then when the vapor clears the Bongcloud opening is revealed
I don’t even play chess, but I completely respect this play. I usually run the dumbest strats in games just for the extra bit of trolling. It works in the best ways imaginable.
if i were an alien species, surveying Earth from my spaceship, and I watched this video, to learn a little about this species. I would keep flying and move on to the next galaxy.
The thing about this opening is that nobody in their right mind would ever think to study it, so all opening theory that you know about it is an advantage.
This is phenomenal! I randomly picked this video, it's hilarious and informative! Very well-made and I appreciate it
dude why tf do u only have 4800 subs this video is hilarious
Our fucking hero returns...
The bongcloud is actually extremely good in bullet, because no one knows what to do and then they lose on time, or scramble and blunder and then lose to checkmate.
It is also one of the only openings that enables the King to be used as an active piece. If you go e4 Ke2 Ke3 then you defend the center.
This might be the best video I have ever seen. You sir, are great.
We missed you Ben
I think I've found the best chess channel ever
This might be one of the greatest videos I've seen.
The 360 no scope of chess
I forgot I turned notifications on. I don't regret it.
Just played this opening for the first time and won. This is now my main opening.
you are back!
The legend is back
This is my single favorite chess video of all time
You're my favourite baduk channel, Ben.
I played the bongcloud opening twice, won twice and retired it. Too powerful.
So this is basically the chess equivalent of choosing a bottom tier character on a fighting game
I don’t play chess I play Magic, but I’ve heard about the similarities and didn’t really think much about it beyond the complexity. That is until I heard the explanation for why someone would use this maneuver. I didn’t realize the higher level players were meme lords too. God speed gentlemen you have my respect.
Have played this opening a few times in blitz chess, last time my opponent actually reciprocated and brought his king out front as well so they could do battle together.
the CORRECT way of playing the Bongcloud, from my observation of stockfish games at higher depth, is to:
1. Lock the centre, don't open up!
2.Mobilise ALL your pieces to the kingside, attack beggining with pawn storm.
As someone who has literally never won a game of chess, I will definitely be using this move to keep up my streak 👍
Instructions unclear, lost my blitz game and the opponent thought I disconnected.
Don’t wait 3 minutes to play the bongcloud start it immediately.
Gads it's good to hear from you again ...
I've been playing bongcloud-only for the past few months. Just got this in my recommended, thank you for this.
Coming back here a month later, I can't believe how many games I started winning, like it's strange. I play the mouse slip variation .......guys the Bongcloud is real. Ben can you please make a video on the Coca Cola gambit
I'm sorry for necrothreading your comment, but I must know... dafuq is the coca cola gambit!?
This is not what I expected the video to be I honestly thought it'd be a person just blowing smoke in another person's face as they move their pieces
So glad you're back Mr Chess
This is the video that got me into chess. I clicked b/c I thought it was a fake opening. Now I'm so much better than my friends that I'm back using this vid for education instead of entertainment.
Bongcloud opening is surprisingly viable in 5-D chess with multiverse time travel.
when i saw the thumbnail of this video i thought smoke was coming out of his nose and his ears
"And then manually castle you king like this".
This is my opening every opening now.
i just assumed the bong cloud opening was when you exhaled a bong rip over the board in order to obscure your movements
I can't get over the idea of "manually" castling 🤣🤣
Thank you for this video, Ben. I often find myself in this position
2:32 "all you need is a for them to make a minor positional mistake at some point" like giving up their rook for not benefit whatsoever
Welcome back, shall rip a bong cloud in celebration 😁😄
“Minor positional mistake”
Blunders an entire rook
Minecraft hunger games taught us controlling mid greatly increases chances of victory. So by moving king closer to center, youre more likely to win.
You will not believe how many games you win with this, it's crazy how nobody knows what to do when you start a game like this.
Chess was so boring until I learned of this move and it's progression of "castling". This really throws a wrench in some people's strategies it's hilarious to watch and winning after using it is just superb!
This guy made me laugh in the first 3 seconds.
Well done. +1
Also, subbed.
the one who created this must've asserted dominance over and over again
"minor positional mistake" *blunders rook*
This opening might just be what it takes to explode stockfish, and therefore win.
Glad you are back!
Me: Let's trade queens and make this a gentleman's duel.
Opponent: But I'm a simp.
Me: Then you've already lost.
My happiness is immeasurable and my day is made!