Episode 7: Cheeses from Chess

**Space Camel** (0:05)
Welcome to the StarCraft Cheese Academy.
All right, welcome all you StarCraft cheese lovers to another episode of the StarCraft Cheese Academy. Today, I, Space Camel, am joined by a guest, which is Colnel2000. Welcome Colnel2000.

**Colnel2000** (0:50)
Yes, thank you. I'm really pleased to be here.

**Space Camel** (0:53)
All right. We're excited to have you.
We may have Professor Fai joining us later. Who knows?

**Colnel2000** (1:01)
Yeah, Professor Fai had very bad food and mouth disease and may not be 100 percent.

**Space Camel** (1:08)
Thank you. Thank you. I think all of our audience will be really happy to hear about that.
Anyways, so yeah, Colnel2000. So you're actually less of a StarCraft expert and more visiting us from the world of chess. That's because today's episode is going to be all about what the lessons that StarCraft users can learn from chess, the ancient game of chess. So, Colnel2000, would you, when was the earliest time you remember playing chess?

**Colnel2000** (1:54)
Well, I used to play with my dad when I was a little kid.

**Space Camel** (1:58)
Oh, cool. How old do you think you were?

**Colnel2000** (2:03)
Oh, probably about seven.

**Space Camel** (2:07)
Yeah, good early. And what's the highest honors you received in chess?

**Colnel2000** (2:15)
Well, at the age of 11, I became the Junior Chess Champion of Northern Ireland. Wow.

**Space Camel** (2:25)
And your career has only been excelled since then, right?

**Colnel2000** (2:30)
I haven't really played very much since. I have played, but only casually. Not in any championships, things. Yeah.

**Space Camel** (2:38)
But well, it sounds like you made it to the top of your country, and then you went out on top. So that sounds good. Anything you want to tell us about why you've enjoyed chess over the years?

**Colnel2000** (2:57)
Well, I couldn't run about as much as other kids. So I had to play, I played thinking type of games.
And I guess I felt, looking back on it, I felt I was at my best when I was about 11 years old.

**Space Camel** (3:27)
Why do you think I was, you were just playing it the most?

**Colnel2000** (3:28)
It was a spontaneous type of, it's sort of fun when you're just beginning. It still is fun, but more serious fun now, I suppose.

**Space Camel** (3:43)
Well, so in the episode, in this podcast in general, I like to talk about cheese in StarCraft. And of course, the cheese in StarCraft is, it has a specific meaning, meaning serve a strategy that's maybe very risky and relies on surprise. And usually some people would call it cheap, although that's kind of hard to define. Now, you don't use the same lingo in chess. What would you call a strategy like that in chess? That's kind of surprising or kind of a little bit tricky, maybe a little bit risky. Well, what would you call that?

**Colnel2000** (4:28)
In chess, I would probably call it adventuresome.

**Space Camel** (4:36)
Adventuresome? Okay, thank you.
Yeah, good. Well, I've done a little bit of research on this too. I'm not really a chess master by any means, but I've played a fair bit. I certainly know the rules, and I researched a little bit on AI with AI in preparation for this episode. And some of the words that I could find were either a trap or a gambit. Do you think those would fit the bill? That's what I'm describing? It's a bit risky.

**Colnel2000** (5:18)
That's true. You can induce your opponent to fall into a trap, or you can...
You know, the gambit is a well-known ploy where you sacrifice a piece for an advantage.

**Space Camel** (5:40)
Yeah, they seem kind of related. Now, in your career playing chess, do you recall any particular time where you may have fallen into a trap or fallen for someone's gambit?

**Colnel2000** (5:57)
I can't recall any specific time, but... I can't really recall. I'm sure I did.

**Space Camel** (6:15)
Yeah. Did you manage to pull them off on anyone?

**Colnel2000** (6:17)
It wasn't too obvious to me. I was falling into a trap.

**Space Camel** (6:24)
Do you remember pulling one of those off on your opponents? Or what was your strategy?

**Colnel2000** (6:30)
I think I can, yes. I can remember.
Tricking my opponent into making a bad move or sacrificing a piece to enable me to have a strong position and checkmate and things like that.

**Space Camel** (7:08)
Yeah. Well, cool. So yeah, so it's something that you employed, but yeah, you don't particularly remember falling for it. So it sounds like you're maybe more often the trapper or the gambiter than the gambiteer.