Chess: Berlin Defence, Greco Gambit — the Double g3

I Played Black 👋

This is the hybrid "Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defence, Greco Gambit" opening position from my standpoint as Black:

⬆️ The taxonomy is doing its best. Like labelling a pub brawl as informal social gathering.

A game that was nominally Greco, technically Berlin, actually neither.

And the anarchy begins.

From move 3 onwards, we will witness proper chaos. The double g3 bit:

• Move 11 — White plays g3, attempting to boot my bishop off. My bishop takes it. Cheerfully. Bxg3. Cheers.
• Move 14 — White plays g3 again. My bishop takes it. Again. Cheers.

Let's have a look.

You can use your left and right arrows on your keyboard or use the mouse scroll to see the moves back and forth on the chessboard. But first, click the board.

⬆️ That last 21... Qxf4, indeed, not Qg4. I grabbed a pawn when the clean, decisive Qg4 was right there. — Oooh, pawn! Let me have it. — We do not discuss this further. We may glance at it sideways. But without a discussion. Quietly ogling it from the corners of the eyes. We may.

The double g3. I've been that bloke. Different blunder, same magnificent commitment to repeating it within the very same game. The perhaps it works THIS time spirit is a powerful and deeply irrational force.

We are all, at some point —

the double g3.

Hats off to my opponent.

Terribly sorry for being a rogue steamed eggplant, I was.

⬆️ That sentence construction? It's a British-Yoda syntax.

---

The Comical Blaming

You know, naturally, when losing a game, a debate, or anything else that involved two polarities and I was in it, I seldom went mental.

Like a baboon lost its eyebrows and left moustache.

Not always.

AND then blamed the other party bit — YOU NICKED MY RIGHT TROUSER! I'm feeling the breeze here! — Absolutely out of context, but it felt rather natural.

I was in it — because if I weren't in it, I simply WOULD NOT know what was that about. —

Oh, what's that about?

(People screaming to their opposite faces. With upper-body aerobics. Sometimes, cartwheel. 🤸)

👀

Ah. The tribal act. Very interesting. Very. Ideological.

The cartwheel. They had run completely out of both words AND standard gestures and the body just went — Right, I'm expressing my rage. Now!! OUIJA! (Cartwheel to left and right. Knocking wall and chairs.) — Oh, that feels.

Right right. Back to the blaming bit. The mental bit.

Not just in chess, any other games. You did notice that, did you not?

We never, or VERY rarely went — OH! Good game, well played! That was MY mistake. Spot on, my opponent!

I mean, genuinely. Not just on the surface — Well done, mate! — Whilst inside — You absolute [...fragment here...] I hope [...fragment here...] (Smiles. Clenching fists.)

Or other example:

a fork falls on the floor, clang! We knocked it somehow. But we shout — Stupid fork! — Not — Oh, clumsy me. — The toe versus the table leg, the door frame that we walked into, the trousers that caught on a nail. Inanimate objects worldwide living in constant fear of being blamed for their owner's lack of spatial awareness.

Stupid fork — implying there exists somewhere a genius fork.

Because honestly, admitting OUR OWN mistake? That would sound like a psychological disorder requiring immediate professional attention. 🤔 Very paradoxical, we are. Quite.

But let us consider these two paths:

1. The natural — the blaming everyone, everything else.

   The referee! — The pitch! — The lighting in this room! — The dice are LOADED! — This Monopoly board is WARPED! — That guy picks his nose! — That ABSOLUTE SWINE, how DARE 🤬💢

   ⬆️ It manifests EVERYWHERE. The right part of a pair of trousers disappears, two eyebrows vanish, left moustache dematerialises.

   Perhaps that's simultaneously humanity's greatest flaw AND greatest strength — because that exact same refusal to accept defeat is what gets people off the floor after genuine catastrophe. Civilisations rebuilt. Comebacks made. Mm. Grand.

2. The unnatural — the blaming oneself and carrying on with proper analysis.

   That was MY fault, let me understand WHY.

   ⬆️ Admitting the mistake fully and cleanly actually releases the pressure. No energy wasted on fabricating excuses, no mental gymnastics, no simmering resentment — just clear, calm, focused understanding of what went wrong.

   And the calmness — oh, the calmness that comes with it is extraordinary. Because the enemy was never the opponent. The enemy was the chaos inside our own head all along. Mm. Rather logical.

   Well, not "unnatural" per se, as if it were against nature. But indeed it diverges from natural path. Choosing otherwise requires actively diverging from that. Thus, "unnatural" — as a compliment rather than a criticism. Perhaps "deliberate" or even "acquired" is more fitting. Beyond ordinary human default. Superhuman, if you may. 🤔

   So you see from the natural bit above, "Civilisations rebuilt. Comebacks made. Mm. Grand." — yes — but this "unnatural" path rebuilds them quicker and with considerably less damage to the surrounding furniture. It sounds weak. WEAK. Admitting fault. But it's clean. Precise. Immediately actionable. Devastating forward momentum. Furniture is safe.

To summarise:

1. The natural — I refuse to accept defeat, therefore SOMEONE ELSE is responsible! Ouija stance, activate! (Two thousand minutes later.) I shall analyse it. Maybe not. Let me replay that catastrophe for twenty more times. (Replaying.) I am traumatised. ⬅️ Takes time and energy. Plenty of them.
2. The unnatural — I refuse to accept defeat, therefore I shall understand EXACTLY what went wrong and dismantle it! ⬅️ Overriding a built-in mechanism.

Same magnificent stubbornness at the core. The fork never stood a chance against this level of philosophy.

So indeed, it's fascinating!

Until next time. 👋