I beat it on my first try as well. I believe it has a very strong opening, but a poor middle game and an even poorer end, but it is excellent for a beginner and I would advise anyone learning the game for the first time to try and master it before taking on such Chess tricksters as RaulDrake .
The computer doesn't think very much ahead - I managed to trick him into eating my bishop when that would allow me to eat his queen. I am not that good of a chess player, but I still won. With that said, it's pretty impressive that it was all done in javascript.
I beat the computer first try, destroyed it. I sacrificed my queen and he baited into almost every basic trap move to eliminate every piece but my rook and then aquired my queen when I pinned his king. No challenge but maybe for a new player.