jjw109
97 ( +1 | -1 )
Best and Worst Chess Moments On another thread, I commented that my best and worst chess moments occurred in the same game--building a winning position as a kid against an IM (possible GM) and then blundering it away. I recently had my second best moment a couple of days ago, scoring a convincing win against a 2385-rated player in 10-minute blitz on another site. Laughably, I almost followed it with a blundering loss against a 750-rated player--yes, 750, I am not forgetting a 1 in front--by accidently hanging a major piece which they saw (questionable at that level) and captured (still questionable at that level), but luckily I was quickly treated with a blunder of their own, followed by another, and another, so the game was never really in question, but still....
So, does anybody else have any similar chess moments, good, bad, humorous, etc., to share? Spectacular wins? spectacular blunders? any ultimate blunders--i.e., resigning a winning position? first win against your teacher? etc.
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jeffreydot
33 ( +1 | -1 )
Arogance... As a matter of fact... I just proformed a HORRIBLE blunder against a parrot. In a convincingly dominant, yet risky possition, I decided NOT to push a pawn for a while, saving my king, in order to maintain an attack. Check out board #2195431 . Oh well.... *SIGH
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bonsai
95 ( +1 | -1 )
Oh, one of the worst ones has to be the following game from about 8 years ago. It had just started playing in a club a while ago and then I was involved in a crucial league match. It was against our main opponents for promotion and as it turned out I just needed a draw (but while I was playing I couldn't really decide what was going on with the other boards)... I had actually looked at the opening a couple of days before the game - including move 10 - and everything went just fine (well, there were some dubious moments) until move 41... (spot the win)
1.d4 e6 2.c4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd3 Be6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.f4 h6 10.Bxh6 gxh6 11.f5 Bxf5 12.Bxf5 Nb6 13.Nf3 Nc4 14.Qf2 Re8 15.0-0 Nd6 16.Ne5 Bf8 17.Bh3 Bg7 18.Ng4 Nxg4 19.Bxg4 Qg5 20.Bf3 c6 21.Rae1 Nf5 22.Bxd5 cxd5 23.Qxf5 Qxf5 24.Rxf5 Bxd4 25.Nxd5 Rac8 26.Nf6+ Bxf6 27.Rxf6 Re6 28.Rxe6 fxe6 29.Kf2 Kf7 30.g4 Kf6 31.h4 e5 32.e4 Rd8 33.Ke2 Rc8 34.Rd1 Ke6 35.g5 hxg5 36.hxg5 Rc2+ 37.Rd2 Rxd2+ 38.Kxd2 Kf7 39.Kd3 Kg6 40.Kc4 Kxg5 41.Kd5 Kf4 42.b4 b5 43.a3 a6 0-1
Arrrrg!
It was one of my best games in my early chess carreer.... Well, nowadays I'm much better at endgames.
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basti1981
52 ( +1 | -1 )
happened a couple of years ago Had an equal position (it was an endgame, that was pretty equal if one side had had a small edge, then it would have been me) during a tournament against a player with 300-400 rating points more than me. What happened? Instead of accepting a draw offer he continued to play and waited for my flag to fall, I had only less than 10 minutes left, my opponent 30 or 40 minutes.
Yes, it is a wonderful way to lose a game after nearly 5 hours of play.
I guess this was my worst chess moment.
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potus
27 ( +1 | -1 )
The rules of chess are designed to prevent players winning like this - once you have less than 2 mins left, claim a draw on the grounds that your opponent is not trying to win by normal means - if the arbiter agrees, you get your draw
More: Rules For Chess
jjw109
38 ( +1 | -1 )
potus is absolutely correct. This is stated specifically in FIDE rules. Of course, what defines "normal means" is somewhat arbitrary (note word relation to arbitor!), but certainly toggling a single piece back and forth (and then to avoid 3-fold repetition begin toggling another piece or to a different square) isn't trying to win by normal means!
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ibeben
47 ( +1 | -1 )
(One of) My best chess moment Hi!
Im going back ontopic now! One of my best chess moments was some years ago, I think to or 3. thus I was 15 or 16 then. It was in a rapid tournament nearby. A Team tournament, four against four, I was normally at board 4. In some round we faced an awfully strong opponent...so, out of tactical view, I moved to board 1.
My opponent was rated 2300+ and was a FM. Due to the short time limit (20 minutes) I managed to keep it a draw in an endgame. eventually we lost 3.5-0.5, but still I liked this :)
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joydivision
55 ( +1 | -1 )
RE: basti1981 I had a simular experience, but than the other way around. I had played for maybe 4 hours, had a winning position... AND 30 minutes on the clock, whereas my opponent had one minute or less. Instead of thinking my next moves through I just started playing really fast (still with the idea of winning, off course). My opponent, with trembling hands, made a tactical move which I should have seen, but I guess I was only looking at his clock ticking away: checkmate! I lost the game and my opponent had about ten seconds left.
More: Ultimate Chess
ctrl-reset
11 ( +1 | -1 )
Ouch.. I feel for you joydivision....but I bet ever since that you have become a more cautious and better player.
fmgaijin
110 ( +1 | -1 )
Me2 In my fourth OTB tournament, a long-ago National HS Championship, I (then a 15-year-old 1700-rated player) had 2 extra pieces (for 2 or 3 Ps) and my opponent (rated about 2000) had 10 moves to make in 1 minute. He had an attack, of course (the second piece was a sac to open my K; otherwise I would have consolidated and won with the first extra piece), but my position was defensible . . . IF I took the time and analyzed the two possible ways to open an escape route for my K. Instead, I looked at his clock, looked at the board for a moment and, not seeing an immediate mate, chose the wrong move. He quickly sacrificed another piece to force mate in 4 . . . and executed the mate with less than 10 seconds remaining. I still kick myself for this one decades later (though not as much as for the dumb last-move-of-the-time-control "brilliancy" vs. IM Lodhi at the Olympics that cost me a draw and my team a match, the "safe" move that let GM Spraggett escape with a draw in the same event, or the oversight that threw away a P+ position in the last round of a U.S. Open and dropped my prize from $2000-3000 to $60 . . . ).
v_glorioso12
54 ( +1 | -1 )
well ive had MANY bad chess 'moments' like the time i lost to the 1900 2 years ago in the state champ, if i woulda won the game i wouldve won my class prize, and another time is when i was killing this FM in the state champ. tourny a few months ago and i somehow overlooked something and ended up losing... another is when i lost to a 2100 in a tournament when i was winning but i was under too much pressure so i didnt see an easy tactic...
best... i think my most recent good moment was when i beat two experts in a row at the state champ. tourny
winner1
108 ( +1 | -1 )
My worst moment was definitily when I many years ago, as a big boy, played the final game in a regional championship. I was in front and only had to win the last game and then I was champion. It was in those days when you stopped playing after 4 hours of play, and resumed the game later on. After the 4 hours I had a completely won position, with a piece more and no compensation for my opponent (an elderly man. Anyway for me at that time:-)), and I remenber I was a bit angry that he did'nt resign. Well, time came for the resumtion, and we sat down and played. I was of course concinced of the victory and maybe because of that I made a careless move. But what a move!! It made it possible for my opponent to give a check with a knight and at the same he threaten my quuen. A socalled doubleattack. I can still see the triumph at his face when he banged the knight down at the board. I think you all can imagin my horror and dispair when I realized what I had done. I of course lost the game and the first prize. What was almost worse was that it was my opponent who won first prize. It took me almost years to recover from that "accident" of mine.