Offhand Brilliancy

Submitted by spassky on Sun, 07/26/2009 at 10:45pm.

The following game was played in Hagerstown (Maryland) City Park, once voted the "second most beautiful city park in America" (I presume Central Park in NYC is first). I was visiting relatives there, and we decided to go for a walk in the park. As we were walking back to the car, we happened upon three people playing chess on a park picnic table. As one of them was watching the other two and not playing, I couldn't resist asking him if he wanted to play. I assured my relatives it would not take long, since I assumed he would most likely not be nearly as strong a player as I. (See if you make a guess as to this player's rating. I never did ask him.) Much to my surprise, he trotted out 10-12 moves of theory. Perhaps this would take longer than I had anticipated. Perhaps not.

Luckily, I have a good memory, so as soon as we got home, I was able to write down all of the moves of the game. I don't remember ever playing a game where I sacrificed a whole queen without having seen the end all the way to mate first. It was also lucky that my relatives were there to pressure me into looking for such a quick end to the game. I wonder how many brilliant games I haven't played because I wasn't looking for them? Perhaps we should all get in the habit of looking a little longer, a little deeper, and being a bit braver, even when the game does count. Fortune favors the brave, as they say. For more games and coaching, visit www.brucetill.com .

» posted in Amazing Games

| 1454 reads | 9 comments |

4 votes:

Comments:

by drumdaddy - 4 months ago
International

Member Since: Apr 2009
Member Points: 146

Slick win, well done. Who says you can't get a game over the board anymore?

by madpawn - 4 months ago
London England

Member Since: Mar 2008
Member Points: 709

Well done Bill, you seem to grow brilliancies like gardeners grow roses.

by Archaic71 - 4 months ago
Texas United States

Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 191

funny who you meet at the park . . . i wonder who was more surprised?

nicely played, don't pay too much attention to the peanut gallery - some of us are actually here for the chess . . .

A fairly common refrain I hear is that if you have three pieces around the king and the initiative, you should be able to find a forced mate. You had the goods and delivered, in the end thats what matters.

by spassky - 4 months ago
Gaithersburg, MD United States

Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 304

To Mr. Avocado:

Sorry things aren't going so well for you in South Korea. Here's a rewrite of the article, just for you. " I was walking through an ordinary park and met an ordinary chessplayer. We played an ordinary game where he played just as well as I did, but I got lucky and won somehow. The end."

by justice_avocado - 4 months ago
Columbus, OH United States

Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 495

Is that a picture of yourself at the top of this post? A great, big, beautiful glossy of the author, slick and attractive, just like the brilliance he can just toss off after a pleasant jaunt through a lovely garden? You must be so happy to not be affected by the pedestrian maladies of humility and deference!

I do say, good sir! Shall we play polo in the town square on this positively delightful afternoon, so the commonfolk can come and marvel at our unmatched grace and athletic prowess? We are gods, man! Gods!