What is the most SURPRISING incident happen with you while playing OTB tourney?

I played a tournament in manhattan, my opponent moved a piece, let go of it, paused for about 5 seconds, realized it was a blunder that dropped a piece, and then said "jadoube" and moved it back.  

  I argued with him about it but he didn't want to admit that he cheated.  I also didn't have any proof so I just let it slide.  Eventually I got outplayed, and would have lost the game, but then he offered me a draw.  

  He then said "Are we even?"  And I thought to myself:  sure, jerk...

:)

I saw something similar to that in another match, where this guy moved a piece to a square, paused for about 3 seconds and then said "adjust" and moved it back (without taking his hand off it). I think this is still cheating, but nobody could prove that he did it - he lost the game anyway :)

I had a similar experience.  I was playing someone in a very small tournament run by a high schooler.  My opponent, a nice middle aged man eventually blundered a piece.  With a very friendly tone, he said something along the lines to, "That's not a good way to end a game.  Can I take that back?" As I was 10 years old, I didn't have enough sense to disagree so he took it back and eventually outplayed me.  When it was mate in 1, he offered a draw.  

I thought as long as he is not removing his touch he can still change where it goes?

He let go of the piece, and then moved an entirely different piece :)

Yes, he can move it to a different square as long as he didn't let go of it... but since he didn't say "adjust" or "j'adoube" BEFORE touching the pice, he still has to move that particular piece.

If the move that he started to make (without taking his hand off the piece) was a capture... in other words, if he has touched both his own piece and also one of yours... then he MUST make that capture, regardless of the fact that he didn't let go of his own piece.

Strangest thing to happen in an OTB tournament? I actually won a game.

I'll start off by saying this was not my proudest moment and I'm not terribly proud of it. This was the last round of an OTB tournament in North Carolina. If I won this game I would win my section. Except that I am getting trounced. I have my opponent's queen, but in return he has 3 minor pieces and a rook. This will not end well.

Then I look over at the clock, and realize he's running very short of time. It's 40/2 then G/60, and he's only made 39 moves and his flag is about to drop. He's really scrutinizng the position and searching for the perfect move; he seems oblivious to his clock situation. I watch his flag fall, then call it. He says, "I've made 40 moves though." I show him my scoresheet, whcih very clearly shows he has only made 39 moves. He shows me his scoresheet, which is a complete mess: chickenscratch writing, scratchouts everywhere, and he's using descriptive notation to boot. We stop the clock and get the TD. He plays through each of our scoresheets, and upholds my claim. My opponent is burning holes through my forehead. I can tell he wants to say, "So you wanted the win that badly?" Yes. Yes I did.

I can't say I feel great about winning this way, especially in a game that I was supposed to lose. But then, managing your clock is part of the game. Managing your scoresheet so that it's readable is also part of the game.

I wonder if that's what happened to Ivanchuk.

I had to play this old homeless guy a couple of years ago. He kept screaming at me because I did not properly call "I adjust" when it was my move (i think this is the rule). I suppose he was right, but he had to make the whole bloody 600 people chess player room hear it by having a tantrum. He was also complaining to the tournament director about another player he played earlier in the tournament. He lost his argument, and he was carefully watching me, making sure I was properly saying "I adjust" properly. Poor me. Even worse is that the old man randomly told me during the game he had to go take a smoke outside, and i had to wait 45 minutes until his next move (soon after his tirade). I later won our game, and he went on another tantrum, showing it off to the world. One of those games I would like to forget. This happened at the chicago class championships...

LOL. Yeah whenever I go to Vegas there are so many adults that smoke, in fact I saw one of my opponents smoking outside.

errr my bad, I meant, "I adjust", i was thinking of touch move for some reason. Let me edit that.

Got them mixed up. lolz, its pretty fuzzy for me atm, luckily i forgot some of this unpleasant experience . I just remember the kicking (not really), screaming, complaining, tirading, smoking, and winning.

Randomemory

Sounds like that tournament was really the no-class championship.  

In a blitz game against a club member, he had two queens, and we were both in major time trouble. He moved his queen, announced "Checkmate!" at first glance I thought it was, but I saw an escape square for my king, and moved there. He then lost on time with a mate in 1 on the board.

In money situations, I don't feel bad at all about claiming wins on time, even if there was no logical way for me to win with two pawns against his two queens and a few pawns

There's a local chess club not far away from my house. I used to go there a couple of years ago. During that time I had a great teacher - a very strong GM, and I was quite enthusiastic to improve. After a while I participated in a tournament that was held there, one that's happening every now and then. The players all come from the club I believe, and they seem to know each other. I was relatively unknown. But I was also pretty good.

In the first game I played against a good player. However, I played a highly positional game, won a pawn early and gradually improved my position. Eventually I had a tactic to win some more material. We reached a point where he had a queen and I had a queen and a piece and some extra pawns or something. It looked like he should resign at this point. Then, he just moves his queen where it can be captured directly by my queen. And for some reason, I thought that it was like a "sign of resignation", just like dropping your king or something. Silly me.

So I captured the queen expecting him to shake my hand. He didn't react for a second, then looks at me and says "stalemate". I look back at the position. It's stalemate. Later he said that I played a great game and that he's sorry I fell for his trap. I learned my lesson from that game... such a thing will never repeat itself.

I don't remember the exact position but it was a bit like this:

I agree with the underlying theme that your most painful results define the chess player you become. 

True. By the way after that first round I had many wins but at the end I only came second.

Wow that must have hurt. e7 instead looks completely winning