Chess Larceny

My old user name on Chess.com was Larceny, because I stole points from worse positions--or so I dreamed. I changed my name to Chessmo because I wasn't very good at, well, stealing points from worse positions.

The Knight's Cup is St. Charles Chess Club's annual club championship. The 7 round, round-robin tournament includes the top 8 players from the year long G/90+5 ladder tournament. And, it's a rated tournament, so the participants get 7 rated games in as a payoff for doing well in the unrated weekly ladder. This was my first year where I earned a spot!

In round 1, held this past Thursday, I played Eric Swanson, a strong player who is terribly underrated at 1415. He, like many in this club, don't often play rated tournament games but frequently play online or at the club.

Well, in this game I earned my old monikor.

I won a game in the 2014 US Open when my opponent did the same thing as I in this game. He touched his Queen, forgetting that he was in check. In that game I called the TD (who was the exact same TD as in this game at my club!) and I also made sure he moved his Queen to get out of check--which in that case won me the game from a losing position. So, be aware and make sure touch move is enforced!

Lessons Learned:

• When you are losing against a weaker player, especially if there is time trouble expected, keep playing. Sometimes pieces get dropped.
• Although I would have made the QxB capture as required by touch-move if I had had my wits about me, it was ultimately my opponent's responsibility to object to the TD and ensure touch-move was followed.

After the game, my opponent amusingly, and probably rightfully, commented that this win will always have an asterisk next to it.