Prescott Chess Club: First Brain and Hand Match

As the eyes of the Chess world have been on the Internet watching Magnus and Nepo draw one another, a most spectacularly drawn out draw was earned in game two of Prescott, Arizona's first ever Brain and Hand match, thus leading to a victory of 1 1/2 - 1/2 for Phoebie and Jeff over Abby and Hollis.

"This is the most excruciating chess game I have ever watched in my life," said I, while observing.

Game one begin with the Petroff defense, as Phoebe, play as hand in game one, interpreted Jeff's call for Knight on move two. Jeff probably didn't really care where the knight went, to be honest, or which knight it was, as Jeff can play pretty much anything. Abby, playing as hand for white, transposed into the four knights game, though Hollis clearly wanted to just go for the pawn and stick when the Petroff. In the end, Jeff and Phoebe won soundly and strangely. 

Game two, which featured Abby and Phoebie as the brains and Hollis and Jeff as the hands, proved quite wacky. Rules about communication protocol between teammates came into dispute, necessitating the appointment of a tournament director. The Tournament Director, which is to say I, first cited Hollis and Abby for using a coded communication system such that Hollis could transmit the identity of the desired piece to Abby. Hollis clearly said the word "Crusader" while talking to Abby out by the creek during the smoke break, an obvious reference to the chess board's Holy Warrior, the Bishop.
Likewise, Jeff and Phoebie were cited for talking to each other about what the other one was thinking. More or less every time Phoebie said the name of a piece, especially after their team was down a rook, Jeff moved it to a different place than Phoebie intended, causing her to become visible agitated, then promoting her to tell Jeff where she wanted the piece to go and why. Upon objection from Hollis, the Tournament Direct first forbade then encouraged such banter on both sides, just for didactical reasons.

The conversation between Phoebie and Jeff clearly showed what was going on in the game: Phoebie, though down a rook, was continuing to play for a win where as Jeff was playing for a draw. Conversely, Abby was playing to defend herself and Hollis against Phoebie and Jeff, whereas Hollis was trying to force a checkmate, or at least trade off the queens to lead to a simple win with a rook and pawn endgame where the opponents had no rook.
"i prefer endgames where I have a rook and my opponent does not."  -- Some Grandmaster
In the end, Jeff and Phoebie were tenacious. Phoebee just kept saying Queen over and over again, and Jeff went around checking Hollis and Abby, who were unable to make any mating opportunities manifest against the black (Jeff/Phoebee)'s cornered king. The game got 37 moves toward a draw by 50 moves without a capture or pawn push, when Phoebee suddenly announced "pawn", forcing jeff to move the last mobile pawn, and exposing the team to checkmate. Luckily for them, however, Abby's call of Rook instead of Queen on the next move lost the opportunity for a mate in three. 24 moves toward another 50 move draw, Jeff and Phoebee brilliantly sacrificed their queen to f8 in front of their king on h8 to white king of Hollis and Abby which had been occupying e8. And as the seventh rank was cut off by the extra rook, stalemate. 

In other news, I beat Zev three times, twice with the Pirc (both times he played Bc4 and I did the temporary knight sacrifice to gain advantage in the center thing) and once with the Scotch (I trippled his pawns on the c file, then got his a pawn and made a run). But then Zev got me when I played the Benko Gambit, schucks to you, Agadmator. Zev kept asking, "Is this a real thing? Did it work?" No, Zev, it did not.
I also lost two speed matches to Jeff and two games to Hollis, putting me at the following record:

Abby: 0-1

Jeff 0-11-1

Hollis: 1-6

Zev: 3-1

Phoebee: 1-0

I still haven't played that dude who seems like he's just there to promote toastmasters. But hopefully, I will play him soon.