Checks And Chuckles: Stories From The Chess World
Hey, reader! Thank you for clicking on this blog!
Over the last few weeks, I have been wondering what else I could write about that would be interesting, entertaining, and memorable for my audience. Unable to come up with any good ideas, I decided to do a simple check and see which of my previous blogs seemed to be more popular.
Upon doing that, the feedback was crystal clear. The topic you guys liked better was when I told you some chess stories from my life. Quite expected. I love them too.
Unfortunately, there are not enough personal anecdotes for a second part. Still, I thought: "Ok, maybe I don't have any other cool ones, but what about people who play chess much better and much more often than I do?”. And, not surprisingly, they do!
So, today I will present some of the most fascinating and peculiar stories from the chess world that I could find. They concern world champions, grandmasters, Olympiad players, and even a criminal. As an extra, I have added another intimate one, which is not exactly mine, but happened in my family, and I have heard it many times!
I hope you enjoy them. Have fun!
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1. The most ridiculous blunder in history
2. I'll get you! I want to see your face now!
3. Becoming an elite player... in prison
4. But what if he just plays Bc4?
5. The truth hits you in the face
6. I read it in Mequinho’s book!
7. Conclusion
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The most ridiculous blunder in history
I know there are many, almost countless, examples of terrible blunders made by elite players if we dig deep enough. However, I felt that they did not always necessarily fit in with the purpose of this blog. Therefore, I decided to show only one story where the main theme is the blunder itself, and I chose the one that, in my opinion, was the most ridiculous (as written above).
It happened at the very first official Chess Olympiad in 1927, played at the Westminster Central Hall in London. In round 9, the match would be Argentina against the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. I know this is historically inaccurate, but I will just call them Yugoslavia from now on.
Representing Argentina on board 4 was Luis Argentino Palau (pause to say that I love the fact that he is Argentine even in his name). He was up against a 26-year-old Croatian player called Sadi Kalabar. Neither nation was at the top of the table, but they were close enough to each other to make the match important for the final standings.
To give you a hint of what was about to happen: After this match, Palau once described his opponent in his own Argentinian magazine, Revista Ajedrez.
Kalabar was a young man who paid more attention to some postcards than to the board, so he pushed the pieces in a careless way.
The game started, and looked just like another boring routine Bogo-Indian Defense:
But on his fourth move, Kalabar, probably worried about which postcard to send home, moved his king instead of his queen to support the black bishop.
Even more ridiculously, he did not realize this right away and then tried to capture the white bishop with the king. Palau pointed out that the piece in his hand wasn't actually his queen. Embarrassed, the Croatian immediately resigned.
Understandably, his opponent did not offer to take the move back because they were playing in a national team tournament. The worst part? Argentina beat Yugoslavia 2.5-1.5 in that match, meaning that the result of this game was decisive for the final score.
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I'll get you! I want to see your face now!
All right, the first one wasn't particularly famous, but I think some readers might have known about it. However, I'm sure this next one is only known by Brazilian chess fans who follow Grandmaster Rafael Leitão on YouTube. He recounts this story between 4:05 and 7:55 in a video on some funny moments of his career.
I could embed it here, but it would be pointless since it is in Portuguese and has no subtitles. So, for the most curious souls, I will leave the link below and try my best to summarize the events for you.
It all took place during a closed tournament in Poikovsky, Russia, in 2001. After losing a game against Smbat Lputian, Rafael spent his day off drinking vodka with some Russian players to drown his sorrows.
During the conversation, his next opponent, Alexander Onischuk, mocked him, saying that he had played very badly, that he could never have made those moves, that no player in the Soviet Union would ever devise such a plan, and similar things...
Knowing he would stand no chance in a physical confrontation, Leitão kept swearing at him mentally.
I’ll get you on the board! Brace yourself!
Then came the long-awaited moment, the game that would pit them against each other on the board. Leitão was angry and determined to make Onischuk pay for his mockery. Let's see what happened.
Nothing critical so far. Even slightly better for Black. However, he decided to shine in this position.
I'll teach this damn Ukrainian a new tactical! The double attack! Then I want to see the look on his face... that cursed guy!!
And our hero sacrificed his bishop.
His idea was that, after cxb4, he could play Qf6 to attack both the bishop and the rook, recover material, and improve his position, leaving his bully opponent astonished and incredulous.
To my utter surprise, he played Qc1, which is the famous 'double defense', and I ended up a whole piece down.
In a desperate attempt to save his pride, Leitão tried to carry on playing and pretend it was intentional. Tell me, who has never done it?
I mentally insulted him. Am I really going to lose in just 13 moves? No way!
Nevertheless, after a few more moves, he decided it would be better to resign. But at least he learned a valuable lesson that day and offered some wise advice to his followers.
Forget about swearing at others mentally. Either you swear at them in their faces: 'I'll get you when we play!' or you'd better just ignore them, which is probably the best idea, I’d say.
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Becoming an elite player... in prison
Claude Frizzell Bloodgood was not exactly a paragon of virtue. In fact, on the contrary, he was a murderer! In the early 1960s, he was convicted of burglary twice and spent some years in prison. Just nine days after his release in 1969, Bloodgood brutally killed his mother, who had previously agreed to testify against him. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, the main purpose of this text is to recount intriguing chess-related stories, so I apologize for the dark paragraph. I just had to introduce the character first. Hazards of the profession! From now on, let us focus on his wit while he was incarcerated at Powhatan Correctional Center.
As a former statistician and United States Chess Federation (USCF) tournament director, Claude Bloodgood knew how to manipulate the rating system. Rumor has it that he had even tried to warn the USCF that its system was susceptible to 'closed pool' rating inflation, but was ignored. So, he started organizing competitions within the prison.
The plan was simple yet ingenious. He began to register inmates with the USCF and arrange for them to lose to new prisoners. As the newcomers were still playing their provisional games, they would achieve a fairly high ELO after winning a few times. Bloodgood would then play them, win, and gain rating points.
The process was slow and required consistent dedication, but it paid off. He played an astonishing 3,174 rated games against weaker opponents, winning more than 90% of them and thus artificially inflating his score. His rating peaked at an impressive 2,789 in 1996, making him the second-best player in the USA after GM Gata Kamsky.
You can check out one of his games below, annotated by Top Blogger and NM @Rodgy on his blog on the topic. Specialists have described Bloodgood as not a particularly strong player, who relied mainly on quick wins and dirty traps — basically, a hustler.
Obviously, his scam would be exposed sooner or later, which happened when he was humiliatingly defeated by a much lower-rated player in a match between the prison team and the Huguenot Chess Club.
After that, the USCF changed its problematic system to prevent closed pool rating inflation. At least we can say that his naughtiness contributed to something!
Read more:
How an Inmate Became America's #2 by @Rodgy
Dark Side Of The Board ~ The Bloodgood Gambit, Part 1 by @Jessicamel
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But what if he just plays Bc4?
Okay, so far, we have talked about a strong player, an even stronger player, and then an amateur. However, super grandmasters and world champions can certainly provide amusing stories too, especially those who are known to be light-hearted and not take life too seriously.
In his book The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, the renowned 'Magician of Riga' recounts a humorous incident that occurred during the 1958 Latvian Championship, before his game against Aivars Gipslis.
Before my game with Gipslis, I was preparing for my University State Exam in Russian. [...] I decided that fate itself was calling on me to relax, so I lay down in a hot bath and began reading the Shakhmatny Bulletin*. Straight away, I came across an article by N. Krogius on a topical variation in the Sicilian Defense.
*The Shakhmatny Bulletin was a Russian chess magazine.
It concerned a recently discovered move for Black: 15... e5. There followed two games, one of which Black won, while the second was drawn. Probably much more worried about his exam than the next game, he decided to play this variation and have a peaceful day.
'That's excellent’, I thought, I'll have a quick draw in this variation with Gipslis, and then return to Philology.
Almost as if fate was conspiring in his favor, within five minutes of the start of the game, they had played the exact line given in the article. Mikhail Tal did not hesitate, making the move he had read about the previous night.
But when I made the 'recommended' move, a thought suddenly struck me: ‘But what if White plays Bc4?’. Gipslis, however, did not give me time to torture myself mentally, and straight away made this move.
The game continued for five hours, with Tal struggling to keep it level. Unfortunately, the best he could achieve was an adjournment. In the end, the next morning, he was forced to resign from a lost position.
As soon as they began analyzing it, the first question that Gipslis asked was:
- Didn't you get the bulletin?
- Yes, why shouldn't I have?
He took the bulletin out of his briefcase, showed me the move ...e5, then turned over the page(!), whereupon I read the very first line:
Since then, I have never again prepared for a game while lying in a hot bath.
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The truth hits you in the face
Usually, strong players recognize a blunder right after it is made, or at least while the game is still ongoing. But sometimes, they don't realize until someone points it out to them, and the shock of reality hits like a wave.
The last "external" story is short but worth sharing. It involves GM Daniel Naroditsky, a famous streamer, Chess.com commentator, and bullet genius.
In 2008, he was playing against Kenneth Wallach in the fifth round of the National Open in Las Vegas when they reached a critical position for Black. White was threatening Ng6#, and Daniel struggled to find a way out.
Please note that giving the g7 square to the king only postpones the checkmate.
My first reaction was to panic! [...] I am all out of meaningful checks. The only way to prevent the knight from wreaking devastation is to somehow take the g6 square under control.
But then, he saw something brilliant! Or so he thought, at least.
Suddenly, after several minutes of full concentration, I saw an idea that would make Tal proud: 37... Qe4+(!!) 38. Kxe4 b1=Q+. Amazing! After the king retreats, the newly promoted queen will easily deliver perpetual along the first rank.
He did that, "saving" the position. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief and, naturally, felt proud of his genius at the end of the game.
After this marvelous escape, with his ego still sky-high, he approached his friend, IM Edward Formanek, who had been watching closely.
- How did you like my Qe4?
- Uh, I mean... why didn't you just promote immediately?
The truth suddenly dawned on him! What he hadn't noticed was that, if he had simply promoted the pawn, the new queen would control g6 and Black would easily win.
Daniel froze, speechless and incredulous about his own recent stupidity...
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As promised, the last story would be personal again. However, it did not happen to me; but to my parents. It was in 1991, when they were both 23 years old.
My father is a decent chess player. His rating is around 1750, and I imagine he was slightly stronger when younger. My mother, on the other hand... well, she knew the rules. I would estimate her ELO at probably around 600.
But on this day, she decided to put into action a plan that had been meticulously made weeks earlier.
Strangely, it was she who took the initiative of grabbing the chessboard and inviting my dad for a few games. He found it very unusual, as it was always he who used to suggest it, and she would only accept out of politeness. Still, he agreed.
They played the first game; she lost. They played again; she lost again. Dad noticed that, after the first few moves, she was making some weird blunders, even for her level. It was almost as if she was losing on purpose, just so they could start again quickly. Why?
After five or six consecutive losses, they finally reached the position that my mom was eager to see on the board.
She then played Nxe5(!!).
Assuming that she was losing on purpose again for no clear reason yet, Dad immediately captured her queen, unaware of his terrible fate.
That’s probably when she gave her biggest smile ever. The game continued as follows:
For those unfamiliar with that, this is the famous Légal Trap, where White sacrifices the queen for a forced checkmate. My mom started screaming with happiness.
I win! I win! Yeah! I sacrificed my queen, and you fell for it like a puppy. I win!!
She then revealed the whole truth: a few weeks before this event, she had secretly taken a chess book they had at home in the hope of finding a way to beat my father and surprise him. The book was written by the Brazilian player Henrique Mecking, also known as Mequinho.
She discovered the trap, learned the moves by heart, and waited for the perfect moment to execute her plan.
I read it in Mequinho’s book! I knew it would work!
Since then, she has told me this story literally more than 100 times. Actually, not only to me, but to anyone who ever mentioned chess even for one second.
Did you know that I once beat your father at chess? I sacrificed the queen! I read it in Mequinho's book!
- Leticia's mother, countless times.
I knew about the trap, but I would never have thought that your mom would know it. I assumed it was just another blunder.
- Leticia's father, embarrassed.
Unfortunately, for those who don’t know, my mother passed away in 2010. I am glad that we could spend 17 wonderful years together. This section is my brief but sincere tribute to her greatest achievement in chess. Thank you, Mom! I miss you every day!
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You made it to the end! If you are still here, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the stories! Even if you are a chess nerd who knows everything about its history, I am pretty sure at least one of them was new to you, right? Most importantly, if I entertained you and provided a pleasant read, then my mission is accomplished. That’s what matters.
Of course, there are many other cases worth mentioning that I could have chosen to tell. However, I tried to narrate the ones I found most engaging and intriguing. If you know of any similar interesting anecdotes that I could have included, please let me know in the comments section. I’d love to hear them!
In conclusion, I just would like to say that writing this post was a real pleasure. Not only was the last section special to me, but I also enjoyed sharing the stories I read with my father, husband, and friends during the research process. It gave us all a really good time.
After all, chess isn't just about moves. It's about people. And people are weird, brilliant, hilarious creatures. I'll see you on my next blog! Hopefully soon!
