I like this story Dave, I think John & Keith have a few stories worth telling.
Respecting Your Opponent
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Hi Dave,
One should always be careful what you say at the Chess board, years ago I had a
big minus against Keith Trobridge( always blundering in won positions), finally,
I reached a position where I had mate next move and said, sarcasticly " it looks
like a draw Keith * Keith's hand immediately shot out, "Yes !" another half point
lost.
lol
For me Saturday Chess in the Woodhouse was always a pain if Hull had 2 teams in the division. You just knew you would have to go there at least once and it took ages. On this occasion I was on board 3 for Central against Cooper. we had a draw but not before witnessing an extraordinary event behind us. Tony Vaughan, another central player, had finished his game and had nothing to do for the next 2 hours but wander about, so after a bit of that and because there is no bar at Hull (another pain) he asked his previous opponent if he would fancy a few quick games. He agreed, they found an empty board, sat down, rewound the clocks, reset the pieces and off they went. 30 Seconds later Keith Trobridge (Central Player) returned to see these two at his board playing speed Chess. Both he and his opponent who came in straight behind him were suitably outraged and had to reconstruct. Tony spent the next few minutes sheepishly walking up and down the hall, occasionally glancing through the doorway and giving me a 'I think I should be on the naughty step' grin.
Another tale involving Keith Trobridge was that one Saturday whoever wrote out the team card for Central that day put him down as A. Trobridge. So when it was announced, Keith protested and said 'Don't you mean The Trobridge!
Tony Vaughan! The phantom false teeth beer pincher...
My favourite story with Keith Trobridge was when I was playing him at Carter's Social club in Shipley in the evening league.
I had bought myself a Guinness after getting through the opening unscathed and settled down to work out how to proceed when I saw my pint of Guinness head up into the air. Keith had picked up my Guinness instead of his pint of water to which I hollered "Oi Keith that's mine!"
He replied "Oh I'm sorry Ihor - But you shouldn't have left it en-pris!"
To rub salt in my wounds he beat me that day as well!
Just reading this though it was posted months ago. One of my pet hates are players (usually higher graded than me) who declare how badly THEY played to lose to me. I usually reply - very politely - 'actually I thought I played quite well too!' It seems to get to them.
On Monday, after resigning my opponent said " different league". I don't know if this was a compliment or a request to play somewhere else,
I thought I would post a chess story of mine from a fews years ago. A comment made in one of the chess team matches either for Bradford v Luxemburg, or Yorkshire Terriers v Luxemburg, I cannot remember which one, has reignited my memory from 17/18 years ago.
When I was at Hull university, studying for a maths degree, I played for our Hull university team, board 2 or 3 normally as our captain was an England player at the time. We used to play in the annual Hull speed chess tournament, and the first time I played, I was ungraded. This meant I could play in the UG up to ECF grade 100 group.
The first player I was drawn against had a grade of 66, and I knew from the league games that I had played, that this grading would not cause me any great worries. As I approached the table I was to play on, this chap happily strolled over to the table I had sat down on, and uttered the words "pffff, ungraded player, this won't take long"!!! I just looked at him, stone cold in the face and said nothing, as I knew I would not let him beat me.
It was not long before I had this chap by the short and curlies, and every time I gained an advantage, either positional or material, I looked at his face and saw that he was getting more and more upset. In the end, I won, easily as well, and I thought I shouldn't do this, but I was young and impetuous. I stood up, took my game sheet and turned it round for him to sign, then I uttered the words "pffff, a 66 grade, why play in a tournament like this, when it is clear you have no chance of winning a game let alone the group. Your game was one of the worst I have ever played.", I then walked off in a very self-satisfied manner.
It is my perception that chess is a gentlemans game, one of experience and intelligence. To simply belittle someone who has no official grading, is not only disrespectful to your opponent, but would put off anybody starting off with the game of chess, and it is also very dangerous as you leave yourself open to ridicule.
Any thoughts on my story would be welcome, or any other chess stories of your own would also be worth reading.
I will never forget the look on his face as I put the poor chap in checkmate.....