Ever met a GM?

I think it would be fascinating, fun and an experience I would never forget to meet a GM.  Imagine getting to spend a whole day with one and play a number of games.  Have talks about chess.  Talks about anything?

Have you ever met a GM or had a chance to spend some amount of time with one? 

yes,played Portisch in a simul in Melbourne in 1978 (?) a draw !

I drew against David Howell in a simul just last year; very enjoyable experience.

i wish i could to learn some of the experience of what its like

I've heard lectures by and played in simuls vs GMs Gheorghiu, Browne, Mednis, Korchnoi and Bisguier. I also heard a lecture by IM Edward Lasker, the last living player from the famous NY 1924  International Tnmt. The only GM I actually got to talk to was Mednis, he only played 6 bds (with a 50/2 TL) vs 6 very strong A players and candidate masters and after finishing up stuck around to discuss our games and answer questions. He was a nice guy, we got to talk with him for an hour or so. 

Incredible stories guys, keep em coming.  I am definatly reading them!

So do I charles, so do I.

I'm glad to see that meeting a GM is still special for some people.

In 2011 I played in the Guernsey Open and sat next to Grandmaster Sarunas Sulskis for the closing ceremony.  He's a very nice guy and had some kind words for my admittedly totally unsound last round game:

I've played a couple OTB (DeFirmian and Browne).  DeFirmian was in fact the first master I ever played (way back when he was still in the 2300s).

Also a friend of mine played Bisguier in a US Open, and AB was chatting with us afterwards.  A very nice fellow.  (Interesting too that NimzoRoy says the same about Mednis...he always seemed to me like a good guy as well.)

At that same US Open that same friend of mine was standing watching the top board (Gheorghiu vs somebody).  Gheorghiu--who won it that year--got up from the board, walked by my friend and said to him with a shrug, "What's he doing?  He's just a piece down!"  Nothing incredibly profound or anything...just the sort of thing one of us might say to each other about our game. 

I remember the first one I ever saw in person--at the big Paul Masson swiss that year:  Walter Browne.  I was astonished that he wasn't 8 feet tall or something like that (and then 10 years or so later I found myself playing him in the last round for $700!) 

Easy there sunshine.

Nope, mashpotator.  I had a drawn endgame; unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one in the room who hadn't realized that fact, so I began jettisoning material. 

The tendency to underestimate my position has always been a weakness of mine (one which cost me dearly there, I'm afraid).

This is pretty cool to read.  I'm hoping to enter in a tounament sometime in the near future with the goal of talking to any GM.  Keep the comments coming guys!

I've met GMs Akobian, Shankland, Finegold, Charbonneau, and Fedorowicz, and Super GM Michael Adams at simul + lecture events.

I went to a week long chess camp run by GM Yuri Shulman, also with GMs Onischuk, and GM Mesgen Amanov.

Mesgen is currently my coach.

I have never played a grandmaster in a rated OTB game though.

I've played a few GM's in online chess but I've yet to meet one in the flesh.

I don't play OTB so it'll be by accident if I ever meet one in person. :D

Growing up in England, I attended the annual Hastings Chess Congress for many years; worked on the demonstration boards as a youth and got to meet many, such as Smyslov, Spassky, Tal, all 3 of whom I played OTB in simuls.

Svetozar Gligoric played  every year at Hastings and I was fortunate enough to manage to persuade him to play in some casual OTB games; what a gentleman. 

Abram Khasin was another Russian GM I recall who spent a lot of time between games  helping me and my fellow demo boardsmen  by playing us and giving advice on our moves etc.

Happy days!

I have never met a GM. I expect that I never will meet a GM. I also don't expect that I will ever play a GM.

I have played an IM in a simul [Naum Kagan]. That's about as close as I have got.

Then again why should I complain? I've had every negative comment about my chess thrown at me by clowns like Michael Baron. So maybe I am better off without being near a GM.

Actually I have met a GM. If you call being in the same event "meeting" a GM. Zong Yuan Zhao. OK. Ticked that box now

I've been in the same room as a GM, but didn't meet him.  GM Alejandro Ramirez visits the Dallas Chess Club regularly.

My first visit to the DCC was in 1987.  Back then, I had just graduated from high school, and I was a smart guy but a complete patzer.  I had less than 50 games under my belt--all against other patzers--and I had never seen a chess clock in person.  The DCC was full of men from their mid-20s to middle age, and mostly on the older end of that range.  There was a Latvian character there named Art who loved to say "I fork you!" whenever his last knight move made that expression a fitting one.  He cleaned up against me a few times before I lost to a few other players that day. 

Being young and full of verve for girls and live music and parties, I didn't go back for some time.  It might have been '89 or '90 when I went back.  I had a little more experience at that time, and even had my own clock that I used with my patzer friends on camping trips.  The DCC was still a club for older men.  I didn't win any games that day, either.  And then I stayed away for a very long time.

I had my personal chess revolution about ten years later, at the turn of the century.  I was 30ish, and online chess was still fairly new.  I was sucked in completely, buying books, studying, using Waitzkin's lessons on CM9000, and playing many thousands of games online.  After a few years of this, I guess I burned out: I just stopped playing.

The always-spinning circle of life brought me back to online chess last December, first on Chesscube and then here.  All of the talk in the forums about OTB chess made me want to pay another visit to the DCC.  There was a thread here that referred to Dallas, NYC, SF and Chicago (not in that order) as "hotbeds" of chess activity.  Dallas?  Really?  I need to check this out!  After all, I'm old enough to fit in now!  Or so I thought.

I finally returned to the DCC a couple of months ago.  It had moved into a new location, and had probably tripled in size since 1990.  When I first arrived, I felt that I had shown up on the wrong night.  There was a tournament going on, but all of the players were children.  Young children.  It made me feel like a creep.  Seriously.

I stuck around long enough to speak with a few parents and a chess coach who knew something about the history of the club.  I learned that the higher-level games were going on upstairs, and GM Alejandro was up there studying a book while a couple of tournament games were playing out.  I went up there and peeked in a bit.  I saw Alejandro.  Then I bolted outta there.  

Maybe I need to suck it up and go back to play some kids for a USCF rating.  Or maybe I need to go back on another day when the adults show up.  But from what I saw, it seems that the chess world has been overrun by little kids and parents who want to be the next Fred Waitzkin.

LOL!