Hey ponz, I think I actually played Bill Harris once! In the 4th round of the 1979 US Open.
We always called him "William" so i t might not have been the same person? He would have been about 25 at the time. Where was that US Open held?
oh i see the us open was in Chicago so it must have been him. Were you able to win from him?
Interesting thread.
howhorseymove
Robert Hess got his rating up to over 2600! Once he was number 5 ranked in the United States!
My first smothered checkmate was delivered at 8:05 Tuesday May 1st 2018.
) and then I saw the mate(phew!)
Another time I was playing the tournament of my life(that I finished 4th in my section with 5.5/7, my first ever - and to date only - plus score in anything that wasn’t rapid). In one round, my opponent, who slightly outrated me, sacrificed a piece(or something, I can’t remember anymore, but it would have been a decisive material advantage if he couldn’t mate) to go after my exposed king. We both had about 30 minutes left; after the sac he had barely 10(with 30-second increment). I started to calculate after instantly accepting it and found a line where I could barely hang on. If I had the slightest miscalculation, I was lost. I played it. He played well, I tried to hold on, and he ended up with three minutes to my twenty after several more moves. By this point I realised that any win for me will probably have me flagging first and I was just trying to keep going and hope he blunders. Two minutes... I stared at the board, he seemed deep in thought, and I counted down the seconds mentally every time I glimpsed movement on the digital clock as my opponent calculated. One minute... damn, he moved! I reply within seconds while he’s notating with an obvious only-move, and...
thirty seconds...
twenty...
ten... he’s still calculating deeply...
five...
and FLAGGED! I was so relieved - I knew if he had moved, I was likely to lose, a draw at best.
I USED TO PLAY THE SMITH MORRA GAMBIT 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3. KEN SMITH PUBLISHED MANY OF MY GAMES AND ONCE CALLED ME "MY HERO"RIP KEN SMITH
ALSO PLAYED OTHER GAMBITS-=-HERE IS ONE I WON FROM A GM AT A US OPEN
I HAD WHITE.
NOW I PLAY NO GAMBITS AS I DO BETTER NOT PLAYING GAMBITS.
ty, here is a more upbeat story [slightly upbeat for me anyway]
When i first arrived in Kankakee there was no chess-not even a club.
Then a few years later the YMCA had a chess club. I stopped by there one day but they were not very sociable--so i left. But there was young man [about age 19 i talked to]
The club later had a championship and he won with a score of 9 wins and no losses or draws. He was bragging to me about how he beat "those old men" He was getting a little insufferable.
So, i invited him to have a 10 game match with me. He would come to my home every Sunday afternoon and we would play a game with a clock and under tournament conditions. I would provide the snacks and drinks and pleasant surroundings...
I won the first 3 games. The 4th game he resisted some but i still finally won. Then i won the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th games. He was getting a little glum. Should i let him draw the last game??
Nah...! I won the 10th game also. That was the last i heard from him. If he had contacted me again i would have liked to teach him some things about chess!?