Really Bad Sportsmanship in Real Tournaments

Have you ever witnessed, or even committed, an act of bad sportsmanship in a chess tournament? The poster with the funniest or most shocking story gets a challenge from me. :) (By the way, I don't get to win. Solitaire Chess is a total enigma.)

I was in a tournament in my old hometown, playing a 10-year-old who was rated 1600 because there weren't that many players. Anyway, I blundered my queen like the 1110-rated patzer I am, and he laughed. He actually laughed. 

I resigned, feeling like a fool afterward. I should have kept going, but after a horrid move like that, I'd already lost. 

P.S. The pairings in that tournament sucked tennis balls.

So, what's your story of sub-par sportsmanship? :)

I played in a 30-30 rapid tournament about 15 years ago and were using those old type analouge chess clocks. I got up briefly to look at some other games and when I came back in about 1 minute I saw that my clock had dropped by about 5 minutes. I knew that my opponent must of done a manual adjust (real easy to do to those clocks, just grip the dial adjuster and turn to where you want it) I knew that I wasn't dreaming as other clocks around me showed a consistant total elapsed time which did not tally with our clock. I protested to my opponent without directly accusing him, such as clock must be fautly, he agreed and let me have extra time back. Did not have to get the DOP to help out.

after all he was 10 years old.i remember i was a little arrogant when i had a winning position at that age because i was so happy.anyway maybe he wasnt rude just so happy.

what? nudism in chess?

I had an opponent who hate-waited for 30 minutes once he realized the position was lost for him. Then when his time was down to about a minute he played a few perfunctionary moves and then just let his time run out.

Then again, it's satisfying for the winner to see an opponent reduced to that state...!

In a USCF tournament you can be given a warning, forfeited, or even banned from the tournament because of being rude, noisy, or unsportsmanlike. Did you talk to the TD about the kid laughing?

Agree, children are children, and it as well depends on the type of laugh - happy or humiliative :D I think it's easy to distinguish.

I blundered a piece in an OTB match once, then instead of resigning (which I was considering) I carried on playing - playing very fast and a bit angrily.

This could probably be construed as bad sportsmanship on my part. I'm quite a big bloke and can be quite intimidating. I felt a bit bad about it afterwards.

Strange thing is that my opponent started to mirror my tempo of playing fast, and he blundered, and so I ended up winning.

IpswichMatt wrote:

I blundered a piece in an OTB match once, then instead of resigning (which I was considering) I carried on playing - playing very fast and a bit angrily.

This could probably be construed as bad sportsmanship on my part. I'm quite a big bloke and can be quite intimidating. I felt a bit bad about it afterwards.

Strange thing is that my opponent started to mirror my tempo of playing fast, and he blundered, and so I ended up winning.

What I say, ( and my father) is that you shouldn't resign, ever. You could win, and even if not, there is always chance of a stalemate. And even if you lose, it would probably be more fun to finish the game.

please tell your bad sportsmanships too.sounds like it is others who always commit an act of bad sportsmanship.

Twice before games I have had friends of my opponents come tell him I was an easy win in front of me.  I won both times.  Another time a guy started his attack way too soon thinking he could just blow me off the board.  I defended, developed my own attack, and had a double threat of checkmate and taking his rook.  He missed the checkmate.  When I made the move he stared at the board for about 5 minutes before he acknowleged the win.  I had gotten a reputation because I did not know openings and got destroyed a couple times, but when I could reach the middle game I played tougher than they expected.  Those who already chalked up a mental win sometimes had a problem losing with dignity.

I had a kid run out some time away from the board in a losing position.  I also had some kids mark up my wood pieces with a pencil.  Most of it cleaned off but some of the edges are hard to get into.

Savage and doduobird123, you get challenges from me by relating the most hilarious instances of bad sportsmanship! :) It was a tie, but I can always use more challenges, so MOAR PLZ! 

My instance of bad sportsmanship was playing a practice game in a tournament against a kid who would much rather have been doing his math homework. I apparently insulted him (due to my low rating) without knowing it. 

Lol at a Chicago junior tournament(High school and younger), at board one and the last match for first place (pressure was very much), my opponent was a pawn up and the endgame was probably going to be won for him. My opponent, being the jerk he is, said after he made his move, "Will you just resign already?"

Frustrated I was determined to win after that remark. The most embarassing thing is I lost!

But I guess I should talk about a time where I was a bad sport..

At the High School state championship, I blundered a piece but kept on going. My opponent kept getting frustrated because of how much a fight I was putting up. Eventually he thought he back ranked checkmated me with his queen and he offered a handshake and said "checkmate."

I laughed (perhaps rudely) and defended with my queen

When I was much younger I was in the VERY early stages of a game (like maybe 6-7 moves into it) and I blundered into losing a Q for N. I was so aggravated that my way of resigning was to just shove all my pieces real hard (about half of them fell all over the table up against others games too) and I said some fowl language, picked my scoresheet up, gave my opponent a hateful look and scurried of sulking. As if he'd done something wrong to me. I don't feel proud of that. I would never be like that now. But this is the first time I've ever discussed it, thanks for letting me share. I feel better now.

It does help to share your mistakes. Makes you feel like a better person.

And if my opponent is reading this, I'm sorry about that. Was having a bad day. :-)

someone here said that  the pairings suck tennis balls. I am soory my friend, but the world doesnt work your way. The computer factors rating, starting rank, and makes random pairings. It was completely fair and legal.

warrior689: I concede the point. Besides, not too many players had shown up for that particular OTB tournament by the first round, when I had to play the 1600-rated kid. :)

"get the flock out, you son of a birdfeeder"?

Yeah, something kind of close. Maybe fugg this darn chit. Gosh darnit! And then left mumblin' to myself. They all probably laughed at me after I left. Figures