I feel that I deserve a higher rating

Just take the compliment, please I get your point, but why would I rephrase what you just said about luck in your post? I find that the only contribution I can add is about that one move, which was pretty great. 

My argument is that it doesn't matter why you make the moves you make since chess treats it same either way and the results of the chess game is all that we care about. 19. ... Nd4 was a good move. 19. Nxg5 was a bad move. You made better moves and won. Chess doesn't care what you see, only what you do.

It just occurred to me that there is an interesting parallel between blueemu's example of luck and the Gettier problem in philosophy. The Gettier problem (purportedly) refutes the traditional notion in epistemology that knowledge is justified true belief. He famously gave a counterexample in which somebody has a true belief that is actually justified but that most of us intuitively think is not knowledge.

In blueemu's example, we have an example of a justified strong move (allowing Nxg5), but we feel intuitively that because blueemu wasn't aware of the justification (or in other cases because one might have initially thought it was justified for reasons that turn out not to be the actual justification), it shouldn't count as whatever it is that a justified strong move is (an instance of "good chess", perhaps?).

A splendid argument of no kind whatsoever!

Couldn't you say the same about almost any example of "Luck"?

The hand that I get dealt in Poker is not random in the sense of lacking a cause... it has a very definite cause: the cards were shuffled into that specific order. I had no fore-knowledge of that order... but then, I had no fore-knowledge of 19. ... Nd4, either.

Chess has no randomizing factors.  No shuffling or rolling of the dice etc...  even a complete noob can win a game of cards if given the right hand.  Even against a world champion.  You can't say that about chess.  Chess has NO randomizing factors.  What matters is your ability/skill at examining the position and making the best moves.  Your opponent may make a misjudgement and make a bad move, but this is their lack of skill, not 'luck'.  Twist terms as much as you like, there is NO LUCK inherent in chess.

lol Perfect_Idiot: When I saw the title of this thread, I had a feeling it was by you. Now, how did I guess that?

Refer my post #149

Luck?

Definitely, there is luck in chess.

The hand you get dealt is random in the sense that it is unforseeable. It doesn't matter if the deck order is truly random or if someone put the deck in some specific order. To the players it is random.

I can beat the best poker player in a single hand given enough tries, since the randomness in the game rules may decide the result in my favor even if he plays all the statistically best moves, since there is a potential difference between those moves and the actual best moves. As a result, poker tends to place less importance on a single round whereas chess does not have this difference.

You are right about the argument applying in many cases. If you play the actual best move all the time in poker, you are the most skilled at winning poker games even though you don't always make the statistically best moves. How can you not be the best at poker when you win the most games?

man- lots of stern tone (and rudeness) coming from (most) everyone.... the mob has ruled I spose.

No-one is perfect...

Because you didn't see the best move or your opponent does not mean that there was any luck involved.  Once again, there are NO RANDOMIZING factors inherent in the game of chess... therefore there is NO LUCK.  All you did was fail to see the best move.

One formidable randomizing factor is the lexicographer. 

Then to what do you attribute my saving-move Nd4?

To skill? But I didn't even SEE it! I certainly hadn't PLANNED it. It was just sitting there... so I snatched at it.

tomayto tomahto...the usual chess.commie forum babbling...

I play the Tomayto variation of the anti-Tomahto Attack.

Careful Andy, you don't want McCarthy to return from the grave and blacklist you.

Is that in the Con Sicilian?