I played a GM OTB that was nice
Is there a game of chess that you can still remember the thrill of years later?
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When I drew the top seed of my age group in the 2024 Finnish Youth Chess Championship. I remember fidgeting in my chair watching my opponents clock slowly run down. I eventually opted out for a draw after a small endgame mishap
Dec 8, 2025
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#5
My one and only draw with an IM in a side G5 event at a tournament.
Dec 8, 2025
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#7
I once had an OTB opponent who was rated about 800 points higher than me. I was playing way above my level, and he was having a bad day. Periodically during the game, he would look at the tournament roster and then back at me with a puzzled look. I guess that he was trying to figure out why he was having so much difficulty beating me.
Apr 22, 2026
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#9
I recall all 37 moves of a game that I played in 2012 that secured for me second place in a tournament.
Practically every game I played in a real chess club.
Time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 1 hour.
Every game was intense. Every game was won by a hair. Every game was won by deception.
The game I lost, I predicted every move until the last one!
I knew what chess was from my experience with Gomoku.
It's like a Aesop fable. A dog walking with a bone over a bridge. He looks down at his reflection and saw another dog with another bone. He wanted that bone too. When he opens his mouth to grab another bone, he lost his real bone.
That is what chess is. Your mirage reflection can steal your real bone.
I've been thinking about this lately…
When you’ve played chess for decades, some games simply never leave your mind.
Not because they were perfect, but because they taught you something important
about patience, courage, or even yourself.
So I’m curious:
👉 Is there one game from your life blitz, classical, tournament or casual that still stays with you today?
What happened in that moment?
Did it change the way you play… or the way you think?
Would love to hear your stories.
Chess becomes more beautiful when experience speaks😊