Killer's Row

Since moving to Portugal in Nov of 1997 I have played a lot of chess and the competition has been far stronger than back in my native Georgia/USA. Every Dec first there is a rapid event ( G/20  9 round swiss ) in Benfica , which is a neighborhood inside Lisbon. Most Europeans who follow football ( soccer for Americans ) will probably be familiar with the Benfica football team. December first is a holiday in Portugal and Benfica has this annual rapid event and I have played all but one of them since arriving here. Some years ago I began the event by winning my first 3 rounds, ( no "swiss gambit" for me ! ) and my reward was that in the next 6 rounds I played only fide titled players ! In rounds 4-7 I played 4 IMs ! I actually beat 2 of them and drew the other 2 !! In round 8 I played GM A Strikovic and lost badly ( hanging my queen ! )  and in the last round I played an FM and was crushed by him !  Still.....in 6 rounds I played : IM,IM,IM,IM,GM,FM  and scored 50% with them. I have never before nor since faced such a " killers row" and am just curious about other otb players here and wonder if perhaps you have faced a worse, or similar line up ?

I wonder if tonydal did any better ?

Never face a line up like that! So your fortunate to been in such company! But as we grow stronger at this game we call chess I hope to one day see such events I can play in. But more likely would have to travel a great distance from Hawaii to enter such an event. Although G/20 is a bit to fast for my own taste! But have felt the trill of victory much less against stronger opponent then weaker ones, but with more study and entering stronger tournaments all that could change things as well as obtaining a higher rating!

So enjoy the events you can enter in you new found in your new venue! Wish you much more success!

Mahalo,

Paco

Chess is not very popular in my area.  I've played one game with a 2400 senior master back in the mid-90s.  Other than that, I've never had the honor of playing anyone higher than an expert.  Sad, yes...

In my country it is very rarely you get a chance to play with players of such high standing. Chess is not a craze here by any stretch of the imagination.

Nope, no way.  There were at least 7 titled players there then?  I went out to the Kansas open one time, about 5 years ago... probably the only tourney were there were that many titled players available.  Local tourneys sometimes have no titled players, and never more than 5 (and that's probably when 1-2 visit from out of state lol).

My toughest was probably facing a few class As and two experts (I knew the TD and I wonder if he was giving me a rough schedule knowing I was underrated , not that I didn't appreciate it).  Of course it's all relative, to you that's an easy tournament, to a weak GM facing a handfull of titled players is probably an every-tourney deal.

I dont recall how many titled players were in that particular Benfica tournament but am sure it was at least 10.  The strongest event I ever played in was in Benasque Spain in 2004 , there were more than 30 GMs playing and just as many IMs !!   Strange thing was that there were very few FMs ......

Yeah, they already heard how many of the big boys were going.

I'm curious, can you hold multiple titles?  Some obviously supersede others, but why not NM and FM simultaneously as the governing bodies differ?

 You can. I have 2 in fact , NM ( uscf ) and NM ( Portugal ) 

I had a great tournament in Bermuda 1991--first round beat a nobody, second round a FM, third round lost too a GM ( Soltis), 4th round beat a SM (over 2400) and last round lost to I think and FM or at least SM ( Hertan)--my best event ever.

 Charles Hertan ?  Is he still playing ?

Wow, 30+ GMs and 30+ IMs how big was the entire field?  I'd imagine that's an awesome tournament to play in as a NM, in the United States you'd only see something like that in a closed tournament I'd imagine... maybe there are more than I know of, of course I never look for those kind of events :)

 In 2004 they set an attendance record I believe with a few more than 400 total !  Players that go there regularly told me there is usually around 300 there. The event with the most GMs playing is in France every Jan/Feb and called Capelle Le Grande .... they have from 80 to 100 GMs and have had more than 100 GMs playing before !

100 GMs in one tourney!  That has to be some kind of record by itself.

Reb

Did you pick up any norms for beating 2 IMs and drawing 2 more?

Gee, I thought getting placed in the 'upper half' of a 17 player under 1800 section was tough, lol.

Reb, I'm also curious about the awarding of norms, does a player like you (gray haired veteran NM/FM level) even bother with the hastle of FIDE anymore?

 No norms as it was a rapid G/20  event.