What is the most SURPRISING incident happen with you while playing OTB tourney?

There was a guy who accused me of disturbing him by offering a draw repeatedly,in reality i had offered him a draw only once.he then went on to call the arbiter and made an issue out of it.But as i was younger and knew the arbiter very well,He just ignored the imbecile and told him to cal down.

man that is a really heavy story

Back in 1973 I played in a tournament in Utica, NY (my second tourney).  There was an IM there (let's call him XX), and since he was the first titled played I had ever met, I had him autograph a game of his that was published in Chess Life & Review.  Now, XX showed up to the event with two friends, one a @2180 (YY) playing in the open, the other a 1700 (ZZ) playing in the reserve section, but XX didn't play in the event.  During the event, XX watched his friends games, and they (YY and ZZ) would converse with him, even if their clocks were running.  It wasn't until the third round, when ZZ played a friend of mine and quickly turned a bad position (for ZZ) into a crush (my friend had white in a Petroff, and we both done a lot of work in the P, and knew it well) after a long look by XX and a talk with ZZ, while ZZ's clock was running.  I was thinking that this was a case of sour grapes on my friends part, but he wanted to report him to the TD, so we went to find him.  Finding the TD was a story in itself--in the middle of a round, he was in his hotel room with another man, and the stench of sweat that came out of the room was so thick it was physical.  My friend said, "When you're done in there, you want to put on some pants and come do your job?  There's a problem."  The TD showed up after a few minutes, and when we told him what was happening, he (naturally) was reluctant to confront a titled player who wasn't even in the event.  The talk went from my friends game to the game on board one, between YY and Dr. Erich Marchand, who ruled chess in upstate New York for years.  Marchand had been easily handling YY during the opening and early middle game, but now the Dr. had a poor position.  It was YY's turn to move, and he, XX, and ZZ were nowhere to be found.  Marchand looked around from the board and on not seeing them, got up to find them.  We were in the lobby with the TD, and he had just finished saying, "What could have gotten into Marchand?  He was killing him," when the door to the men's room flew open with a loud bang. Marchand stormed out, his face deep red, the veins bulging in his head, and stomped his way into the tournament hall.  Out of the men's room, guilt written all over their faces, came XX, YY, and ZZ.  When we asked Marchand the next day about pressing the matter, he said that it was pointless to pursue it, as it was his word versus the other three.  We said we'd go to bat with him, but again he correctly pointed out that we had no proof.  YY won the open, and ZZ won the booster.  XX wound up getting involved in banking and politics.  I threw his autograph out the window of the car on the way home, and to this day have no respect for him or the other players.

Yeah, that's the problem confronting some one like that.  You see, in the last round, the TD was absent as usual, and my opponent and I moved our board way over to the side, in order to smoke at the board when this was one of the first non-smoking events in USCF history.  XX and ZZ came over to our area, and I overheard XX telling the whining ZZ, "Don't worry, don't worry; look at Rook to King three."  I asked at my opponent, "Did you hear that?", and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "What are you gonna do?"  To complain again would only be beating a dead horse--my opponent was right.

I guess the world of chess isn't pure and having a title isn't equivalent to sainthood.  That's a good, but sad, story.  Thanks so much for sharing it. Respect does belong to the man, not the title.

Once I was playing in a G/15 side event at a US Open against a 2350 player and wound up, after much confusion, in a K+R+B vs K+R endgame where I had the extra bishop.  However, in time pressure, I made an illegal move and, thinking that equaled an instant loss in "action chess", resigned.  Of course, I discovered very quickly thereafter that A) illegal moves aren't losses in 15 minute games (the penalty is two extra minutes on my opponent's clock) and B) the game was actually rated as a normal OTB game.  Thus I can perhaps legitimately claim to be the only person to actually lose an "official" KBR vs KR endgame with the extra Bishop.

Are you positive YY wasn't the other man in the hotel room?

Would explain a lot......

YY yes I am--they were nothing alike.  

On a personal level, I once lost a game in a club tournament by playing the move checkmate.  It was a rapid transit tournament, and I simply didn't wait for the buzzer and moved immediately, an automatic loss--no matter what the move!

Those can get confusing. I played in one once. Too easy for players to cheat in those.

I was at a tournament, my friend from my club showed up. He said he was worried about his car, Because he parked it on the street. where there was 2 hour maximum parking. He was afraid they might tow it.

So I said there's a parking lot not too far away, I could show him where it is. So he said okay, and we walked out of the hotel and started walking.

And talking.

And walking. And talking.

And walking. And talking.

After several blocks, about 15 minutes later, he gets mad and says "How far is this parking lot??"

I said "What are you talking about?? I thought we were walking to your car! I'm following you!!"

And he said "I'm following you!"

Here we were crossing streets, turning corners, and neither one of us was leading.

I also thought you were walking to the car!

lol

Heh, that's funny.

In my first OTB tourney, I knew close to nothing about the rules of tournament play (I lost my first game on touch- move) so in my 2nd game I see my opponent making mistakes in his notation, like writing re8 instead of rae8. I keep pointing these out, not realizing that I am distracting him an honestly thinking that I was helping. Eventually, he got so annoyed that he literally screamed, which echoed around the whole room. --------------------------------------------- About a year ago, I had the pleasure of playing the 83 year old GM Arthur Bisguier. He was still quite a strong player (around 2200). However, captures were unusual. He would remove my piece from the board entirely, set it down, and then move his piece to the square my piece was just on. One time he intended to take my bishop with his knight, and removed my bishop from the board... And then paused for a second before setting his knight down on the wrong square!

I bet it feels presumptuous to tell a GM and former US Champion how to play chess.

Very true. Polgar didn't call Kasparov a cheat, when he did it. Did she?

varelse1 wrote:

I bet it feels presumptuous to tell a GM and former US Champion how to play chess.

:-)

I played a tournament in manhattan, my opponent moved a piece, let go of it, paused for about 5 seconds, realized it was a blunder that dropped a piece, and then said "jadoube" and moved it back.  

  I argued with him about it but he didn't want to admit that he cheated.  I also didn't have any proof so I just let it slide.  Eventually I got outplayed, and would have lost the game, but then he offered me a draw.  

  He then said "Are we even?"  And I thought to myself:  sure, jerk...

:)

I saw something similar to that in another match, where this guy moved a piece to a square, paused for about 3 seconds and then said "adjust" and moved it back (without taking his hand off it). I think this is still cheating, but nobody could prove that he did it - he lost the game anyway :)

I had a similar experience.  I was playing someone in a very small tournament run by a high schooler.  My opponent, a nice middle aged man eventually blundered a piece.  With a very friendly tone, he said something along the lines to, "That's not a good way to end a game.  Can I take that back?" As I was 10 years old, I didn't have enough sense to disagree so he took it back and eventually outplayed me.  When it was mate in 1, he offered a draw.