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

BetweenTheWheels

But yes, it does sound like a Fischer move. Doesn't it?

Back in the days of adjourned games, my opponent filled out the envelope,and i carefully checking and signing it. Well home to analyse- a dead draw.
Next morning the arbiter aligned the board, and i didnt rec. the psition.
Well, my h pawn wasnt there which led to a win for me through the now open h-file. I wonder if my opponent wilfully tried to cheat on me whiling filing the envelope, the matter newer surfaced. If  it was the case it would have been a delightful twist of fate. 

I once instructed my opponent on his moves and directed him into my checkmate. Needless to say, he was upset. 

Okay, three people in this situation. Myself, my opponent, and an onlooker.

Is the final round of the quad. should my opponent win, he gets $100. Should we draw, he and the onlooker get $50 each. should I win, I and the onlooker get $50 each.

I am pretty much crushing him on the board. Everybody knew it was over, except my opponent. We are using his clock.

Tehn, during my turn, the onlooker points out that my clock is not running. My opponent adjusted the battery and it was working alright again.

A few moves later, I mated him.

My opponent was furius! he accused the onlooker of intentionally pointing that out, just to distract him! To keep himself in the money. (Even though it was my clock not running, not my opponents.)

I tried to shake his hand and say good game. He refused to shake hands with me.

So this onloker asked the TD if he was really in the wrong. The TD had to take my opponents side. And say technically, he is not supposed to say anything to either of us while the game is in progress. Instead, he should have informed the TD of the malfunction. Of course he was bewildered, seemed such a harmless gesture.

Then I see two of them later playing speedchess. My opponent still griping at him about it.

I assume they went way back, idk. They were locals, I wasn't.

But if he really wanted to cheat in my favor, he would have stayed quiet and let my clock not run, right?

(And I am still stewing about that guy not shaking my hand. But, whatever.)

Generally, I find that the most suprising incidents when I play over the board are those few occasions when I actually win.

exactly! same here

<9theagle> I'm probably close to USCF 2200 level - and I can tell you, that if I met a USCF 1400 in a tourney, who was otherwise performing like a 1400 (not some underrated whiz kid), and accidentally went down a piece rather early in the game - I would never accept a draw offer from  him, but would most probably win the game - probably win nine times out of ten from such a position. 

Not because he would make accidental blunders - although he will make quite many of them - but just because he doesn't know what to do with his pieces, in comparison to my know-how. 

I wouldn't expect to win up a piece when playing a GM in tournament time controls, and wouldn't offer him a draw either. I would play it out though - if nothing else, then for the learning experience. 

So you're agreeing with me? I would still expect to win against someone playing at a level several hundred points lower than me even if I blundered a piece. I believe the argument was that if the higher rated person offered the draw, it would not be unreasonable for the lower rated person to accept. I probably wouldn't take the draw from either end unless I was in time trouble, but I think the lower player (up a piece) would be happier with a draw than the higher player.

<9thEagle>

Sure. A piece disadvantage (in a complex position with many pieces on the board) is totally unimportant when playing someone 500 points lower than you. 

I suppose it begins to have some importance when the lower-rated player is at least 1900 USCF, and it probably equalizes the chances, or close to that, when the weaker player is rated about 2200 USCF. 

A piece advantage with no compensation? I'd expect to beat Carlsen the majority of the time, let alone an average GM. Would not like my chances down a piece to an 1800 player, but would against a 1500 (800 point difference) if I had some kind of reasonable play. Assuming an OTB game and not blitz, of course.

well, clearly our opinions and experiences differ...

I remember a game by Capablanca, where he lost a piece early on against another top 20 player. He did win in the end - but he made life very hard for that master, and it was very easy to imagine a different result. Their difference in playing strength was far from 500 elo points. 

And I've seen too many examples of people managing to escape a piece-down game with adversaries only 150-200 points below them. 

I think that you have chosen a particularly elusive opponent to demonstrate your piece-up winning abilities, in Carlsen. Maybe if you said Ivanchuk... or Van Vely... but I do like your attitude as expressed here, and from watching your profile, I have every reason to believe that you'll climb the elo ladder much further. 

Should you have that situation against someone with 1800 USCF, I suppose that you would feel uncomfortable... you would have imagined a million horrible scenarios, that would be for the most part totally invisible to your opponent, who would know that 'the win is there somewhere'...

Then you would naturally fend off his naive attempts to convert, slowly break down his conviction in winning, a couple of wrong moves would slip into his play, he will give you some active play, perhaps a pawn or two, an open line or two, an outpost... suddenly you have compensation for the piece! And the best is yet to come :-)

If his move was a novelty, how could it have been refuted in practice? lol Also, as someone else pointed out, the accusation was made by Korchnoi against Karpov.

In the most recent Supernationals, for most of the tournament, the top players were on the same boards, sitting next to each other every round. Well, the kid that won the K-6 blitz tournament which took place before the actual tournament was next to me for the entire time. Before one of the rounds (the 2nd, I believe) they gave out the trophies for all the blitz tournaments, and when they awarded 1st place for the K-6 blitz and he went up to collect this absolutely monstrous trophy, his opponent's eyes bulged so wide and looked to be extremely intimidated. Also, instead of taking the trophy out of the room, he left it right behind him for the entire game, letting the opponent stare at it! LOL

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Later in that same tournament, the same person was in heated time pressure, as was his opponent. The opponent doesn't realize that his king is in check, and moves another piece instead. An arbiter is called over and he gets 2 minutes added to his time. The opponent takes back his move and the game continues. Instead of finding a legal move, the opponent MAKES HIS SECOND ILLEGAL MOVE IN A ROW by moving his king, but it was still in check! They both share a good laugh and he doesn't even bother to add 2 more minutes to his clock, and instead the game fizzles out to a draw in a few more moves.

In a Fide Rated tournament , it was a similar kind of situation , where I was with white pieces and my opponent was in hopeless situation , I thought he would resign after losing his queen but he kept on playing after rook loss etc , after every capture I expected him to resign but he didn't at last when the situation was like this (board) he moved his bishop to somewhere and stood up opened his palm for handshake , I finally took a relief that he is resigning , but to my horror he wrote draw 1/2 - 1/2 points in the sheet , I questioned then he said that he had offered draw and I have accepted it now its final after handshake :P , the win was important for me so I called the arbitar who asked me if I had accepted the draw , I questioned him , If he could have accepted draw in the position by pointing towards board . Arbitar had a close look at the board and after giving a big grin he asked my opponent to play on . My opponent played until I mated him.

That is hilarious Sandeep, the nerve of some people.

I've heard handshake stories before. It's definitely something to be careful about.

I was once doing well in an over-the-board tournament and then paired with well known Chicago master, Dr Eugene Martinovsky. We had each won our first 3 games.

I was playing Black and on about the 11th move had a slight advantage and Dr. Martinovsky offered a draw.

I knew that if someone offers a draw early in the game, he thought he had the worse of it.

So, I turned down his offer of a draw. [he was rated about 2350]

 About 1/2 hour later, I resigned. 

once i was playing an person in an otb tournament that otb player was mated by me up to 10 times every time he took it back and said i willl kill you if you call the arbiter. he was twice as big as me that time and i also was a sissy that time. at last i lost my temper and called the arbiter. WHILE i was calling the arbiter he changed the position of the peices.the game was agreed to a draw.

surprise!

I once played in a game where I forgot whose turn it was (I'm not very good at chess XD) and ended up sitting there for 10 minutes, waiting for something to happen before it hit me. Then I asked the opponent, and he was pretty empathetic about it, I moved and the game resumed XD