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Gullible-Function649

Didn’t happen to me but the captain of my team was playing Korchnoi. All the other games had finished and our captain was still playing (nearly at move 150). It’s a protracted endgame where our captain is worse but thinks the ‘old man’ will lose his way in the endless struggle. It becomes clear Korchnoi won’t make a solitary mistake so our illustrious captain resigns. Korchnoi leaned over and said “first good move you make”.


panic_puppet11

Has to be said, holding for 150 moves against Korchnoi is no mean feat


[deleted]

Absolutely, but I have another Korchnoi story... it was a team competition, and Korchnoi had been winning his game, but at some point it turned to a draw. Korchnoi was annoyed and purposefully drug the game out, making additional small mistakes on purpose (but never so bad that it wasn't a draw), even sacrificing pawns, just to torment his opponent before finally drawing. The captain of the team was outraged with Korchnoi because they needed every point they could get, but here Korchnoi was risking a loss. So when I hear the game lasted 150 moves, followed by Korchnoi's comment, I can't help but think it was on purpose.


Gullible-Function649

Hahaha yeah that makes sense. At least he didn’t kick our captain’s shins under the table which he used to do when he really disliked you.


Trotskyrealcommunist

Can confirm, my coach (an ukrainian wgm) told me the same thing haha


Gullible-Function649

Agreed!


foundmemory

Savage lol


VeitPogner

That is vintage Korchnoi!


hyperthymetic

Had a friend play in two sections at once, eventually culminating in him sprinting to different floors


hyperthymetic

Honorable mention to watching Wojtkeiewicz get shitfaced while smoking cigarettes and playing pool mid round for an hour as he finished off his opponent at land of the sky in the 90s


Callsign_Psycopath

Poles man. They're built different


Claudio-Maker

How is this allowed?


hyperthymetic

Lmao, they literally changed the rule after he did it, part of why it’s really funny to me Not to out him, but his nickname was Mad Quick, was 100% the fastest otb bullet player I’d ever seen, was also really good at cards and magic. He would literally pop captured pieces up in the air, hit his clock and then catch them Absolute legend


hyperthymetic

We used to hustle/gamble a bit in Washington square and thompson st. He would routinely flag (or get mated by) gms/ims Anyways, he was only a touch over 2k. While he played we would often kibitz “quickest draw in the west” And once he was losing “Too bad he can’t shoot”


unityofsaints

Shades of Phil Ivey


Asdfguy87

Also a fart story: We were playing a team match and one player of the opponent team walked out midgame and let one rip just outside of the door, but it was so loud, you cou,d CLEARLY hear it inside. Other story: I was playing OTB against a player with Russian roots. Relatively early in the game he touched his knight, but all move with the knight would be a blunder. He immediately noticed it and just murmured: "Blyat!". He thought a minute longer or so and resigned. One year later, the same guy fell asleep during a game, snoring loudly and all players around him had to hold it together not to burst into laughter. Lastly, there was a game at a tournament a few boards over, which apparently had some controversy and the players were arguing. When the TO came over to clear the situation, he asked fornthe players' notation sheets. The guy who apparently started the controversy just shoved his entire sheet into his mouth and started chewing, eating his frickin' notation sheet. Thonking about it, there have been quite a few funny OTB moments in my past 15+ years. Chessplayers really are special sometimes :D


gestrn

the eating of the notation is legendary, haha. I would like to read more stories like this...


Affectionate_Bee6434

I feel bad for laughing at this story but, while playing just after covid I was paired up with a middle aged guy, he used to go the bathroom like after every 3 moves, he was not cheating but the arbiter made a rule that you can only go to the washroom thrice and that too you had to report it to the arbiter and I'm pretty sure it was due to him.


Asdfguy87

TBH, depending on how long each player thinks and how much you drink, having to pee every 3 moves is not too unreasonable.


Affectionate_Bee6434

If somebody is peeing 10 times in 3 hours they probably have some health issue


MascarponeBR

depends how much water you drink man ....


Callsign_Psycopath

Can confirm. I chug watter during games. Probably a quart per game, I usually use the bathroom about 4 or 5 times a game depending on how long it lasts


hyperthymetic

I literally drink a gallon of water and 3 cups of coffee every game


hyperthymetic

Am middle aged


Suitable-Cycle4335

Don't organizers give players scoresheets? I haven't seen one tournament where anyone wrote games on anything other than the scoresheets provided by the tournament itself. Anyway I got randomly stopped by some angry guy in the hall who told me I should teach my girlfriend how to resign. And I was like "I'm single though..."


foundmemory

It was one of those books that has the scoresheets in it, I guess for her own keeping? What'd he say after you said that lol


Suitable-Cycle4335

We looked at each other with a confused facial expression.


forever_wow

In the USA at least it has been quite common. I had notebooks with spiral wiring at the top that contained 50 game scores and would use them in club events. Of course I never flipped through looking at previous scores during a game. In large tournaments where the TD can't see every game being played, I can see why they would require the usual single scoresheets with the carbon copy.


Claudio-Maker

In the playing hall we hear a kid screaming help, the players (including some GMs) were alarmed and distracted, it turned out the kid trapped himself in the bathroom and couldn’t get out


gestrn

when you play too positinal and block yourself.


lucas2342

This happened when I was maybe 7 years old at one of my first chess tournaments. I was playing another young child, and I noticed that if I “blundered” my queen and baited out one of his defending pieces, I had mate in 1. But I remember thinking that if he noticed the mate in 1 and didn’t take my queen, my position would be completely lost. So after moving my queen to sacrifice it, I quietly said “oh… oops” and acted really frustrated, and this kid happily took my queen. I then check mated him lmao. I remember telling this story to my chess coach afterwards cuz I thought it was hilarious and he was like “never do that again”


No-Calligrapher-5486

I actually have only one. I was a 8 year old kid and playing in the semi final of the city u10 competition. I was better and then near the end my opponent "accidentally" started pushing pieces out of the table(pieces that are already taken and out of the game). So I bend under the table few times just to collect the pieces to put them back to the table. In the meantime my clock was ticking and at the time I lost cos of time trouble(tempo was probably rapid or smt, it was not blitz you had some time but not so much). That guy ended winning the city tournament and I ended being 3rd.


AggressiveSpatula

I’m salty just reading this. What a poor sport.


LuckyRook

We held a tournament at the local community center where we had club every weekend. Unbeknownst to us, the SPCA or some local animal organization was holding a free spay-and-neuter clinic on the indoor basketball court on the same day at the same time. In the tournament room you could hear dogs groaning and barking non-stop for hours.


LeonBBX

Played in a team match vs a guy that was 15 minutes late and arrived with fast food in his hands. We ended up in a French Exchange and ended up playing exactly the same developing moves and structure. Every move that was the same made us look at eachother and try to not laugh out loud because it was sooo stupid. Everyone was dead serious and we were here playing an ultra dry mirrored position. In the end he blundered a tactic and i blundered the same tactical motif back at him a few moves later. Truly a balanced game..


yassenj

It wasn't truly balanced if he didn't offer you a bite of his meal.


fermatprime

The French Fry Defense


Cheef-Baker

National High School Championship 2024 I'm playing a game with my friend diagonal of me and the first few moves are made. 1.e4 e6 2. Nf3 Ke7 His opponent won the game.


LuckyRook

The French Offense


gingerbuttholelickr

Isn't that bongcloud


Cheef-Baker

yes


Callsign_Psycopath

Right. So Round 5 of a Classical Tournament. I was 3/4 to that point and there was another person on 3/4 who was playing the only person who was 4/4. I had a League Bowling session not too long after, and because it was a Position round, I couldn't get a sub. So before the round starts at 5 (Bowling started at 6:30 and was about 45 minutes from the tournament hall.) I offered my opponent a draw. He declined, so I decide to do something insane: play as fast as I could. My opponent matched my speed. We both had more time than we started when we hit Time Control, I won about 10 moves later and booked it out of there. Managed to get to the Bowling Center as Warm-ups ended. Found out later that the tournament ended with myself and two others tied at 4/5 for shared first. And thats the story of how I played a classical Tournament game where my opponent and I finished with more than an hour more than we started with. (Forget the exact Time Control, but there was a 30 second Increment and an hour added at TC.)


Bdidi5

At my first proper OTB tournament (1987) there’s a guy in the tournament who’s wearing mirror sunglasses and industrial earmuffs. He was super-serious and probably somewhere on the ASD spectrum. In one of the rounds he’s one table over from me with his back to me. His opponent is behaving a bit oddly, adjusting his shirt collar, running his fingers through his hair, and so on. Then I realised - he’s looking at his reflection in the guy’s mirror sunglasses and fiddling with his appearance just to annoy the guy. It wasn’t sporting but funny to watch. The culmination was sunglasses guy losing the game and his composure, storming away from the table and out to the organisers. There followed the sound of a muffled argument, then sunglasses and earmuffs being thrown at the wall. We didn’t see sunglasses guy in the last few rounds.


HOBOLOSER

I overheard a guy (probably 25 years old) in the U1200 section talking about how amazing the Grob was during a break period. He was talking so loudly about it as if he wanted people to overhear. You would have assumed he was a foremost expert on the opening. Next round he was paired up against a girl that was probably 6 or 7. He got absolutely rocked in like 20 moves. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. He was so arrogant the way to talked about the Grob.


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Zanciks

You shouldn't tell anybody to fuck themselves after a game unless they're physically hitting you. Just accept they were a poor sport and shake their hand :P


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DrNotReallyStrange

no idea why you get downvoted for this, mate. Probably the weirdo and his ten cousins are in this sub.


Zanciks

Well yeah, it's obviously annoying, but if it actually bothers you, then shake their hand and tell the TD.


hsiale

>I told him to go fuck himself You are lucky that nobody heard this, any reasonable arbiter would have you forfeited at least and possibly kicked out of the tournament.


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Freddy_Bimmel

I don’t think anyone is “fine with it,” but you don’t have to stoop to his level.


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Freddy_Bimmel

You do you, but I think telling someone to fuck themselves is not the mature and classy way to handle someone being rude. Be the bigger person and just walk away.


Critical_Air2861

I was playing a friend of mine in a tournament. It was one of the last rounds, I was tired and played pretty poorly, blundering a pawn in the first 15 moves. My friend is so infuriated with how badly I played that he demands we reset the board and start again. Obviously, I agree. The game was over in about 5 minutes. He just hung a knight, and started rambling about how shameful it is to resign, before resigning a few moves later himself after he blundered another piece. I ended up winning this tournament and my friend placed 3rd.