Well, At Least I Got to See My First GM's Play
My tournament was a bust. On day 1, in the first round I got up a queen only to blunder mine back to my opponent (who also had a rook and some pawns). I won the 2nd round in a very good game. In round 3, I played the person with the worst personal hygiene in the tournament and ended up blowing a chance to grab the advantage. So, I withdrew for Day 2 (no sense driving 2 hours for no chance at the prizes).
However, there were 6 GM's there: Shabalov, Gurevich, Finegold, and three others. I happened to catch a couple GM's (not sure which ones they were) going through a game afterwards, and it was interesting to note that the apparent winner of the game was showing the apparent loser of the game a line that the loser hadn't even looked at. I've always held the apparent misconception that at that level, they see everything, but discard variations that they evaluate as less than best. However, this proved to me that they don't always see everything.
I also got the chance to meet in person the first board player on my OCL team. He plays under the name Routermeister. He's a pretty cool guy, but (at least for the 1st day) had about as much luck playing as I did.
However, there were 6 GM's there: Shabalov, Gurevich, Finegold, and three others. I happened to catch a couple GM's (not sure which ones they were) going through a game afterwards, and it was interesting to note that the apparent winner of the game was showing the apparent loser of the game a line that the loser hadn't even looked at. I've always held the apparent misconception that at that level, they see everything, but discard variations that they evaluate as less than best. However, this proved to me that they don't always see everything.
I also got the chance to meet in person the first board player on my OCL team. He plays under the name Routermeister. He's a pretty cool guy, but (at least for the 1st day) had about as much luck playing as I did.
posted by CelticDeath at 8:11 AM
2 Comments:
Sorry to hear about your tough tournament. But seeing GMs sounds exciting! I've never seen one before. Almost had a chance to see Susan Polgar but had a prior engagement.
About missing lines. An IM told me a game he had against a GM once. The IM had a forced mate at one point but the game ended in a draw. While he and the GM were doing the postmortem a stronger GM walked over and asked the IM why he didn't consider X on move Y. The two players almost fell out of their seats.
PS
I have had no luck watching any chess tournament nor playing in any. During the world championships, Susan Polgar had posted a photo on her blog of Anand and herself. Maybe someday I shall get a chance.
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