Sometimes desperation is your only hope.

As you know, no one gets lucky or unlucky in chess. You win or lose on the merit of your game.

I won a tournament in high school but it was wild.

A new kid had come to school and immediately dominated our chess world. Before then I had been numero uno.

I played him a dozen times and I couldn't beat him. Just could not. And every time I lost my confidence sank lower.

The chess club held a double elimination tournament. I made it to the final, and of course my nemesis was there.
But somehow he had managed to lose a game on the way so he had to win two and I only had to win once.

I tried an offbeat opening in game 1 to try to mix things up. He crushed me. He used none of the responses I had prepared for.

So now on to game two and as we get into the midgame he takes a 2 pt lead. This looks like a disaster in the making. Not only to lose but to lose two in a row.

I was racking my brain. What to do, what to do? I'm not an out-of-the-box thinker. My chess victories were normally very methodical, very technically sound.
Once you're down to me, I beat you. Once I'm down to you, you beat me. Not a lot of surprises.

But that wasn't going to get me anywhere now, so I started scanning the board for something out of the ordinary. Something unexpected.

Out of the blue, it came to me. Sacrificing yet another pawn, and going down 3 pts, allowed me to bring a knight from across the board to a commanding and unassailable position on his castled king side. And then the knight from that same side joined it. Nothing could get to the knights, and his king couldn't escape the area. I now had a power corridor to start bringing pawns and rooks.

The only way he could even relieve the pressure was to sacrifice his queen and at that point he resigned.

Best game I ever played, but it only sprang from desperation. What can I say, some guys peak early.

Enjoy your game, hope you win.

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Ramily!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2021 10:10AM by Saguaro.