What is the strangest thing that happened during a game

Mustafa Chess

Just wonder how odd things happen in a chess game but what is the strangest thing to experience during a game.

L1m1tless

I'm not sure if it's that strange but once a guy made his move which leave his queen free to take,

then he tried to take it back and said "oh I meant to move it to another square"

Another time I saw a grown man crying after he lost a game.

hotamatua

Recently in a league game my opponent was pressing hard for a win but I as happy that his attack would dwindle as I had a great position but just had to defend accurately,then all of a sudden he checked me and announced "Checkmate".He offered the hand and I shook it.A guy watching the game pointed out that my King had a flight square and of course it did and we carried on and I went on to win the game.Just a little bit embarrassed..

eclipsechaser

hotamatua wrote: »

Recently in a league game my opponent was pressing hard for a win but I as happy that his attack would dwindle as I had a great position but just had to defend accurately,then all of a sudden he checked me and announced "Checkmate".He offered the hand and I shook it.A guy watching the game pointed out that my King had a flight square and of course it did and we carried on and I went on to win the game.Just a little bit embarrassed..

I think if you shook on it, the result is meant to stand regardless.

I was once playing a very elderly player in a league match. His knight on f3 was stopping me mating him on h2. However he picked up his knight and moved it. As I was double-checking that it was definitely checkmate, he moved back his knight saying "no, no, that won't do..." and played a different move. To be honest, I was too embarrassed to enforce touch move. He'd been around so long that he was a legend of the game (if not that strong a player).

2 moves later and he forgets what just happened and moves his knight off f3 again. I didn't hesitate in plonking my queen onto h2 this time around...

mikhail

hotamatua wrote: »

Recently in a league game my opponent was pressing hard for a win but I as happy that his attack would dwindle as I had a great position but just had to defend accurately,then all of a sudden he checked me and announced "Checkmate".He offered the hand and I shook it.A guy watching the game pointed out that my King had a flight square and of course it did and we carried on and I went on to win the game.Just a little bit embarrassed..

eclipsechaser wrote: »

I think if you shook on it, the result is meant to stand regardless.

That exact thing happened to me in one of my first youth tournaments. The girl in question (I don't remember her name) was not so sporting as hotamatua's opponent.

A few years ago, I was playing a French kid in a tournament. I was on the verge of winning when he stuck out his hand and said something in French (he had no English, my French ends at 'baguette'). I assumed he was resigning, but had a twinge of uncertainty that stopped me from shaking his hand. He was, in fact, offering a draw. I delivered mate a handful of moves later.

Zugszwang

eclipsechaser wrote: »

I think if you shook on it, the result is meant to stand regardless.

No, not unless the FIDE rules changed since I last looked. You can agree to a draw, but you can't agree to a checkmate.

eclipsechaser

Zugszwang wrote: »

No, not unless the FIDE rules changed since I last looked. You can agree to a draw, but you can't agree to a checkmate.

So what's the ruling in that situation?


Article 5: The completion of the game
5.1 b The game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns. This immediately ends the game.


Could shaking hands after an apparent checkmate be considered an act of resignation? Maybe that's a push. But if not, what then happens if it's realised that it's not checkmate? What if it's not realised until later analysis hours or even days after the game? When does the game end? I would consider the hand-shake an acceptance of the result.

hotamatua

When it comes to ruling on the outcome of the match,should a false declaration of check mate supercede the shaking of hands?Surely that was the first error and should be dealt with first?

reunion

eclipsechaser wrote: »

Article 5: The completion of the game
5.1 b The game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns. This immediately ends the game.

The person saying checkmate has made an illegal claim (a checkmate), you can pause the clock and claim

FIDE laws of chess wrote:

11.5 - It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. This includes unreasonable claims, unreasonable offers of a draw or the introduction of a source of noise into the playing area.

however, If you shake the opponents hand, you are agreeing to the opponents claim of checkmate. Therefore you have deemed to have resigned and the game immediately ends.

FIDE laws of chess wrote:

5.2 The game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns. This immediately ends the game.

However, as we aren't playing in world championships, games are a bit more casual and the scenario above isn't too unreasonable and most players won't claim a win or an advantage for an obvious mistake.

reunion

hotamatua wrote: »

When it comes to ruling on the outcome of the match,should a false declaration of check mate supercede the shaking of hands?Surely that was the first error and should be dealt with first?

This is an interesting read.

If you make an illegal move, and this leads to checkmate, it counts as a loss for the person who was checkmated unless it's spotted by an arbiter or a player (unless of course the move to make checkmate was illegal).

When the game is completed, any right to claim a remake/win/draw/etc is forfeited.

Zugszwang

reunion wrote: »

When the game is completed, any right to claim a remake/win/draw/etc is forfeited.

Yes but take care in what "completed" means. If my opponent resigns on move 87, and then finds that they had actually checkmated me on move 20, their checkmate stands as the game ended at that point and what happened after that was not part of the game. I was involved in a dispute like this many years ago and even the FIDE arbiter present applied the rules incorrectly.

reunion

Zugszwang wrote: »

Yes but take care in what "completed" means. If my opponent resigns on move 87, and then finds that they had actually checkmated me on move 20, their checkmate stands as the game ended at that point and what happened after that was not part of the game. I was involved in a dispute like this many years ago and even the FIDE arbiter present applied the rules incorrectly.

You are right but when you achieved checkmate (even if you didn't notice it) the game is over immediately so anything after doesn't form part of that game.

FIDE laws of chess wrote:

The game is won by the player who has checkmated his opponent’s king. This immediately ends the game

eclipsechaser

reunion wrote: »

The game is won by the player who has checkmated his opponent’s king. This immediately ends the game

So it is the case that the result should stand despite an incorrect declaration of checkmate followed by a handshake, right?


The above is interesting too. Since this is a thread on bizzare chess scenarios, I learned recently that one of my students, playing abroad in a school tournament several years ago, was checkmated by his opponent. Neither player realised and the game continued until my student managed to checkmate his opponent. Never give up, they say...

Valmont

Neo_Ninja wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's that strange but once a guy made his move which leave his queen free to take,

then he tried to take it back and said "oh I meant to move it to another square"

Another time I saw a grown man crying after he lost a game.

The only rules I would be very stern about in my low-level league chess would be the touch-move and release rule. If you're not strict with these a lot of unresolvable disputes can arise.

Lucena

I was going to say that the strangest thing that ever happened during a game was arriving at my board for the last round to find a pin cushion on my side of the board. I started to examine said pin cushion only for it to turn out to be a kilo of rice. I looked around to find everyone else had a kilo of rice on their board as well, courtesy of the local rice production company that was one of the tournament sponsors. But that's not really unusual compared to something else that happen to me a couple of years ago.

The president of the English Chess Federation wanted me to play against Nigel Short, but I refused because I was unhappy with the conditions that were offered.

Valmont

Lucena wrote: »

The president of the English Chess Federation wanted me to play against Nigel Short, but I refused because I was unhappy with the conditions that were offered.

I can't tell if you're joking?

Lucena

No, it’s a totally true story, which just happens to leave out certain important details.

I was playing in an e2e4 event (ah, those were the days!) in Gatwick a couple of years back. It was a 9-round over 5 days jobbie, with 2 rounds a day, one at 10am and the other at 3pm. During the event it was made known that Nigel Short would be giving a simultaneous display one afternoon, at 4:30pm (or 5pm, I don’t remember exactly). At the time I remember thinking that was odd, as any chess players who would be interested in the simul would probably be still playing their own games at that time.

Anyway that afternoon I was playing my game and headed out towards the foyer to take a toilet break. The President of the ECF, CJ de Mooi, was coming up to players going “Do you want to play in a simul against Nigel Short, only ten pounds.” The original price had been 30 pounds, so obviously the fact that most chess players would already be playing chess had slipped the minds of England’s chess élite. I responded with a polite “Sorry, I’m already playing” and headed to the jacks.

How's that for a non-story!