Last night, I arrived early at the club and helped to setup the pieces. David Beveridge (? - apologies as I didn't ask for your last name), the U1800 team captain - from Parramatta arrived early as well and he was very helpful in helping me to set up the boards.
Shane Burgess arrived later and helped us to set the clocks for the Grade Matches.
Many thanks to David and Shane for their help.
I was scheduled to play on Board 4. I thought I would be playing Joshua Christensen but it so turns out that his team captain moved him to play on Board 2 instead. I was subsequently rescheduled to play another player, Frank Barisic. After we had filled out the preliminary entries on our scoresheets, I reminded Frank to turn off his mobile phone if he had one and he mentioned that he left it in the car (which I thought was a good idea).
I knew the rules for the grade matches were very strict, the moment a player's mobile phone goes off during a game, the game will be immediately declared lost for the player.
A minute or so later, David moved Frank onto Board 3 instead and - who else would replace him but Sitompul Sotarduga! Imagine my surprise to see him. Sitompul used to be a regular club member for the Ryde Eastwood chess club but having since moved away, he joined the Parramatta chess club instead.
We exchanged pleasantries, shook hands and started the game.
I misplayed my opening and got into an exceptionally bad position and was spending considerable time desperately trying to salvage my position. Then suddenly......
Sitompul's mobile went off.... very loudly.
I let out a small groan and shook my head because I knew the repercussions of what had happened.
Bill Gletsos promptly appeared and approached our table and enquired whose phone had gone off. Once he learned it was Sitompul's, the game was declared lost for him.
Poor Sitompul. All this time Sitompul and I hadn't said a single word.
We analysed the game later and we both agreed that that he would have won if his phone hadn't gone off and he said I was lucky. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.
After the game, I felt horrible and very guilty in winning in this manner. I still do.
Parramata won on Board 1 while there was some sort of discrepancy on Board 2 which was ruled in our favour. Overall, we were victorious with a margin of 3-1.
My brother-in-law Steven showed up (very much to my surprise) and we played a couple of 5 minute blitz games afterwards. I was consistently getting thrashed and only managed to win like 2 or 3 games out of the 10 odd games we played.
To chesstiger: I will try to put up a position from one of my games. Thank you for your comments!
