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!
Your opponent (forgot his name) was stupid to leave his cellphone on while he knows the rules.
ReplyDeleteI to was on the recieving end of such cellphone going off. It was my shortest win against an FM.
Before the start of the first round of the tournament the director and the arbiter had told everybody to set their cellphone off. Five minutes into the round my opponent's cellphone went of. I wanted to play further but the arbiter didn't allow it for a good reason namely if he allows it once he has to do so everytime and then the cellphone rule will be useless.
So i won against an FM, jipidoda! :-)
The mind says one thing, the heart says another.
ReplyDeleteYour mind knows it was the opponent at fault.
Your mind knows that you did not go to the TD to claim the game.
Your mind knows you had 0% responsibility for the result.
Yet...still the guilt. I know how that feels. It can help to actively declare where the blame actually lies (in your mind, or say out loud in private).
I find it helps align emotions with reality. (As long as the declared reality is true, not a cover-up.)
Bummer, but what are you going to do, it wasn't your fault. Try to take solace in the fact that it wasn't the other way around.
ReplyDeletechesstiger, LEP and Wang:
ReplyDeletethank you for all your comments.
i just felt it was a big shame that games are incessantly thrown away and declared lost because of this rule.
Even GM Nigel Short is one such victim (he forgot to turn his mobile off).