I was in a chess club as a kid. Loved it, great people.
I went to a competition once.
There was so much noise, so many people. Scheduling to consider and I didn’t like the food so i was very hungry.
This was more then a decade ago. But there was this one match. I think the last one of the day and i had lost all but a draw before. i felt so awefull, physically, mentally i played so awefull but this is a core memory
My opponent made a mistake. Illegal fucking move with the queen.
“Y uh, you cant… do tht. “
“Wut?”
“Y mda, ts u illegal move. “
My Opponent Looks at board, visible terror dawn on their face. “Oh” Looked me in the eye, and slowly moves the queen to a legal spot.
Did i know i was 100% supposed to call the ref and that i had just won the game. Of course i did.
Did my opponent know? (We were kids) I am pretty sure they did.
So i played a few more moves in silence and resigned the game not long after. To my mind i had already lost a while ago. I felt so sick the basic idea of feeling joy for a win was so far off i just couldn’t muster to take it.
I still love chess Anyway thank you for joining this spontaneous group therapy session. Anyone else have chess related trauma to mate?
Oh man I tried a chess club as a kid, got to finals of the internal club (there were only like 6 of us lol) was going pretty piece for piece with the other kid then moved a pawn to set up a fork and the “ref” told me it was too late in the game to move pawns. Ended up in a stalemate (with pawns still on the board). Found out after the “ref” was his uncle. I never went back but I still enjoy chess even though my Elo is only 1200-1400 (depending on time rules).
I think I caused the trauma in my case. I wasn’t in the chess club, but I had AP European History with basically everyone in the chess club and I remember the president of said club getting hella pissed at me when I beat him while playing a game in class, because he said:
“I can’t figure out what your next move is because you fucking suck at chess!”
This might make me sound like a chess elitist, but it can’t have been much of a chess club if they couldn’t beat you because they “can’t figure out what your next move is.”
I think they were so focused on established strategies, that they weren’t thinking like someone who doesn’t know them. It’s like being a high ranked player in CS with a bunch of low rank people. You’re doing stuff typical of high level play, and they aren’t so it throws you off. Like, someone being in a position that is commonly thought to be a bad play can suddenly become good again if your opponent is treating it as being empty all the time and you catch them off-guard.
Reminds me of how I learned about en passant. I thought I was so smart moving 2 forward so they couldn’t take it but the other kid did. I complained but the “adult in the room” explained to me it’s ok. It wasn’t a big deal, I was just a bit embarrassed and I wouldn’t have done this move if I knew but I would have lost anyway and it’s more than 2 decades ago but I still think about it sometimes.
I play shogi by now. Much cooler.
And I thought losing streaks online could be stressful.
I’ve never been to a tournament. What does an arbiter do if you were to call them over? Extra time? Automatic forfeit?
As far as i understood it at the time they where strict classical rules. The hand that touches the clock is the one to move a piece. Touching a piece means you must move that piece. Illegal moves are an automatic forfeit (i always presumed because they are undistinguishable from trying to cheat).
Its possible that tournaments are setup with different rules but i never really had the experience to find out. Considering kids there is also a good chance my opponent would have just lied, queen was already moved to a now legal spot.
