Article 53792 of rec.games.chess: Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Path: info!dregis From: dregis@exeter.ac.uk (David Regis=) Subject: Re: Strategic cursing... Message-ID: Summary: chess psychology Organization: University of Exeter, UK. References: Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 12:41:00 GMT In article tkidd@hubcap.clemson.edu (Travis Kidd) writes: >On an internet chess server I played a game as white and it went like this: >1) e4 e5 2) Qh5 Opponent: I've seen this trick before! :-) 2) ... Nc6 Me: damn 3) Bc4 Nf6 Opponent: doh 4) Qf7 checkmate. >I believe that my having said "damn" was one of the reasons that I won so >quickly. [...] I wonder if there are any other anecdotes out there There is a famous example: "Here Gunsberg picked up his KKt (f3) with the evident intention of playing it to R4 (h4). He even placed it on that square, and then hastily retracted the move. After a while Gunsberg picked up the Knight again and played 20 Kt-R4 (h4). As he did so he shook his head head and shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'I'm bound to move this piece, and I can't see a better place to put it'. 20...QxBP (xf2). Steinitz played this move without thought. In view of what had happened he was quite convinced that his opponent had overlooked, until too late, that his KBP was unprotected. 21 Kt-K4 (e4). Rude awakening. The only move for the Black Queen is to K6 (e3), but then comes 22 B-QB1 (c1)*, and the Queen is trapped in mid-board. Black resigned... We must make it clear, however, that Gunsberg's tactics are not to be condoned. After the game Steinitz pointed out that Gunsberg had been the victim of similar tactics, in a match-game with Chigorin, and on that occasion Gunsberg had been extremely angry." (EUWE AND KRAMER, The Middle Game Vol I.) >Also, are there any rules which govern "expressions of opinion" during >tournament play? I think just that you are not supposed to distract your opponent, which should cover everything. From the FIDE laws - Article 15: The Conduct Of The Players =15.1 Prohibitions: = =[...] (d) It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any =manner whatsoever. This includes the persistent offering of a draw. = =15.2 Infractions of the rules indicated in Article 15.1 may incur =penalties even to the extent of the loss of the game (see Article =16.5). My own contribution to cheating at chess in this way was in a game in my first year at the Exeter club, when I sat down to play the Black side of a Queen's Indian against a very cocky young man from Totnes, who outgraded me by a street and had just had a storming tournament success. I analysed at move 15 and saw that at move 19 White had a choice between a move giving a dead equal position, and a very tempting try that just catastrophically overstretched his position. So, I offered a draw at move 15 in a fairly loud voice, so people on each team looked over to us. He declined rather abruptly, searched for a punishing blow, snapped out the sequence leading to the catastrophe, realised it lost a piece, resigned, went off in embarrassed huff. I'm sure if I hadn't made him badly want to find a nice crisp win at #15 he wouldn't have blundered. On the other hand, it was at #15 that I assessed the proper result as a draw. Unethical? I think so. What do others think? BTW I was so ashamed at succeeding with this ruse, I don't do that sort of thing any more. Much. D -- * I think this move actually given is a misprint for Bf1, if you have the Bell edition