"Dude" wrote in message
...

Repeatedly making moves while standing up shows disdain and
contempt for your opponent.

As a kid I once played bottom board for our school team. After a handful of
moves I lost a knight. My opponent, perhaps reasonably, thought playing this
patzer was going to be easy, so he started wandering round looking at other
games occasionally dropping by to see if I'd left anything else en prise,
making a move and wandering off. I'm sitting there thinking we're going to
lose this match because I can't even keep my pieces intact for five moves
and he's not even giving me the courtesy of paying any attention to my
moves. Anyway, we exchange moves, me thinking for ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes, him strolling up to the board, moving and walking off. By move 18
or 19 in this action packed slugfest I'd got my piece back. Yes! But now I'm
faced with the Patzer's Planning Problem - what do I do? As I was sitting
there thinking results coming in were such that if I could draw my game and
top board could avoid a loss (he was City Champion - he later went on to
play board 3 or 4 in the Varsity match - so I figured he'd be OK) then we
would win the match. The pressure's really on. As far as I could see there
was nothing going on in the position but I was terrified that if I moved I'd
start leaving holes in the position and throw away the match. Then I had an
idea.We weren't playing with clocks. If I just sat there and didn't make a
move the teachers would have to adjudicate and unless there was something
pretty deep on an empty board they'd have to agree a draw. So for the last
45 minutes or so I sat and stared at the board. My opponent. Well you could
see the steam coming out of his ears. But I sat there and I sat there till
all the other results were in and we were 3-2 up. There was nothing in our
position and a draw was adjudicated. We'd won 3 1/2 - 2 1/2.

I'd've liked to be able to blast him off the board with a Romantic
combination but I just wasn't up to it and if he'd been more respectful
I'd've played on giving him a fair chance but as it is there's a devil on my
shoulder saying: 'That was pretty good revenge'.

cheers

dd