Chess

[pindicator]

Yep, just a matter of time...

That's why i offered you that draw rego

regoarrarr : pindicator :: pindicator : gustaran

I should have let you have that win, Rego. When you were a piece up and my only chance was to hope you'd screw up. I would change that to resignation if I could

[waterbat]

Why did u resign, pindicator? I'm missing it (but sick as dog, so have excuse)

[pindicator]

Cause I wanna be like Gaston

[BRickAstley]

Cause I wanna be like Gaston

No one plots like Gaston,
Takes cheap shots like Gaston,
Plans to persecute harmless crackpots like Gaston!

[NobleHelium]

[Gustaran]

@pindicator

Ragequitting all other ongoing games was unnecessary.
You were still playing a good tournament with a likely 2nd place result and had gained a lot of rating points.
It also doesn't really display great sportsmanship, since your resignations messes up the standings for the other players.

Chess is also about psychology and developing mental toughness through experience. How many times do you think I lost a game where I was a piece or a rook ahead? One loss was the decisive OTB game (5+ hours) in a previously tied team match.
Sucks, but you play on. Go back, check why you lost and improve in that area.

In one of the most outrageous acts of Grandmaster chess eccentricity ever, Grandmasters Aron Nimzovich ("My System") and Friedrich Samisch went head-to-head in the last round of the classic 1925 Baden-Baden Tournament, just outside Berlin, with first place hanging in the balance.
Upon the game's ending, when the superior Nimzovich was about to be mated, he suddenly jumped up onto a table, got down on his knees and screamed:

"Why must I lose to this IDIOT!?"

[pindicator]

On the contrary, i feel a ton better after just letting it all go. I'm sure i'll come back and try to find out where i screwed up (although Kd7 was another of those moves where i had seen Qb6 followed by Qxd5, but then just forgotten it ). But i didn't think it makes much sense to lecture about mental toughness when you're taunting your opponent into screeing up once you fall behind in game. This:

If you can't win your position this time, you will never do it. But hey, no pressure!

Was clear enough the first time you posted it. You were starting to get rattled and doubting the game's outcome so you started posting in thread. So i don't think you get to lecture about mental toughness.

And if anyone wants to continue a game i ended, send me a challenge and we can replay to the position and then carry on. I'm sorry if this upset the experience for anyone else.

[Gustaran]

You were starting to get rattled and doubting the game's outcome so you started posting in thread. So i don't think you get to lecture about mental toughness.

1) I certainly wasn't rattled or doubting any outcome. After 25. Qb3 the position objectively totally lost for me. Not worse, but completely lost. If you had played 0-0-0, c4 and Rf2 I would have resigned and I wouldn't have minded at all. I played a risky gambit, you neutralized my initiative, you win. Nothing wrong with that.

2) I actually don't care if I win or lose. I want to play exciting chess. I'd rather lose a hard-fought game than win because my opponent hangs a rook. A very interesting game this tournament was my "boring" draw against uberfish. Why? Because he was played very well and was able to thwart all my plans and defend successfully. Now I can go back and look for better moves, that's what improves my game. Not a "flashy" 15 move win because my opponent blundered.

3) I feel that once you enter a round robin tournament you should finish all the games with the same effort. In my opinion not doing so displays bad sportsmanship. That includes things like MJWs draw streak in RB#2 or you resigning all remaining games this time.
If everybody who didn't win a won position resigned all remaining games, we would finish the tournaments with less than 50% of the players who started....

EDIT: Oh and about my comments: That sort of not very serious "trash talk" was quite common with certain players in my former chess club while playing speed chess.
It was rather intended tounge-in-cheek, but if that sort of thing disturbs you I will stop it until our games are over should you ever decide to join another tournament.
I did not get this impression though since you kept responding and I daresay it maybe wouldn't have bothered you if you had won.

[pindicator]

1)  It sure didn't feel like this was the case.  If so, then why was this the only game where you engaged in such banter?  Why not engage with uberfish during his game like you did with me?  Or anyone else?  Also, I still remember reading your comment from the first tournament where you knew our first game was a drawn position but wanted to make me prove it and played it out some 20 more moves before accepting a draw.  So I don't know if I believe you when you say you would have resigned if I had consolidated my position.  I figured I had to checkmate you before you would give up, and would have to watch out for stalemate and perpetual traps if I did increase my advantage.

1a) I would like to go over the game at some point.  I've already looked at the position where I played c6 a little, because I was thinking I should have played O-O-O instead of c6, but the chessbase light kibitzer actually doesn't mind c6.  Still, it did make the position a lot more open, and allowed you more tactics, so I think strategically it was dubious.  But I didn't play O-O-O there because I couldn't see a way to counter Qa4 followed by Bxa6, and then all my pieces are on the kingside while youre queen can come in from the queenside.  But I haven't gone over variations with the engine yet, so maybe the threat wasn't quite that bad.  Probably will sometime this weekend.

1b)  I just need to stop playing my turns over the phone if I'm at all playing seriously.  It's too disjointed, and there's no way for me to make notes to keep a train of thought.

2)  Agree with this 100%.  I'd rather play in a close game, too, and I feel like I'm closer to your level than I was when the first tourney came around.  I really hate winning because of a blunder by my opponent as much as I hate losing because of a blunder by me.  Rego, again I wish I had resigned that 2nd game.

3)  I didn't think about other people playing for standings, and I was already told by one person how I lowered their final positioning due to the resignations.  I really didn't care how I finished overall, but I need to remember other people might.  I won't do it again.  (I also cheated jkaen and I of what would probably have been an exciting endgame, too - I think i had an advantage but wasn't positive at all about how to convert it.)

EDIT) Does your club engage other clubs in this banter when they're playing round-robin tournaments as well?  If we're playing a casual game then feel free to trash talk.  I enjoy that when I know the motivation is for fun.  But this did not seem like friendly banter to me, it seemed like you were trying to unnerve me in a losing position.  If I mis-read that then my mistake, but you didn't engage anybody else like that.  So I am skeptical of your reasoning.

Maybe you didn't realize that you really did strike a nerve in those comments.  At first I told myself I'd just play through it - my first responses weren't continuing your banter, they were talking about how tough the position still was.  Maybe I should have just told you to knock it off then, but I thought I could play through it.  Would I have still made the same mistakes or reacted the same without it?  I have no idea.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Well, at least you proved my point about how playing as slow as possible is good. Jkaen got two free wins by failing to finish his games. (This does not apply to civ games here as someone who rage quits gets replaced though...In serious games however this does not happen. The games go on with that playing being forfeited on all games or his results are annulled or the tournament/game is annulled.)