That Awkward Moment When . . .

. . . an 1100 player logs onto chess.com for some 3 minute blitz and ends up playing Gata friggin Kamsky. 

When Chess.com asked if I’d head down to Vegas to help cover a booth at the Millionaire Chess tournament, I couldn’t say no.  So I packed my bags, flew to Sin City, and manned that booth like a boss.  On Millionaire Monday, an imposing broad-shouldered and serious man approached me.

“I need to play some chess,” he said.

I believed him.

Now I’d never met GM Kamsky in real life, and as Danny pointed out in his Millionaire Chess interview, the former World Championship contender had grown himself some rather long locks, so I didn’t immediately recognize him.  All I knew was that he was a chess player at the tournament, and that he needed to play some chess—probably to warm up for the next round—so I showed the gentleman to the computer we were using to show off V3. 

I took two steps away and froze.

Didn’t I recognize that guy?  Was his voice familiar?  Another person came up and asked me a question, I answered, and then I returned to being bemused.  A friend, David Gimaud, came up to me and said, “Isn’t that Gata Kamsky.”

I turned around.  Yup.  Sure as Chuck Norris hates trailer parks, that was him . . . and he was logged into our test account.

I rushed to the computer, but I was too late.  Gata had already started to play a game and he’d been paired with Rocha69, a 1100 level player who had no friggin’ idea that he was playing one of the strongest GMs in the world. 

The position on the board looked about like a Rhonda Rousey fight at the 30 second mark—Rocha69 was pinned down, missing pieces, and seconds away from tapping out.

Here’s the game:

GM Kamsky turned to me and asked, “I need to play someone stronger.  You have engine?”

So I paired him with the newest, strongest, engine of our Version 3 site, and the two went at each other like John Conner and Skynet.  

Would I last 18 moves against Gata Kamsky?  Would you?  I don’t know, but Rocha69 did.  If you know Rocha, let them know they weren’t off their game that day :D