Ha ha ha! Fantastic story! xD
Chess Pranks
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Back in high school my crew of friends really enjoyed pranking and tricking each other. The more involved and the greater commitment of the tricked party to the fake-reality, all the better for us.
I was the best player in the school and one of my friends was one of the better players, and he was my target. It would be hard to draw him into a chess prank with me directly, and besides not creative enough for our standards, so my plan was to bring in a strong player from the tournament scene.
He agrees and one Friday afternoon walks into the room where we reliably hung out, and where a chess set or two always was, and I made sure we were using it. He introduces himself as a new student and says he'd like to play a game for a dollar or two. My local chess bud was always making bets so he confidently agreed to play for a few dollars. My tournament friend makes it look good and wins a couple games and relieves my friend of a few dollars along the way.
Then the second stage of my plan kicks in. I say I'll play a game for as much as he won. He agrees. What my chums don't realize is that we have already arranged a quickie game to make me look like a genius. I am white and we play for Legal's Mate:
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 d6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Nc3 g6 5.Nxe5! Bxd1?? 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5# 1-0
I even paused for a moment on 5. Nxe5, hovering my hand over the board, retracting it as is under some hard thought, then moving and looking as if I had lost my queen. My friend played the happy patzer well and quickly picked up my queen. Then I do the mate . Everyone cheeers except for black. He leaves as if humiliated and my friends think I am a hero for recovering the group's honor.
Result: I seem like a chess magician and I also have a little wad of dollars in my jeans pocket.
A few months later I tell them the true story of what happened and most of them thought it was great. Not so much the guy who lost the money though lol.