Yes, I always play a much lower rated friend in tounaments. I crush them and they are sad.
playing your friend for first place
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thats happened to me a lot. i think an even match is much more exciting though
I have often had to play a good friend who was usually also a travel buddy. We would split all expenses. We were also equal in strength with our ratings always being within 50 points. It was rare however that we would meet in the last round. In the majority of our meetings we would just play a quick draw and get some much needed rest between rounds. We basically saw this as a half point "bye". Sometimes we would fight for real and let the chips fall where they may and I won some of those and lost some and sometimes we would have a fighting draw. It used to be you could ask the TD not to pair you against you buddy in the first couple of rounds and they wouldnt. They would only pair you when forced by the swiss pairing rules and this helped. I dont know if they still do this. I have a bigger problem now because my wife is also a good player and we are often paired against each other and it really doesnt sit well with either of us.
DC_cookie_G wrote:
i had to play a good friend in the last round of a tournament. whoever won got first, the loser second. we go back and forth, and became rivals. has anything like this happened to any of you?
p.s. i lost =(
My club there is about 30 solid club players that show up, and you are bound to get some rivals. I know this one guy, we would have bets about whos rating would get to what first. It got to being a joke where we would almost alwasys get paired up in the tournament at some point. Though we were friends over the board we didn't treat each other as such; even if we were slugging it out for first place we would never split just to not hurt each others feelings.
yes me, we are almost equal but he has a little better endgame skills while i have a slight edge in the middle game.
Oh here is a funnyone beetwen sovietics:
I was looking a their game.Their where the last ones playing for first place.They were rivals and vey good friends.
The first one was a hole bishop up and they entered the endgame and the second was losing.
The first one saw that the other one will cry and offer him a draw=(...FAIL...).!
So it means they both finished first (4.5/5 = 4.5/5)
And after the game they said out loud: '' Russians will rule chess!!'' and i saw a very strong chinese player thinking: '' And Chinese will rule Russians''
Reb wrote:
I have often had to play a good friend who was usually also a travel buddy. We would split all expenses. We were also equal in strength with our ratings always being within 50 points. It was rare however that we would meet in the last round. In the majority of our meetings we would just play a quick draw and get some much needed rest between rounds. We basically saw this as a half point "bye". Sometimes we would fight for real and let the chips fall where they may and I won some of those and lost some and sometimes we would have a fighting draw. It used to be you could ask the TD not to pair you against you buddy in the first couple of rounds and they wouldnt. They would only pair you when forced by the swiss pairing rules and this helped. I dont know if they still do this. I have a bigger problem now because my wife is also a good player and we are often paired against each other and it really doesnt sit well with either of us.
ouch! do you sleep on the couch if you win? lol
find friends that don't take chess so seriously?
Mar 28, 2011
0
#9
DC_cookie_G wrote:
i had to play a good friend in the last round of a tournament. whoever won got first, the loser second. we go back and forth, and became rivals. has anything like this happened to any of you?
p.s. i lost =(
The tournament Mr. Cookie is refering to was the Polk Scholastic Chess Championships (one of the largest student tournaments in the country) this past Saturday (March 26th). This was the Championship section in which the top 16 middle school players in the county battled it out for the county title. This was after a season of four previous monthly tournaments that determined the top 16 players. After hundreds of games played in five tournaments between over 160 registered players, 24 middle schools... the county title came down to these two players in the last round on board #1. I know all this because I am their coach and they are from the same team..lol... our team.
Sorry I had to do it buddy.
raor! it couldve been a draw if i did the other move!
Estragon wrote:
It never happened to me personally, one or the other of us always faltered before the dramatic last round clash. But a couple of my dear old friends who used to tear up the Mid-Atlantic area in the late '60s in the days of few and far between tournaments faced the situation fairly often.
They traveled together and split expenses, and since they were both contenders in most of the events they played, they decided to split prize money, too. This meant that if they met in the last round, they would drag the game out until they saw how the other games were going, and their result coincidentally always resulted in the most total prize money for the two of them. Sure, there were ethical issues, but they always made it look good, and nobody forced the TD to wait until the last round to pair them - everyone knew they were traveling chums.
In one event, though, they knew going into the last round that a draw was the best result for them. It meant one won the event outright, and the other could finish no worse than equal third, and maybe better. So they agreed to have a draw before they went to the playing hall.
Now they could have played 30 moves and agreed a draw under the rules at the time, and no one would have raised an eyebrow. But Bob knew it would be a draw, so just pushed wood, while his buddy Charles played his normal game. Charles won a pawn, then a piece, then another pawn. Before you knew it, Charles was in an easily won ending and his pawn couldn't be stopped from Queening.
Bob went to the bathroom and as he was coming out, Charles was going in. "Hey, I thought we were supposed to have a draw!" he complained. "Man, I'm trying!" Charles replied.
Back in the tournament room, Charles queened his pawn and was checking Bob's King around into a mating net when suddenly he stalemated him! The TD was furious, threatened to withhold the prize money - but was reminded if he didn't pay out prizes no one would ever come to his events again. So he paid, but wrote a nasty letter to USCF alleging illegal collusion.
USCF went so far as to write both players, who of course denied it. Charles wrote them back, mentioning a game in the last US Championship which ended on a blunder and affected the prizes, wondering if they were "investigating" that game, too.
The matter was dropped.
Estragon: Thanks for posting that. I really enjoyed reading it.
DC_cookie_G wrote:
raor! it couldve been a draw if i did the other move!
you probably would have lost on time anyway
Mar 29, 2011
0
#14
gennntlemennnn....... (480167463536662667747 and Cookie dough).... lets not argue about woulda coulda shouldaaaa.... lets get ready for the Southern Open this weekend..
The question is... what schedule are you two playing: 2-day or 3-day?
Mar 29, 2011
0
#15
I was discussing this possibility with a friend of mine for an upcoming tournament recently. We decided that we'd probably end up splitting prize money, though maybe not 50/50, and just play it out and see what happens. Problem is, I'm much higher rated than he is here on chess.com, and my repertoire pretty much is a direct counter to his and his experience, so we both got to thinking (individually) what we might play against each other. He knows better than to go into a Ruy with me as black, but he's a really strong endgame player, so I'm thinking maybe he'd prepare a Berlin, but I know there are some sidelines that avoid the typical berlin endgame, so I decided maybe I'd prep one of those for him...
And then I realized... why am I doing opening prep, at my level, for an opponent I may not even face, at a tournament I may not even go to?
Fun mental exercise though.
Mar 29, 2011
0
#16
I really do not care friend or not I play for the win.
I would even play for the win even if he could get first place if I lose, and I couldn't win anything.
it is a tournament. fair fight for everbody. not a contest on how many you know that will let you win.
I am not a bad friend I just think games and sports are not areas there you have to let friends win in order to keep their friendship.
Years ago, I traveled with a friend to USCF events throughout PA and NY. It seemed invariable that we would get paired in the first round. We both played to win and always laughed about it. Never hurt our friendship. We just used to think we could have stayed home, slept in and played at a coffee shop.
clms_chess wrote:
gennntlemennnn....... (480167463536662667747 and Cookie dough).... lets not argue about woulda coulda shouldaaaa.... lets get ready for the Southern Open this weekend..
The question is... what schedule are you two playing: 2-day or 3-day?
Im going to do the three day I like the extra time to sleep on Saturday.
Mar 29, 2011
0
#19
4801837081 wrote:
clms_chess wrote:
gennntlemennnn....... (480167463536662667747 and Cookie dough).... lets not argue about woulda coulda shouldaaaa.... lets get ready for the Southern Open this weekend..
The question is... what schedule are you two playing: 2-day or 3-day?
Im going to do the three day I like the extra time to sleep on Saturday.
Well... if David takes the 2 day... we both have to go early as Im the one driving...lol. Maybe you could sleep there while waiting for the second round...:)
The only time I played a friend was at the 2009 US Class Championship. We got paired in the second round and it was a very intense game... and I lost. I did get the last laugh though because he lost his last round and I won mine allowing me to tie for first a 1/2 point ahead of him...:)
Mar 30, 2011
0
#20
As long as both of you try your best to win it seems like a minor problem (although this depends on both of your attitudes). If the Williams sisters can compete for tennis titles against each other a husband and wife should be able to compete for top prize in a chess tournament. A post game examination would also help both of you to improve your game.
i had to play a good friend in the last round of a tournament. whoever won got first, the loser second. we go back and forth, and became rivals. has anything like this happened to any of you?
p.s. i lost =(