who's your worst ever opponent?

[Pargat Perrer]

I'm a bit surprised that no one has said that their greatest opponent in chess was.... THE CLOCK.

[Hans Jung]

Well thanks Ian, I learned something. (Stephen being a successful banker) Ed struck me as being much younger than he was and very dynamic. I remember a drive back from North Bay one year, It was the fastest Ive ever been driven as a passenger over a long stretch and interesting conversation all the way There were no end of interesting topics and time literally flew by.

[Hans Jung]

Ah Lawrence. Im glad you mentioned Lawrence. I grew up with Lawrence as a gofer/coffee boy at his endless simuls around Ontario, so I had a lot of respect for him and learned alot by watching him and analysing and also from Angie. She taught me Russian and scored me my first date. I didnt play Lawrence my first tournament encounter until 1982. It was at a hotel at 400/ Keele. The room closed at midnight and we were the last ones playing. We had to seal and adjourn. Lawrence leaned over the table, pulled his glasses down, looked me right in the eye and said, you do know how to checkmate with bishop and knight? and I said: If I dont I'll spend all night learning how. So he resigned. I have three wins against Lawrence that I treasure but he has many more against me.

[Hans Jung]

THE CLOCK - yes there are many oldtimers who considered the clock their greatest opponent - but will they post here? - and with the clock will come many stories of the great time scrambles one has witnessed or taken part in - and that should be part of another thread.

Having said that I have to share: In my first great tournament Montreal Canadian Open 1974 I was thrilled to take part. So many great players to watch and then also to play my own games. But you'll never guess whose games I watched most. Geza Fuster, what a classy and distinguished man, what a character! In one of his games he was approaching his usual time shortage (but for Geza it was lots of time). Geza was up looking at other games. I went over to his board and saw a curious sight. There were three Hungarians (I assumed) looking at his board and talking to each other and then one reached out and moved a piece and another responded and moved a different piece and back and forth. What was going on? Then I saw Geza moving very fast down the long row towards his game. He shouted in Hungarian and the three looked up startled and then ran out to the aisle with Geza chasing them. All of a sudden a look of horror came on Geza's face (probably the realization that if he caught up with them he would lose the game on time) and he turned around, went swiftly back to his board, stopped his clock, set up all his pieces in the correct position quickly, sat down and started his clock, went into a think and made his move. By this time he had less than a minute for his remaining moves and he was still in the early middlegame. When I came back to check he had already completed the time control and marked up the result - a win for him.

[Peter McKillop]

THE CLOCK - yes there are many oldtimers who considered the clock their greatest opponent - but will they post here? .....

Where was Fuster's opponent?

[Hans Jung]

I assume he was up watching other games. He wasnt there when the pieces were erroneously moved.

[Alex Ferreira]

Hi,

"Myself" as someone else said, fits the bill.
When I was coming up through the classes, I was playing a lot at the Bayview Games Club, ran by Vlad Dobrich.
For a while then, I insisted in not learning any openings, and diverting from known lines as early as possible, sometimes on move 1. In particular, I remember scoring a miserable score of 0.5/6 against two opponents, Arnie Lucki and Scott Cliff. Our ratings were similar so based on that, scores should have been far more leveled. I had white in all 6 games against Lucki, and even got some decent positions until I over-extended or got swindled. Against Cliff it was far more depressing. I was always black and Scott played solid, no-nonsense crap, and every time I diverted, I got severely punished. More recently (over the past decade or so), I also have an absolutely horrendous record against Michael Humphreys. He's a better player than me (200-250 points higher rated normally), but shouldn't be SO much better to have crushed me the way he did. I believe my lifetime score against him is something like 0.5 out of 11, or 12. At some point, the sense of shame creeps in and you just stop counting. Playing against Humphreys was also incredibly depressing. Didn't matter if I had white or black, I'd somehow end up in a lost or very unpleasant (without counterplay) position right out of the opening, even when I was in the white side of a Caro Kann!
Some of it is style, where one player's style doesn't adapt well to another's. But all in all, it's up to us to evolve and in some cases, it's taken a long time! Lucki and Cliff have since seemingly left tournament chess. Post pandemic, Humphreys, I am coming for you!

Alex F.