The First Forfeit

The first forfeit

In this round of the tournament, I played against a young kid Audi Ameya from Goa. During the game, I was facing a difficult position. Thanks I was holding the position with great accuracy.

When the middle game begins, I went and had a cup of coffee provided by the organizer since my humble opponent played too slow. While I was sipping the cup, I saw a chess book seller opening his bag. I was curious to see any new book. So I forgot my ongoing game for a moment then started checking the book one by one as if to buy all of them but my experienced book seller knew better that I was just scanning.

I was brought back to my consciousness that I had a game continuing by my opponent who brought the arbiter with him complaining that I refer to books during the game. According to Fide rules of chess, a player cannot get outside assistance whether be it computers, books, friends/coach. So, back to my board I started playing the game but this time some of the arbiters started discussing. I didn't pay attention to that. My position became better and now almost winning, now the chief arbiter came and said, "We are extremely sorry about this but you have to forfeit the game according to the Fide rules", I didn't know what to say and I agreed and signed my score sheet.

My opponent was quite pleased with the outcome of the result. I learnt a valuable lesson that day and started reading more about the Fide rules in Fide.com. What surprised me was the knowledge my young opponent had about the rules. I may be a better chess player but he proved to be more clever.

So two lost after a beautiful start of the tournament. This lost had serious psychological effect on me. My play was very unimpressive, beaten by 1600, 1500, where my opponent proposed a draw where I refused. I even threw away the chance of getting the best unrated prize. Anyway, my disappointment was suppressed by a wonderful news that a new tournament will be held just after some days. It was below elo 2000 tournament. That tournament had the biggest prize money I had ever seen. Normally, in below 2200, 2000 tournament, the 1st prize is 25,000 max + trophy. In this tournament its Rs. 1,00,000 + trophy.

 Everybody's excited about the 1st prize but the truth is, "We get what we deserve not what we desire". So as always a new challenge awaits you. In life what happens is not our business, our business is what we do.