Ever sat at the Wong Board?

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Geoff Chandler
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by Geoff Chandler » Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:51 pm

Hi Alistair,

The entrance was so large they split the challengers into two and marked
the board numbers with a black felt tipped pen and a dark blue felt tipped pen.

Phil, who suffered from bad eyesight, lost on the wrong board and was
defaulted on the other board thus losing two games in the same round.

I'm pretty sure Phil's case was not only the one that weekend, things were pretty chaotic
I was helping run things (hence the chaos) I was an arbiters aid. (a goffer).

There were loads of defaults in the last round. I was drafted in to take a board
and managed to get a draw with Helen Milligan.

Back to the Roberts Burns Kings on wrong square game.

I had never been given a correct score sheet from Robert and when I heard
about the this game I was 100% positive this one too would be wrong.

So I made one up! and stuck it on The Corner
( A lot of of Chandler Corner is made up, false league results and tournaments, games....)

Apparently this made up game made it's way into a San Francisco publication. (there may be others I do not know about.)



A few days after posting I discovered Robert Burns has a perfect and correct score sheet!

http://www.chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandle ... ChandID=47

Hi Stewart,

I assume this is the Mortazavi - Plaskett game.
They did not play each other at Eastbourne the previous year when Jim won it.

A. Mortazavi, J. Plaskett, Eastbourne 1991



John Moore
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by John Moore » Mon May 01, 2017 5:48 pm

Take a care, my dear Dr Petrie, look. It is the Wong board - do not sit there whatever you do. Fu Manchu is certainly hereabouts.

Nigel White
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by Nigel White » Mon May 01, 2017 8:09 pm

In the opening round of the London Chess Classic weekender last December, I sat without an opponent for about 15 minutes until a junior arrived late. However, he was not my expected opponent, who in fact had started on time against the wrong opponent two boards down. When I subsequently talked to the player who my opponent had been incorrectly playing, he told me that when his correct opponent arrived and a new game started, the new opponent played exactly the same line of the Petroff against him as his original incorrect pairing, reaching the same position as when they had to abandon the first game.

Robert Page
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by Robert Page » Sat Jun 03, 2017 6:05 pm

Some years ago I was approaching the end of an abysmal weekend at St Albans. For round 5 I found myself on the bottom board so I wandered slowly to take my place among the other lost souls or, at least, those who had not already done a runner. I was black and my opponent had not arrived so I started his clock and went off to see some of the other games, glancing periodically to see if my opponent had appeared. 10 minutes became 15, 20 and at 25 mins I was resigned to being re-paired. As I walked past my board on the way to the controller's desk, I noticed that on the board next to mine white's opponent had also not turned up. Yes, you've guessed it, I was on the wrong board. While all the boards had been set up, the bottom board - say, board 27 - was not being used and I was on board 26. I thought my humiliation was complete but no - not surprisingly, I lost the game as well.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by Michael Farthing » Sat Jun 03, 2017 6:10 pm

Perhaps it's because I'm pushy, but I'd have been collaring an arbiter about the possibility of a re-pair long before that point .. and a good arbiter would have noticed that a game had mysteriously started on an unpaired board!

James Plaskett
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Re: Ever sat at the Wong Board?

Post by James Plaskett » Sun Aug 06, 2017 1:45 pm

I sat at the board where Gurevich was playing in the last round of Hastings 1983. He politely hissed at me to go elsewhere.

I made a move Vs David Norwood at the Blackpool Open 1982... when it was HIS move.

Peter Wells lost on time against me at the 1987 British Championships in Swaneas... when it was MY move.

And in 1991 Ali Mortazavi and I played in the British at Eastbourne. I won with black. Afterwards we discovered that I ought to have been playing white.

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