When I read MSozinsky's reply to my post I thought the same thing: when I play against a friend my fighting spirit gets doubled, not weakened, because I know that the game will be recalled very often ...Ian Kingston wrote:For me, the only problem with playing against a club mate in a congress (or league match) is the risk of never hearing the end of it if I lose. I am, of course, far too polite to boast (much) when I win.
Apart from jokes, I think that when friend & friend, brother & sister, husband & wife, ecc. are paired together they should play without too many lamentations ... a game against a friend/relative is a game like any other game, even if two players live in the same house and play each other five times a day, in their lifespan they can't exhaust all the possible chess games, which are about 10^120, that is, a number with 120 zeros.
Last week I played against my best friend in a FIDE rated open tournament: we have played each other very often, but not for this reason the game was less interesting and hard-fought, we consumed all the time at our disposal. The first five moves were as in a rapid tournament that we had played two days before, then he changed variation and the game was completely different.