Lucky Pen

[Gavin Strachan]

My lucky pen ran out of luck and my unbeaten run came to an end last night

Any suggestions?

Lucky horseshoe?

[Joey Stewart]

You could break in a new lucky pen by using it against an easy opponent - then you will have captured some of the winning magic without too much trouble.
I forget which of my pens are lucky quite often, but I have a couple of lucky shirts which get pulled from the depths of my wardrobe when I am in need of something special - I have an occasion next tuesday when one will be required, even if it is going to be cold.

[Jonathan Bryant]

My lucky pen ran out of luck and my unbeaten run came to an end last night

Any suggestions?

Lucky horseshoe?

I don't so much have a lucky pen as a pen I always use. When I lost the last one I went out and bought one as close to it as possible.

I do have lucky books (booklets really) that I rest my scoresheet on. My usual lucky book is Houdini's Miracle Mongers. I usually switch to something else for the next game after a loss, though.

Solution: have a couple of backup lucky pens.

It's like a crop rotation system.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

In my youth, when I strongly believed in the power of lucky pens, I used to introduce a new pen by using any old pen for the start of a game and then swap over to the candidate new Lucky Pen when my victory was almost certain. If I wasn't winning then the pen would stay in my pocket until the next game. I suppose you could do the opposite as well - if it looks like your position is going down the toilet, switch to a Losing Pen so your Lucky Pen doesn't get tainted by the loss.

[Richard Thursby]

For some reason this thread brings to mind shooting an arrow at a fence and painting a bullseye round it.

[ThomasThorpe]

I have a lucky hat that I sit on.
Long story short, I took my hat off 1 time, accidentally sat on it, and swindled a totally lost game. Only lost 1 game since, and the hat fell off of my seat in that game!

[Gavin Strachan]

well next day tried to break in a new pen and managed to scrape a draw against someone I usually beat. I'm blaming night shifts as opposed to dodge pen as I should have lost the game and managed to salvage a draw.

[Jonathan Bryant]

... I should have lost the game and managed to salvage a draw.

The lucky pen works its magic!

[Jon Mahony]

I gave up on the concept of a lucky pen a while ago - mine was a fountain pen which I always thought looked rather posh, unfortunately it leaked in my inside pocket at last year’s Halifax Congress and ruined my favourite jacket - it's cheap biro's nicked on the way out of work now!

The lucky aspect didn’t work so well anyway - after finishing the Saturday on 2.5/3 and looking like one of the favourites in my section I proceeded to get crushed both games on the Sunday and leave with sweet FA.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The lucky aspect didn’t work so well anyway - after finishing the Saturday on 2.5/3 and looking like one of the favourites in my section I proceeded to get crushed both games on the Sunday and leave with sweet FA.

It could have been worse. You could have started with 3/3 and then finished with 0.5/2.

I blame this on the fact that on the Sunday I noticed that I'd written the date down wrong on Saturday's scoresheets and I then started writing the correct date on the scoresheets on the Sunday. Clearly the luck needs some date confusion to work properly...

[Joey Stewart]

Maybe your opponents on the sunday had even luckier pens then you.

[Gavin Strachan]

Well I won the U170 rapid at the London Classic and didn't use a pen, though I noted that most of my opponents except in the last round wrote their moves down.

[Paul Robson]

I start every congress with a new lucky pen, (often just a borrowed one) , trouble is the luck runs out faster than the ink!

My lucky chess underpants work wonders mind but that’s another story completely!!(corrected nice one Simon)

[Simon Spivack]

My lucky chess underpants work wonders mind but that’s another storey completely!!

I bet that raises the house.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I'm going to try the Lucky Cap Gambit tonight for the first time. I shall report back.