MICHIGAN CHESS ASSOCIATION
...BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY
Part 1:
MY GREATEST DAY IN CHESS
by David Moody
    Those of you who know me only as a old, middle-aged fogey will be surprised to know that, at one time, I too was an ambitious junior player. Yes, at the age of seven or eight, I reigned supreme as undisputed champion of the recreation park down the street, and saw no reason why the championship of the world should be beyond my grasp.
    Of course, this was due to the fact that I was only person there who had ever heard that chess books existed, much less read them. To this day, I maintain a complete knowledge of the 50 Secret Ways To Pull Off Smothered Mate, and exploit this often in annotating games for Michigan Chess.
    However, I gradually learned that this wasn't enough. In High School, I began postal play, and soon had to accept that Class C was about my limit. My ambitions shrank further when I went to college, and began playing in tournaments. As my knowledge of chess grew, my awareness of my ignorance multiplied.
    By 1975, when I played in my first U.S. Open, I had scaled things back to a slightly more realistic level. After the Open, I was sitting around with some other Michigan players, discussing our goals for the next year. The Experts all planned to be Masters, the A-players to be Experts. Mine was quite simple.
 "Right now, I'm rated 1640, and that 11-year-old kid Joel Benjamin is only 1628. Next year, I still want to be ahead of Joel Benjamin!"
    Sure enough, in round 1 of the 1976 US Open, I started the tournament one board ahead of Joel Benjamin! Of course he was paired down while I was paired up, but still...
    Eventually, I fulfilled a lot of dreams, and saw many more fall by the wayside. But one Holy Grail still shone brightly for me, an unattainable goal. I wanted to pull off a smothered mate in a tournament game.
    You know. Lucena's Mate. Philidor's Legacy. Knight checks, knight swings back with double check, queen swoops next to the king, rook takes queen, knight switches back with mate. Literally, one of the oldest tricks in the book, first described around 1497. So old, that any chess player of any ability will spot it at least seventeen moves in advance and take appropriate precautionary measures.
    But dreams can come true:
Moody,D
(2005)
—
 Dowell,R
(Unrated)
(3)
B08/02 (3ed)
Pirc: Two Knights
  
1987  
USA Detroit, MI (East Detroit Open)
Annotations by David Moody
    First, I should probably explain what an Expert was doing playing an Unrated player in round 3 of an Open Swiss. Actually, there's nothing to explain. I had been playing lousy.
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Qe2 0–0 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Nc3 c5 8.e5
    This may be just a tad ambitious, what not being castled and everything.  I probably figured that Black couldn't play 8...cxd4 9.exf6, but after 9...exf6 White's position looks as weak as a baby's whimper.
8...dxe5? 9.dxe5 Ng4? 10.e6!
    Now I was feeling a bit better, since Black can't take on e6.
10...Nde5 11.exf7+ Nxf7 12.Bxe7 Qa5 13.0–0!
    No need to take the rook yet; indeed, Black would get counterplay with 13...Bxc3+. And, there was a fairly obvious smothered mate in the air if the rook moves, so it wasn't running away.
13...Re8? 14.Bxf7+ Kxf7
    Oh, wow! I prepared to accept resignation.
15.Ng5+ Kg8 16.Qc4+ Kh8 17.Nf7+ Kg8 18.Nh6+ Kh8 19.Qg8+
    And I laid my pen down on the table, preparing to shake hands. But Dowell didn't seem interested. He stared at the board. Then he glanced at me, a wild surmise in his eyes. More staring at the board--then he looked at me and said:
    "But's that not mate! I can take the queen!"
    This would have been a great moment for a bit of coffeehousing, to tear out my hair while screaming AUUUGGGHH!!!!!!! at the top of my voice. This would have had the salutary effect of bringing the entire room to my board to witness the brilliancy.
    But, no, I refrained. In the first place, I'm a nice guy. More importantly, I haven't got that much hair to spare.
    No, I just sat there, relatively expressionless. Eventually, Dowell shrugged, and the game went on.
19...Rxg8 20.Nf7# 1–0.
    Sad to say, I never saw Mr. Dowell at another tournament. Hate to think that this game would discourage him so much...
    What do you play for when your greatest ambition has been fulfilled? Well, you find other dreams. Some you fulfill, some get shot down.
 One that I may never see is beating a grandmaster. A pleasant dream, but not one likely to be satisfied when I'm awake. Of course, I almost came close once ...
    ...but that's another story.
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