Hidden Treasures
Submitted by
on Wed, 05/13/2009 at 2:19pm.
Last weekend I was reunited with the chess pieces I played with when I was a little kid. They were still hanging out in the cigar-box I used to keep them in years ago. The box was hidden somewhere in an antique cupboard in my dad's living room. I had been looking for it everywhere since my last move and assumed I had lost it in the process. I can tell you it was a happy reunion! Apart from the chess pieces I inherited from my grandfather (a 1930 Abby Sports Goods set he must have bought in the thirties or fourties of last century) the box contained a serious number of notes of games I played when I was about 10 years old. I've been looking at every single one of them and I can't describe the feeling when I found the notes of the game I played against my grandpa's "Trench Defense". See one of my earlier blog posts if you are interested to know more about the ins and outs of this little known opening! Of course the game was nothing like I remembered, but I think I admire the defense even more after analysing the game today! If you did not read the earlier post, all you need to know is that at some point my grandfather desperately wanted to play against me with the black pieces to get the opportunity to show his improved Alekhine defense. Here is that game, played on 28-2-1984...
When looking at the game now, I realize that my grandpa let me win this one without putting up too much resistance. At the moment when the position becomes level after my opportunistic 14. f5... he somehow produces 4 mistakes in a row. And at the end of the game when the position is closer to equal than it has been in 10 moves he suddenly calls it a day. Was dinner ready or is there more to say about this resignation?!
If I tell you now that my grandfather never was in the business of showing off his soft skills by formally proclaiming that he loved his grandchildren, you'll understand how much finding this cigar box means to me... So many strange mistakes in a row, this must me love 
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Apart from this game, one of the best documents I found is a letter my grandpa wrote me in 1985 to complain about the blunders his chess computer (the 1979 Fidelity Voice Chess Challenger - with an estimated elo of 1350 - that by the way I must still have somewhere!) made in one of their games. But, I'll save that for a next time 
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