Reading the thread, “Can you identify this old pairing sheet?”, prompted me to send an email to Daniel Lucas asking if he could locate a couple of my games previously published in Chess Life. He responded:
Hi Michael,
Thank you for writing. I looked in all the annual players indexes from 1979 through 1989 and your name does not appear. I’m sorry I can’t help more.
Regards,
Dan
Bummer!
I would, therefore, like to ask the Chess community for help in locating the two games. The first was played at a tournament in Midland, Texas, and I believe it was 1974. I lost to NM Gary Simms (why is it loses stay with you longer than wins?) in the first round in a game that found him sweating before my atavistic tendencies reared their ugly head. Then in the second game I outplayed someone and could have won a piece, a Knight I believe, but saw an opportunity to end the game immediately with an amazing move which threatened mate in several ways no matter what he did, or win his Queen, or so I thought… As I sat there smugly with my arms folded awaiting his resignation he “hunkered down” and produced a winning move. Oh no, Mr. Bill! My hubris was severely punished…My opponent sent the game to Chess Life and mentioned something about it…It is still the most amazing position from which I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory…
The second game was a game won against LM Klaus Pohl, which was published in Chess Life sometime in the early 1980s. I have a distinct memory of one legendary, in his own mind, Georgia player exclaiming, “Now you will be in the yearly index FOR ALL TIME!” Reading about memory and participating in many memory studies has shown memory can be a tricky thing as one ages…
Thank you,
Michael Bacon
Trainers teach the youngsters traps and psychological ploys, but not the essentials. The main task of a trainer is to instill a love and interest in chess. - Boris Gelfand
In the October 1976 issue, starting on page 582, I found a game listed as Timothy Thompson vs. William Bacon that matched your description in some particulars: Black played a “brilliant” knight sac, and there are four ways to take the knight, all of which lose, and Black threatened mate on the move, but White played a counter-brilliancy and won. Instead Black should have just taken a hanging knight. The game was played in Midland, Texas, in the Halliburton Open, 1974.
I looked in later years up to 1983 and haven’t found you. I can keep looking, but not right now, it’s late, and my old magazines are not all easy to find.
My thanks, Bruce and John, to the both of you! I wonder, was it in the old “Here and There” column, or maybe “Readers Write”? It is certainly strange how memory works…Supposedly, the stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory. I do recall coming back and winning my final three games in the tournament, with Mr. Simms complimenting me, saying something about most players would have withdrawn after losing their first two games.
There were a few snippets published in Larry Evans column over the years and it is possible the game with Klaus was one of those. I simply cannot remember, but know it was published in Chess Life.
“This is what a lot of weaker players will tend to do: They get a good position and they’ll only be looking at their own ideas and how they can destroy their opponent. One way to instantly improve when you have a good position is to think, well how can I stop my opponent’s plans as well? Because I can keep my position good. I don’t want to take any risks. All I have to do is stop my opponent from improving his position, and 9 times out of 10 your opponent will probably collapse under the pressure.” - Simon Williams