I was the captain of our company team. We’re scheduled to play a rather weak team in the chess League (not that our team was so strong). But this team is known to have a unique player, at least for those times in the early 80’s. This player is a strinkingly beautiful blonde. Reputation has it that she intentionally comes to the board with a rather low-cut top and not a little dose of sweet-smelling perfume.
In our company, we had a number of players playing skittles lunchtime, who we never used in league games. However, one of them is a strikingly good-looking young blonde guy. So of course i say, Jim, how’d you like to play for us next Thursday on board 4!!!
We come to the match. I think my team (myself included) were laughing so hard to ourselves we couldn’t concentrate. I myself couldn’t keep my eyes off the “model” game on board 4. What happened was even funnier. Good-looking Jim won his game, but we lost the match 2.5 - 1.5!!!
You have posted some great stories on here… and this one is a classic. Thanks!
Hey, did that guy win because he was a good player, or because he actually succeeded in counter-distracting Ms. Lowcut?
It would have been great if somebody took a picture of Ken and Barbie playing their game; the USCF would have used it extensively for marketing/ membership drive purposes. I always get a chuckle out of the well-presented models (both male and female) sometimes used in the chess sales catalogues! (I haven’t seen any of them playing at my club… yet.)
You know, both of the attractive players were really really intense in that game. I can surmise that they both felt they had something to prove (“I’m more than my looks”). Jim (our guy) just outplayed her. Was an interesting game, but, being board 4, there was some, well, less than grandmaster-type moves in the game. I can speak for Jim, i think he was playing hard so that he could play more in the league games. And we did put him in a couple of more times that year, i remember.
You know, it’s a funny thing. Even in a non-uscf league, with nothing at stake, i found some players just couldn’t hack the “pressure”. Guys that did great lunchtime in the company, played horribly in the league. In fact, Jim was the opposite, he played better in the league than lunchtime, i think he was able to concentrate better. He earned a partial spot that season.
Thanks for enjoying my stories. I have a few more to go. I go back to 1968 or so. Also have stories I’ve heard.