Your best salvaged game!

[Mehmed100]

What are some amazing game salvages you have undertaken?

I once played a game in an active tournament, 30 minutes each, where I blundered a rook for no reason. Luckily, my opponent wasn't the brightest and missed a combination that let me go into a winning endgame!

And then there was that other time a few years ago when I wasn't such a good player and I missed a knight fork... I managed to come back through an all out assault on the kingside.

After each of the encounters, I was suitably relieved.

 

[Narz]

Your best salvaged game!

Hopefully my current one against you.

 

[Narz]

Seriously though, I'd say my best salvaged tournament game was this one (paste text/PGN here to view). Totally butchered the opening & ended up a clear pawn down with a horrible position (doubled f-pawns & an isolated h-pawn) and somehow still managed to pull off the draw!

 

[Panzar75]

At the moment what I can think of is getting out of a mate in 3 against a 1850 player. After he missed the mate he instead forced the exchange of queens giving him an ending with bishop vs my knight and 2 extra pawns for him. I did win one pawn back forced but had to contend with his outside passed pawn. In the end I managed to get some pawn trades and sacriface my bishop on his last pawn to secure a draw. He was non-to-happy about the whole thing.

 

[DaveShack]

The endgame looked lost in this game due to the passed pawn, but I noticed it would be possible to force a draw with perpetual check.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Heh. That was a great save!

 

[civiijkw]

I'm sure we've all had games where the "winning" opponent overlooked a swindle that brought us back into the game. I think the more interesting stories would be those where a long-range plan ended up saving the position. An opponent who realizes what you are doing would have plenty of time to counter the plan, but a subtle plan has a chance of succeeding against opponents that would not fall for a two-move swindle.

In the late '80s I had a game against another expert (40/90, 30/60) where I reversed two moves and lost a piece for a pawn in the opening. I was able to pick up another pawn and go into a K+bcgh(Pawns) vs. K+B+cg(Pawns) ending. His K was on the K-side and his B was restricted behind my K and bc on the Q-side (where I had exchanged my last piece - the B could not be captured but it was unable to move much). I sac'd my gh for his g (otherwise I would have a protected passer and it would be an easy draw with his K tied down there and his B unable to escape) and released his B during the process of sac'ing my bc for his c. That left my K drawing his K+B.

A year or so later against another expert I found myself forced to lose an exchange, but was able to wrangle two pawns for it. I pushed those pawns down the center of the board and forced him to trade a piece for each. Entering the endgame with three pieces for the rook made for a fairly easy win.

Way back when I was only a B-player the club had an A-player, expert and master that would analyse games to the point where the win was clear. Just to make sure though, they would then ask me if there was any way to save the "losing" side. I often came up with defensive plans that were unanticipated, difficult to overcome, and sometimes held the draw.

I've had a number of games where it was obvious that an attack would eventually break through against me. I've responded with quietly prepared counterattacks (that could have been stopped if prevented before launching them) and have ended up winning some of those games.

One time I ended up escaping in a position that I initially analyzed as one I was winning all the way. I sac'd a Q for a R+P with the expectation that my opponent would have his Q trapped and have to sac' back a Q+P for an R (leaving me 2P up). After sac'ing I discovered that I really needed two more moves of preparation before making the sac' (a little late to notice that). However, he thought I had to be preparing to attack his K and made two defensive moves there that allowed me to finish the web around his Q. Those extra 2 pawns won it in the ending.

 

[JonathanStrange]

I do recall a game at a OTB tournament in Las Vegas, where an Expert level player was slowly grinding my position down, very logically and methodically. His moves were all played relatively quickly while I had to think and think about my dilemma.

It was a closed game; the sort of game they use as examples of strategic play. However, I saw a way to sacrifice a knight and a pawn for a bishop to open the game. So I did, more out of desperation than of a specific tactical sequence.

Suddenly the Expert's play slowed to a stop, alerting me to a possible tactic. Sure enough, it turned out my two bishops were no longer blocked but aimed at his K-side. There was yet another possible sac for a mating attack. The Expert blocked it but blundered a pawn back.

We drew the game. I had sweated over it and was glad. The Expert was irritable because he had nearly an hour left and was clearly winning until my sacrifice.

 

[civiijkw]

Going all the way back to high school I was playing in a team match (40/60, G/15) against another school. Boards 2-8 had ended with the match tied 10-10 (weighted boards with board 1 worth 5 points, 2 worth 4, 3-6 worth 3 each and 7-8 worth 2 each). I had been getting squished (though material was even) and was just trying to make it to the time control. I knew I was very low on time. My opponent was constantly looking at the clock to see exactly how low on time I was. I knew my opponent was almost as low on time as I was, but my opponent was concentrating only on my clock and ignoring his. After recording move 34 with my flag almost horizontal (no digital clocks back in the '70s) he finally realized that he was also low on time. With almost no time, I played my four best moves and he played four mediocre moves to turn the position around
About two to five seconds into my fifth move after he noticed the full time situarion, my flag fell and he called it. As I'm thinking about just how much I let the team down to lose the game (and match) on time, I was later told that all I did was say "so what?". At that point he saw that he had missed recording two moves and even though he thought we were on the 39th move, we were actually on the 41st move and past time control. I went on to win the game so that we won the match.