Has anyone here ever defeated a chess powerhouse before they hit their peak? For instance, I beat WIM Alisa Melekhina back in 2003 when she was rated 1866. I was rated 1807. She offered me a draw after trading off the minor pieces, but I declined because my rooks dominated the only open file. I squeezed her until her position broke, and I won.
I defeated Patrick Wolff when he was quite young. I didn’t play him again until he was a GM and he crushed me then. I beat Ilya Gurevich when he was 11 but a year later he drew with me, and two years after that (at age 14) he crushed me. In more recent times, I was the first coach of Josh Friedel. Perhaps because of the student-teacher relationship, he didn’t get his first tournament win against me until he was 16 - but after that he won several in row and made it look very easy.
The all time king in this category has to be GM Arthur Bisguier. He told me once he has so many such games he could fill a book with them. He said he’d call it "Get “em While They’re Young.”
– Hal Terrie
I beat Joseph Mark Bradford in what may have been his first rated game in New Orleans around 1968, he is 2-0 since then. Have also scored 1.5-.5 against Moshe Khatina.
I don’t know about powerhouses, but I beat an 11 year kid rated 1800 back in 2003, and he’s now a high school senior rated 2300. I’m sure several of the kids I’ve beaten will grow up to be masters, but I don’t know if any will get beyond that.
I used to beat Jeremy Silman almost all the time when he was in his early teens. This would have been in the mid to late 1960s.
Pete Klimek
When IM Justin Sarkar was a kid he played at my club. I beat him when he was rated 1400. I haven’t played him since so my life time record is 1-0.
I also played and beat Igor Schneider when he was rated 770. I had no idea he was Dimitry Schneider’s little brother. I couldn’t understand why this little kid with a 700 rating wouldn’t just hang something and lose quickly. I traded down, and finally won in the end game. Even that wasn’t easy, but I figured that was going to be my best chance.
I played a lot of blitz with Hikaru Nakamura when he was rated 800 and won all those games. Now I wouldn’t dare play blitz with him since he could easily crush me even with 5-1 odds.
i haven’t yet but i this topic just reminded me that i like to have everyone sign my move list sheets just in case later they’re famous later. 