Agassi Hits Graf in Face With Racket
Mishap Happens During Fundraiser in Houston
By BETSY BLANEY
AP Sports
HOUSTON (April 15) – Steffi Graf required three stitches Sunday after husband Andre Agassi inadvertently hit her in the face with his racket during a fundraiser that followed the final of the U.S. Clay Court Championships.
Graf and Agassi were holding hands – her left to his right – while rallying with a couple of youngsters when Agassi’s follow-through struck his wife in the face.
Agassi held his racket in his left hand. Here is the full story.
AOL Sports consider this as one of the most embarrassing moments in sport. What was your most embarrassing moment in chess?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I was in time pressure and I had to go. I could not hold it so I went and lost on time.
I once resigned a game while I had a winning position(!).
Here’s the psychology of it. At that stage of the game I was comfortably up a piece. Right after I made my final move I noticed that my opponent had a powerful tactic that turns the tables. Just to prove that “I saw it,” and in some way restore a tiny bit of dignity, I resigned before he could execute the tactic. Well, had I bothered to look a few moments longer I may have noticed that his tactic actually loses to an even more powerful reply.
When my opponent pointed out my error I laughed so hard I thought I ruptured my spleen.
I’ve had two. Well, two hundred, but I don’t want to write that much any more than you want to read it.
Years ago, in a lost endgame with sufficient time, I failed to notice when my opponent but his queen en prise. To top that, a year or so ago I was up a rook and a minor and closing in to mate him, with his pieces on the back rank. I failed to play a prophylactic move, giving him the chance to open up a diagonal. Then I failed to notice how he could sack his remaining rook and bishop and force a perpetual with his lone queen as all of my extra pieces were unable to interpose. You just had to laugh about it.
…is usually the last game I just played… but I love the game anyway!
If Agassi hit Graf in the face with a tennis racket, that’s at least better than Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner in the face with a shotgun.
I resigned after my opponent played Qg1+ thinking I had to take with the rook, giving him Nf2 smothered mate. However the knight was not on h3, so I could have simply played Kxg1, and been up a full queen. What made it particularly embarrassing was that several people were watching when I resigned. Also this same player had done the exact same thing to me a year earlier, but in that tournament I noticed the king could take.
I was playing with someone in a park in the city when I made a move and then immediately noted out loud that I had mate in one instead. He offered me to take my move back and play the mate instead but I told him “touch move” and refused his offer. He made his move and on the next move I missed that I could have made the same move (a rook check) and that it was a mate in two.
Instead I blundered and lost the game!
My only excuse was that I had not slept in over 24 hours at that time (I had been at a dance club and it was noon the next day).
I was in the last round at the American Open with first place wrapped up, my opponent was a rook down and I was crushing him, I was dreaming of the prize, trophy and prestige when I missed a mate in one cheapo beginner mate! I ended up 3rd place and just sat there in shock until GM Gufeld came by and said, comrade, you played beautifully up to that point and just got careless. Let it be a lesson learned. I have learned it ain’t over until the fat lady sings!
I was so tired in the last round of a National Open, I moved my opponent’s piece instead of mine thinking that I make a good move! He was shocked and I was embarrassed.
Years ago in an American Open, I was Black in a French Defense and, after 70+ moves, I was winning a K+P endgame. For some reason, my tired brain didn’t want to play anymore and, not seeing an obvious win, I offered a draw, which my foe quickly accepted.
My friends didn’t let me forget that for a long time. :/
I am a fide Master, with a elo rating of around 2300. I was playing a in the national championship of my country against a stronger player. I made my move, went to the bar, asked for a tea, went back to my seat, and, for some reason, figured out that my oponent had already moved (which he hadn´t done, actually). So I looked at the board for a bit, and played for the second time in a row!! ha ha ha ha. He was puzzled and perplex, and whispered “It´s my turn!!” I couldn´t stop laughing and thought that I could win easily if he let me play many moves in a row. I lost that game by the way. My “second” move revealed all my plans …
I think I played that first guest back in `97.
My most embarrassing moment, I was up a piece and I blundered my queen.
Oh, I’d say nothing quite does it
like dropping a rook because of
temporary “pawn dyslexia.”
Anton