Durrr in process of losing 60k+ in a chess bet.. good month for raptor

[ig06]

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this is why chess is a terrible game to handicap -- a single pawn advantage would be enough to make any competitive player a favorite against the top gm's in the world.

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There was a charity match a few years ago when Terence Chapman, a former England junior international/British U-14 Champion and FIDE rating a bit less than 2200, played Kasparov at 2 pawn odds. The two pawns were never centre pawns as Kasparov was of the opinion that this would be too big a handicap. I remember at the time there was a surprisingly wide range of opinions even amongst strong players as to what odds players of various strengths could give to Kasparov. At any rate, Kasparov narrowly won the match.
I can't even count the number of games where, as a mere FM I have won from what seemed like hopeless positions against decent players (and tbh vice-versa!).