Rivals.

Mike Zeggelaar- Friend, taxi, enemy, rival, enabler, punching-bag, confidant, maniac--and not always in that order.

Zeggy, as he is affectionately known by around the Edmonton Chess Club, is a by now a pretty well known figure to most ECC members as well as a few others around Alberta. Known mostly for his, what some might call exuberant attitude and perhaps dogmatic adherence to sacrificial play,  he continues to ruffle my chess feathers on occasion. One such example occurred recently as we met in the Edmonton Active Matchplay tournament directed each year by the ever gracious and patient Terry Seehagen.

Every time I'm paired against Zeggelaar, whether it be in a weekend event, match, or otherwise I always get a little nervous, a flood of different emotions, expectations and feelings wash over me and existential thoughts sometimes creep up."Ah..not again" "Oh juice, come at me bro" "Why? Haven't I proved myself yet with a +9 score", they run the gauntlet. When the pairings are posted and he sees the pairing he's seen 58 times before, he'll usually walk over to me and say something like "Ohhh!" in an adventurous and excited tone. My favourite response of late has been to respond with a contemptuous smirk, though I haven't yet mastered the Mutombo finger-wag.

The first two games of the active match began strangely, or so it would seem, but that was just the beginning. I won game 1 with white, and completely capitulated in two game two, playing far too passively, giving him the kind of position he tends to play well. Tied after 2 games and heading into what would soon turn into an insane protracted blitz playoff marathon, I felt my chances would be good. What happened over the following hour and half is by the far the most intense, silly and emotionally racking chess experience of my entire life.

Active(25+10)    (1,0)   - Active(10+2)  (0,1)        - Blitz (5+0)      (0,1) (0,1) (1,0) (0,1) (1,1)

Yes, those scores are real, I didn't make those up. 2 active games, tied. 2 shorter active games, tied. 5 overtime blitz matches later and I finally, somehow, managed to escape the beast in front of me. In each playoff, I had white to begin and played black in game two. Take notice of just how many times I had to win with black in order to keep the match alive, and conversely just how many times he let me slip through his wrestlers grasp. In game two of the of the second blitz playoff, I managed to flag him with just seconds left on my clock with only 1 pawn left on the board, I fell to the floor in amazement and exhaustion after that one. Many cigarettes left the box during this match. In game 2 of the third blitz playoff I was up 2 pawns in an endgame that was clearly won, and what did I do? Give away an entire rook! Wow.. and on it went, topsy-turvy from beginning to end until I finally regained my composure and nerves, shaky hands gone, and ingesting enough nicotine to make Tal weep, I managed to take the last playoff convincingly 2-0. Thank you Zeg for keeping me from a noose, I tried my best to hang myself but you wouldn't let me, you're a true friend.

Rivalries are great,especially when styles and ideologies collide--Kasparov-Karpov, Federer-Nadal, Hockey's Canada-Russia, Palmer-Nicklaus, Ali-Frazier, and in our own small Alberta Chess bubble--Gardner-Huber, Hughey-Yearwood, and recently, and of course most importantly, Sequillion-Zeggelaar.