Very nice post, Danny.

At one tournament I went to during my freshman year, I played some guy who, toward the end of our game, made what appeared to both of us to be a good move for him. Up to that point, I'd thought I was already in a losing position, so this move initially worsened my fears.

But a few minutes later, while it was still my turn, he quietly blurted, "Oh crap." I hadn't seen what the problem was just yet, but clearly his last move was a blunder. My confidence increased all of a sudden, I scanned the board, identified his mistake, captured a critical piece, and ended up winning the game.

Had my opponent not said anything, I'm pretty sure I would've lost that round. I was just about to make a different move not capitalizing on his blunder right before he inadvertently made me aware of it.

I feel sorry for him -- he played better than I did for most of the game -- but I guess we can both take this occurrence as a lesson learned. Hopefully, for his sake, he kept quiet about his moves in the later rounds of that tournament.