Chess

[Oracle]

Here is something to focus the mind.
Our school fundraiser on the open day, the chess team played against all comers at buzzer chess.

Heres the hooker - there were odds. So you paid to play and if you beat the top board, you got back five times what you paid. So it took a feat of concentration for me to come away in significant profit. It went on for several hours in half hour stints. Some of the parents were pretty good, you would meet them in regular matches at the local clubs!

There was a trick of course. You played obscure openings and complex lines that you knew and they did not. They may not have been very sound lines in strong competition but i seem to remember kings gambit and poison pawn najdorf caught a lot of unsuspecting punters out on the buzzer!