'Secret' Clause in World Chess Match

World Chess Championship 2013 Contract Controversy: Indian television news channel Times Now aired this section of a press conference held recently during World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen's visit to inspect the venue in Chennai. Sources from Viswanathan Anand's team told Times Now that the "illness clause" was against the spirit of the championship. You can watch the video below from the Times Now news cast. (www.worldchesschampionship2013.com)

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Best Carlsen Quotes from Chennai

World Championship 2013 Challenger and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen just visited Chennai, the venue of the match. He was swamped by journalists and cheered by fans. Here are top-five quotes from his visit (For the full list of best comments by Carlsen in Chennai, check out www.worldchesschampionship2013.com): 

-- I can speak for myself, and I am not part of the computer generation. I grew up with a chess board and books. (When asked if younger players such as Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Luigi Caruana, Sergey Karjakin and he are more computer-centric, as regards preparation and the way they approach the game as compared to Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand and others.)

-- The Russians are still a force in chess! (The last time two non-Russian-speaking players played for the World title was in 1921 with Jose Raul Capablanca versus Emmanuel Lasker in Havana, Cuba.)

-- I respect Anand. But I don’t fear him. Am pleased with all the arrangements here.

-- Of course, I should recognise that Anand is the World Champion. He is a great player. But the kind of form he is in now gives me confidence. I have been successful in the last few outings with him.

-- As along as I am in top shape and work on the game, I think, I have every chance to win. I am sure anyone will go into a world championship with a supreme belief that you will win. I also will come back to Chennai with the belief that everything is in my favour.

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Carlsen Okays Chennai Arrangements

Chennai, August 19: World No. 1 Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has said he is satisfied with the arrangements at the World Championship 2013 venue in Chennai for the match against World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen and his team inspected the venue today. The 22-year-old talent was accompanied by his manager Espen Agdestein and his father Henrik Carlsen. Full story at www.chesschampionship2013.com

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Kasparov, Thiel on Chess, etc: Video

This special video features World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel discussing technology, chess, Russian and American politics as well as human rights and prospects for the world economy. 

Garry KasparovThe youngest world chess champion in history at 22 in 1985, Kasparov remained the top-rated player in the world for 20 years, until his retirement in 2005. He then became a leader of the Russian pro-democracy movement against Vladimir Putin and is currently the chairman of the NY-based Human Rights Foundation. The Kasparov Chess Foundation promotes chess in education around the world with centers in the US, Europe, and Africa with more soon to come. Kasparov speaks and writes frequently on technology, decision-making, and risk. His book, "How Life Imitates Chess," has been published in more than 20 languages.

Peter ThielPeter Andreas Thiel is a German-born American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and served as its CEO. (Wikipedia)

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World Championship 2013: Best Updates

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World Cup: All Indians Knocked Out

Grandmaster and former national champion B. Adhiban bowed out of the chess World Cup after losing his second game on the trot against higher-ranked Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the third round in Tromso. (Left Photo B Adhiban) Overall, Peter Svidler, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky guaranteed their places in the fourth stage. Julio Granda Zuniga levelled the score by defeating Anish Giri to play the tiebreaks on August 19. Alexander Grischuk played the longest game of the round against Le Quang Liem and managed to level the score after 154 moves and 6.5 hours. Ten matches will be decided by tiebreaks. 

As regards the Indian challenge, losing the first game as white, Adhiban started the day in a must-win situation but his aspirations suffered setbacks as Nakamura scored another chance-less victory against the Indian.

Adhiban was the best-performing Indian in the event as compatriots G. Akash and Parimarjan Negi had crashed out in the first round itself against Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Yuri Kryvoruchko of Ukraine.

Krishnan Sasikiran found his nemesis in Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the second round of the 128-player knockout event.

World No. 2 Levon Aronian knocked out by...

World number two Levon Aronian of Armenia was sent packing too as he could not win in the return game against Evgeny Tomashevski of Russia and lost the two-games mini-match by 0.5-1.5 margin.

...Evgeny Tomashevski of Russia

Russian Alexander Grischuk however rose from his ashes to square it up against Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. It was a dead-drawn endgame on board which on another day was no problem for Liem.

  

Great fighting spirit: Alexander Grischuk

However, the pressure got to the Vietnamese as he squandered away the chance to be in last 16 and will have to now battle it out in the rapid tiebreaker.

Apart from victories by Grischuk and Nakamura, the day provided just one more decisive game and veteran Peruvian Grandmaster Julio Granda Zuniga benefitted at the expense of Dutchman Anish Giri.

Fighting for Peru: Julio Granada Zuniga

Incidentally, Anish had won the first game so this one too goes to the tie-break stage.

Adhiban went for the King’s Indian defence against Nakamura but the American just went for an equal variation that involved trading of queens early in the opening.

Seeking a victory desperately, Adhiban felt the heat and his attempts to complicate did not come good. Nakamura spotted an opportunity to sacrifice an exchange that sealed the fate of the game effectively and the American notched the victory in 40 moves.

Adhiban got $16,000 after his ouster out of which 20 per cent will be paid to FIDE as part of the regulations. The Indian had beaten Evgeny Alekseev of Russia in the first round and Alexander Fier of Brazil in the second. (All photos by Anastasiya Karlovich)

Results round 3 game 1: Levon Aronian (Arm) lost to Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus) 0.5-1.5; Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Vloadimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Le Quang Liem (Vie) v/s Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) drew with Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; B Adhiban (Ind) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) 0-2; Boris Gelfand (Isr) beat Alexander Moiseenko (Ukr) 1.5-0.5; Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor) lost to Gata Kamsky (Usa) 0.5-1.5; S Mamedyarov (Aze) drew with Wei Yi (Chn) 1-1; M Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) beat Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cub) 1.5-0.5; Daniil Dubov (Rus) drew with Anton Korobov (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Dmitry Andreikin (Rus) drew with Aleksey Dreev (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Peter Svidler (Rus) beat Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 1.5-0.5; Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Yuri Kryvoruchko (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Julio Granda Zuniga (Per) v/s Anish Giri (Ned) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Nikita Vitiugov (Rus) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak.

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World Cup: Arbiter on Hao-Dreev Issue

Armenian Arbiter Ashot Vardapetyan explains the incident in the game Wang Hao - Alexei Dreev in detail.

I will try to answer to all the questions raised in the Russian site and hope you will find the answers interesting to you as well.

Indeed, I have read all the original Russian comments and I am sorry to find out that 90% of the people didn’t understand what happened on site. They chose to interpret everything from their point of view based on their imagination of “what could happen” or they just don’t comprehend the FIDE rules.

Let me note that it is not for the first time that such a situation happened in international events, including official events. In my practice, the last time I encountered such a situation was during the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. Such situations were discussed during the FIDE Rules Commission meetings with a general opinion formulation at the end.

Moreover, many lecturers discuss such situations during the FIDE Arbiters’ seminars. I am sorry, that many readers, including chess players and arbiters, voiced their decisive opinions without the command of chess rules’ nuances.

The situation is very simple. Let us again discuss the situation:

1. Before claiming a draw, Wang Hao offered a draw to his opponent as it is obvious that after the planned move is made, the position will be repeated 3 times. Getting no response from his opponent, Wang Hao claimed a draw by telling the planned move to the arbiter. According the Rules he may not stop the clock while claiming a draw.

2. The arbiter was right when he did not react on the claim as there was an obvious failure in procedure. Then after the second claim, the arbiter felt that Wang’s incorrect procedure claim disturbed his opponent. Because of this, he stopped the clock.

3. The Chief Arbiter added time to Dreev's time to punish Wang Hao for disturbing his opponent. This is in accordance to the rule.

4. Dreev did not understand why his time was added, telling all that he has no connection with any of this. (The reader who made own assumptions, could hardly understand that by watching the video).

5. Finally, after clarifying the situation and adding more time to Dreev’s clock, the arbiter re-started the clock.

Here, let us make a note: in fact, no claim of draw (neither correct nor incorrect) is recorded at this moment since Wang did not write down his next intended move on the score sheet. There was only wrong behavior (procedure failure) that disturbed the opponent in time trouble. At least this was recorded by the arbiters.

6. The fact that Wang Hao told the move he was planning to make could have no consequence as the move was not written down.

7. It was clear that Wang Hao understood his mistake after the arbiter’s first intervention (and not after the arbiter’s tip) and was indifferent to the punishment of adding time to his opponent’s clock.

8. He wrote down the move immediately after the game was restarted, stopped the clock, and claimed a draw with no procedure failure, according to the FIDE Rules of Chess.
Let us note that in the first case, if he wrote down a move which would bring to incorrect claim, indeed, he would make exactly that move and on that move he would have no right of three times repetition claim.

9. Then Dreev, probably, taking into no account of that nuance claimed that his opponent lost the right of claim on that move and all the rest conversations and explanations were only and only on that issue.

10. Finally, the two sides agreed on three fold repetition and no checking of position was required as the claim of draw is also the draw offer that is recorded immediately upon the sides agreeing to it.

I would like to thank all the minority who made the efforts to invite attention on the facts rather than speculation as there was really no mistake by the arbiters in this case.

Hopefully, this will satisfy all the curiosity about this situation.

Ashot Vardapetyan
Councillor of the RTRC

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