I was just looking at the round five games of the Petrosian Memorial Internet Championship. France upset Russia, with a little help from Alexander Khalifman's mouse, so it appears. In this position, popularized by Radjabov last year, Khalifman played the uninspiring 18...Rb7?? 19.d6 1-0. It's obvious he meant to play the normal move 18...Rb6. The official site has round reports, and I'm sure they'll bring this up.
When I helped organize the first internet supertournament back in 2000 (the KasparovChess.com Grand Prix, won by Piket over Kasparov in the final), we added a "clock press" button to the interface for those players not used to internet chess. (We also let people play on regular boards with a relay if they insisted.) With the "clock press" option on, you made your move on the board and then clicked a "send" button. If you didn't click the send button in three seconds, the move was retracted. At first we were concerned you could use this to look at a variation, but really that would be too distracting. Several players who didn't have computer chess experience used it and it saved a few slips like Khalifman's.
Losing an important game (China is now in the lead by a point) on a mouse slip seems a little draconian. The game wasn't even out of theory and the move played loses an entire rook.
who was khalifman playing in this game?
French GM Christian Bauer
Russia and China were 2-2 in their last-round pairing, and China's one point lead held up. So Khalifman's mouse-slip might have been really costly.
With the tragedies suffered in India I am wondering about Anands family and all the talented Indians there. They have suffered one chess tragedy (car accident with promising juniors). I pray they have not suffered any other losses. Of course with over 14000 dead there are losses all ready grave. Sorry i couldnt post anywhere else. Can u please update us chess fans.