Tiviakov drops out of the Dutch championship after the third round because the organizers insisted he would have to play the final round and appear at the closing ceremony. Both sides of the story at ChessVibes. I'm not even getting into prearranging a draw for the final round of a closed national championship event, which is horrible and inexcusable no matter how many mitigating factors there are. Apparently the Dutch federation didn't keep its word to Tiviakov about altering the dates so he would be able to play and still fulfill his obligations in Croatia. That's bad. But when that happens you don't start the event anyway hoping it will all work out as if by magic. Tiviakov had to make his choice as soon as the conflict was unavoidable. Playing a few rounds and then dropping out is the worst possible outcome for everyone. He's supposed to be board one for the Dutch at the upcoming Euro Teams; wonder how that's going to go now.
Kasparov is in Oslo and will have a press conference with Magnus Carlsen tomorrow. He's also trying to get in some training for his match with Karpov, which starts in Valencia on the 21st. My suggestion? Focus on the clock. Play as many training games with the same control as possible. After a long layoff the biggest problem we see is time trouble. Garry's still pretty devastating at the board in online blitz, so I don't think tactics will be a problem. And his work with Carlsen has probably kept his openings up to snuff. Karpov will be up for this though, and has been training with Russian GM Riazantsev. It appears to have helped Riazantsev if nothing else. He was leading the recently completed Russian championship most of the way until Tomashevsky overtook him.
Vlad Tkachiev, the French champion (And yes, I think the "French champion" part matters here, if only a little) who revived the Stoli Variation of the Siesta Gambit in Calcutta a few weeks ago, sent out a brief open letter. It's something of an explanation, not an apology, which seems like a bit of a miss to me.
September 9 was the deadline for confirming participation in the Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup, which starts on Nov. 20. The list of qualifiers is impressive, but how many of the top players will actually participate? Slighting these events has become something of a tradition among the elite, even though there's decent money and the winner goes to the candidates. Carlsen and Kramnik have the inside track on the rating spots now that Aronian is into the candidates as the Grand Prix winner. Radjabov, Wang Yue, and Gashimov have the best chances of becoming the second GP qualifier. Nobody playing in the London Classic will be in Khanty-Mansiysk, which takes Nakamura, Ni Hua, and just about every top UK player out of contention for the candidates. Note the wildcards so far; the include Robson, Caruana, and... Tkachiev!
I think GM Tkachiev should have apologised to the organisers, his opponent and nearby players for his behaviour. He should have also thanked the arbiter for being so obliging towards him. The old trick of blaming it on medications just won't wash.
The arbiter/organizers should have called a doctor as soon as they saw Vlad isn't good. This mistake of organizers could cost Vlad a life.
As far as I remember, I participated at least in two tournaments in which players died during the game...
Shame on Short- find his shameful letter at chessbase site. GENS UNA SUMUS? No.. Definitely not.
I find it funny that Short points to others about how a professional should behave. I have personally enjoyed him having a nervous breakdown on playchess and trash-talking Gata, throwing in insults about his dad. Although it is hard to confirm, later reports, from what I recall, all suggested that the honourable gentleman had most probably been drunk at the moment.
Care to tell us some of the names Garry uses to play online blitz? ;)
According to Chessvibes, Sipke Ernst is saying that "Prearranged draws happens all the time and intrinsically there’s nothing wrong with it. However, one should keep it quiet."
They happen all the time, yeah, obviously. But if nothing´s wrong with it happening, why should players keep quiet about it then? On the contrary, I´d expect some bragging from lesser players: ´You know, I´m gonna draw tomorrow!´
Unfortunately, banning the draw offer will not rid us of prearranged draws. But I think maybe if Tiviakov and organizers had been talking together beforehand, they´d be able to find a solution where he could play Ernst at some other time, hopefully without the need to prearrange the result, and then be excused for skipping the closing ceremony. Is it really that important?
I think, based on what I read here and at chessbase, fide.com, and so on, that it´s high time we change the slogan of international chess. Gens una sumus no more, welcome:
MALA FIDE
Now is the time to ask if there is any other activity were this kind of arrengements are necesary or usually done , then the next time someone asks why there is no money in chess one can pull the ugly Tiviakov´s card and spare a dull conversation.
"Garry's still pretty devastating at the board in online blitz..."
I envy you the privilege of being able to watch him!
Kn should read "Knallo".
Cheating intrigues , boring draws ,chicken factor ,refused handshakes , inebriated GMs , refused doping tests , players not showing on time at their games , threesomes with the arbiter...
All of that we can take , no harm done , but treating the game like it doesn´t matter if its played or not , that is a real killer for us.
A player shouldn´t be able to start 2 tournaments with overlapped schedules , period.
Threesomes with the arbiter? Can you post some videos? For proof, of course.
Mig, any chance of seeing the scores of these blitz games? I know he went to Chessbase office to record a video and went berserk using another player's account on Playchess.
He is more than welcome to use my account at any time!
Manu, sweetie, do grow up. Sometimes it's more important for organisers to have a given player there than for him or her not to have a conflicting commitment on, say, the first day. Fischer at the Capablanca Memorial, for example. Tal at Wijk aan Zee in, er, 1975 or so. Who btw played his Russian compatriot on the rest day, a game which finished in a fairly rapid draw. I doubt if that was pre-arranged in the sense that I doubt if there even needed to be a discussion. Some things go without saying. Things are not so black and white as you imagine. Both the arbiters and Tivvers have been rather stupid and stiff-necked; which is why this situation has arisen. It would have been perfectly simple to have the game played early. I blame the arbiters/organisers a lot more than Tivvers; he had other things to think about during a tournament.
I see Dutch officials haven't changed much since Donner's day. How he would have enjoyed this! Come to think, of it, Gijssen's Dutch, isn't he? Who was it called Beecham 'a pompous duck-arsed little bandmaster who stood against everything creative in the art of his time'? That's GG to a tee, and by the sounds of it most Dutch officials.
You grow up , this kind of arrengements are not serious and very difficult to explain for sponsors and audience , you grow up , pre- arranged results are a disgrace for the game , you grow up.
Players shouldn´t be able to start 2 tournaments with overlapped schedules , period.
As always, thanks for the great logical argument.
Are you the one who did the fake posts under Luke´s name?
If that´s the case : You grow up.
:)
"...but treating the game like it doesn´t matter if its played or not , that is a real killer for us." (Manu)
Manu is absolutely correct. All you apologists for fake games, pre-arranged draws, and buying and selling norms are scum sucking rats.
"Are you the one who did the fake posts under Luke´s name?" (Manu)
Manu, lay off. stendec admitted it, which shows great class. You are not showing great class by constantly bringing it up.
I am the real Luke. Don't make me go nuclear on you. I just agreed with you about fake games, so back off on this one, ok? Bye.
...are all scum-sucking rats
"Why are you so nasty? You should try being polite. People may take you more seriously if you are polite."
I find nothing funnier than the esteemed Luke's attempts at overt aggression/warning people of the terrible things he will do to them.
Giggle. However, I am guilty of the sin of paying him attention, so schluss nun.
Looks like I hit a nerve with you. Are you a scum sucking rat?
"Nobody playing in the London Classic will be in Khanty-Mansiysk, which takes Nakamura, Ni Hua, and just about every top UK player out of contention for the candidates. Note the wildcards so far; the include Robson, Caruana, and... Tkachiev!"
Those familiar with my posts know I'm pro Robson, but how does he get a wildcard? Just looking at the US Onischuk, Kamsky, or even Hess (if we're just talking Juniors) are stronger than him.
For you little pussy, I will let you lick yourself in your litter box.
¨Manu, lay off. stendec admitted it, which shows great class. You are not showing great class by constantly bringing it up.¨
There is a big difference between admiting something and being caught , which was stendec case .
Classy or not classy i wont answer to someone who fakes (faked) his id to atack another one , even if the other person is you.
¨ Don't make me go nuclear on you. ¨
I know you are bored , but there is no need to be boring .
Go play with stendec.
Onischuk and Kamsky are long time losers. Hess will never be a top chess player because of money. Only Robson has the goods.
I have to agree. Even with Robson, though, this is going be a great event. A lot of young blood and exciting players like Short. In fact, I'm looking forward more to this event than any other this year--not because it's the strongest, but because I like so many of the players.
Manu, you toilet boy, even when you and I agree about something, you always find a way to feeze it up.
Agreed. It's nice to see a guy his age having a renaissance.
Look at the full list of qualifiers.... Kamsky, Onischuk and Hess qualified Naturally...
Onischuk and Hess qualified from US Championship and Kamsky qualified from the last world cup.
Luke ,if you look closely you will find that i usually don´t answer your posts, that is because i don´t find you interesting nor provocative .
I understand your needs, but go play with someone else, i just can´t help you , sorry.
The players you named were already qualified: Kamsky from the previous World Cup, Onischuk and Hess from the "Zonal 2.1" (guess this is the US Championship). Other Americans are Nakamura (apparently to be replaced by Friedel), Akobian and Shulman from the zonal, and Ehlvest, Shabalov and Ivanov from the continental championship.
Chessvibes had the complete list of 118 players - at the time (28 August) missing presidential nominees and organizer wildcards to make it 128 players, i.e. 7 KO rounds. Of course it is hard to keep track of all names ... .
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/who-already-qualified-for-the-world-cup/
From a European/Dutch point of view, the issue might rather be: why Robson rather than Anish Giri (higher-rated and GM since the Corus tournament in January this year)? But, as I wrote a while ago, any decision by Ilyumzhinov (or whoever advised him) is controversial - for once he shouldn't be blamed.
P.S.: I just see that caleague seems to write roughly the same ... .
Ok Dr. Toilet boy, since you don't answer my posts, go clean your fingers. I hope you don't mind if I occasionally agree with what you say.
I can't believe I took the time to read all the comments on this thread. That's 52 seconds of my life I'm never getting back.
I was never a real fan of Short as a person, but I found myself watching his 3 0 games for hours on the old kasparovchess.com. I don't think I've seen such violent and wiley chess before or since. Hope he can still work his magic with initiative OTB.
Are you reading this one, Seth? That should take us over the minute mark.
"P.S.: I just see that caleague seems to write roughly the same ... ."
Thanks to you both. I like Robson and it will be good experience for him. Someday the current young guys like 26 year old Akobian MAY retire from the Olympiad team and Robson MAY be good enough (2600?) to replace him.
Mig, I request a thread cleanup.
FIDE has put up a new list of World Cup participants (four organizer's wildcards still "to be announced..."):
http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/4037-list-of-qualifiers-for-world-cup
Top players who declined the invitation include Topalov, Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Aronian, Adams and Nakamura - partly this was already known as they play in London. Strange that Ni Hua is apparently still on both lists (World Cup and London) ... he could travel from China to London via Khanty-Mansiysk, but honor both commitments only if he gets eliminated early in the World Cup!? ,:)
Top names that DO play the World Cup include Kamsky, Shirov, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Radjabov, Jakovenko, Svidler, Grischuk and Gelfand - bear with me for my slightly subjective choice on who should be singled out. Bets are open on who will win the World Cup, earn 96,000$ (net) and qualify for the candidates tournament.
Forgot one more important name: Anand also is not playing the World Cup.
Seeing as it's a very slow news week... there's another Kramnik interview after Dortmund here (given to a Russian-language German newspaper): http://www.rg-rb.de/2009/37/tol.shtml
He doesn't say anything very new but he goes into a bit more detail for anyone interested - and he fleshes out what many have thought about his period as champion. Here's hoping that if he does ever become world champion again he retires on the same day :)
---
Kramnik: In recent years I've played a number of world championship matches. Played and prepared for them. And it really restricts you. Firstly, a certain psychological stress almost never leaves you, you always remember the future match, trying to protect something, to avoid using some novelty. And now... I simply decided to play chess. And as I play I try to go all out, to use everything I can. Somehow I feel liberated - and that's come across in my play. I played two rapid tournaments, in Monaco and Baku, and everything went great, I felt that my long lost freshness was coming back. Dortmund confirmed that. And I'm very glad that I managed to put an end to last year's poor streak. I hope that after that poor run a good one's now started and I'll try to continue it.
Interviewer: Your admirers hope so too. But, in general, we come to a paradox: normally after becoming champion a sportsman rises to a new level, getting even stronger, while you've got stronger after losing the crown.
K: There's no paradox. Always living up to the status of champion isn't that easy. For some, perhaps, it helps, mobilising them, but for me... For me it created additional - and entirely unnecessary - stress. I feel as though I play well in relaxed, creative conditions. When I don't think about anything and simply play chess things go much better for me. It might seem strange, but after the match with Anand, when you'd have thought that I should have been really upset, I managed to feel liberated and start to enjoy playing chess.
---
One odd thing is that in that interview he mentions leaving his prize in his manager's car - though I thought he didn't have a manager any more!?
In other snippets: here Karpov mentions that the French match with Kasparov might take place in the Louvre - and that they also want to play in Russia, England and the US - all the places they played matches in the past. http://www.izvestia.ru/sport/article3133115/
Thx , Mishamp.
It is my opinion that FIDE should crack down on any sort of pre-arranged result. They are already against the rules (naturally), as they are illegal in any sport or contest. I would have no problem if FIDE serves out a 6 month to 2 year ban to a player where there was sufficient evidence that that player pre-arranged (or paid for) a game, and that should apply regardless of that players playing strength.
A couple of those handed out and the problem will surely go away. From my (Southern) half of the world I know a couple of anecdotes but they are not so prevalent or accepted as it seems in Europe. Removing the draw offer from the rules would make it harder to arrange a result and so would be another way to limit the problem.
Same thing applies to team competitions where a team agrees a draw with their opponents, as in the recent womans team tournament.
This practise is far more wide-spread than computer cheating because it's easier to arrange and should have more attention because of that. How is chess ever going to be taken seriously with this sort of thing going on during major national and international tournaments.
Did anyone notice this?
http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/15-chess-news/4128-double-default
Briefly, two Chinese players bothered to show up at the start of the round, but only to draw and sign their scoresheets without playing a single move. They were double-forfeited by arbiter Ignatius Leong.
As I wrote before, prearranged draws are hard to avoid or to prove - but players shouldn't make it THAT obvious ... .
such conduct does not show respect for the .....chief arbiter.
LOL. Was there ever an arbiter who wasn't a complete prat? Maybe Lothar Schmid.
Lol how you make a point by selective quoting, in full it reads "such conduct does not show respect for the competition, the organizers and the chief arbiter". Regarding arbiter bashing, in most cases arbiters are "invisible" (but physically present in case of need), whenever they make decisions those are bound to be controversial.
And it would have been easy for the players, because one statement by Nicolas Croad makes little practical sense IMO:
"Removing the draw offer from the rules would make it harder to arrange a result"
Maybe for those players who do not know ANY opening theory, but there are plenty of lines leading to a forced move repetition or a dead drawn ending out of the opening. Some players may have to make the minor effort to memorize such a line - making it at most insignificantly harder to reach the desired and prearranged result ... .