Nigel Short: “An example must be made!”
Professor R. Anantharam, is a most charming man, but it is hard to understand how his actions during the infamous “Inebriated Tkachiev Game” adhere to the Laws of Chess. In his attempt at self exculpation, he quotes the two laws (Article 13.6 : “The arbiter shall refrain from informing a player that his opponent has made a move, or that he has failed to press the clock.” and Article 13.7 “Spectators and players in other games are not to speak about or otherwise interfere in a game.”) that show EXACTLY why nobody should have been allowed to interfere with Tkachiev’s slumbers. Professor Anantharam’s tenous justification apparently rests not with the Laws of Chess themselves, but apparently to an answer given by Geurt Gijjsen to a correspondent Dave Burtonshaw on an Internet website in 2000.
The comparison is bogus. The Tkachiev case differs from the Burtonshaw case mentioned by in one crucial respect: Tkachiev had not merely fallen asleep, but was deeply drunk. This is, of course, the nub of the matter. Unlike Burtonshaw’s poor opponent who inadvertently dozed off (and who incidentally was snoring – unlike Tkachiev – disturbing other players and therfeore needed to be woken up), the Champion of France was in a self-induced, near-comatose state. Short of actually vomiting on his opponent, it is hard to think of a more flagrant breach Article 12.1 of the FIDE Rules:
Article 12: The conduct of the players12.1 “The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute.”
Here is the full article on ChessBase.
How can the Arbiter know that a player is drunk or just had a heart attack or whatever? He is not a doctor and he has no cristal ball. The natural instinct is to wake up the player in order to find out, what is wrong.
You can not always apply rules, you have to assess the situation first!
How can the arbiter know whether a player has just dozzed off, or had a heart attack or is drunk? He is not a doctor and has no chrystal ball!
The natural thing is to wakeup the player in order to find out, what is wrong!
Short is absolutely right.
Arbiters explanation that he acted in according to Article 13.2 of the Laws of Chess
“The arbiter shall act in the best interest of the competition. He should ensure that a good playing environment is maintained and that the players are not disturbed.”
is plain silly. In the best interest of the competition was to remove Tkachiev from the playing hall. In fact, he should have never been allowed to enter the playing hall in condition that he was in.
I think the arbiter made a mistake and the game should be awarded to Tkachiev.
First, we really don’t know how drunk
Tkachiev was, maybe he was used to playing inebriated and no Breathalyzer was given to determine if he had consumed lethal doses of alcohol and thus be in danger.
Second, the game was halted by the arbiter, when instead Tkachiev’s clock should have been allowed to run out. Assuming he was drunk maybe he would have regained sobriety to beat his opponent.
Tkachiev was robbed by meddling tournament officials and should be awarded the point.
The result is that tournament officials have over-reached their mandate and are removing snoozing players also.
Imagine if you, a blog visitor here, were playing Kasparov, and he dozed off, would you really claim the point? Or allow him to awake from his nap and rejoin the game?
Who wants to win like that ? Not me, wake him up so I can kick his drunk behind. Is jet lagged involved as I have read somewhere else?
Who wants to win like that ? Not me, wake him up so I can kick his drunk behind. Is jet lagged involved as I have read somewhere else?
“How can the arbiter know whether a player has just dozzed off, or had a heart attack or is drunk? He is not a doctor and has no chrystal ball!
The natural thing is to wakeup the player in order to find out, what is wrong!”
All true. But it was obvious for everybody that he was drunk. Thats why:
1) He should have never been allowed to enter the playing hall.
2) If he somehow came in to the playing hall unnoticed (how he managed to do that in the state that he was in is inexplicable), he should have been forfeited and removed from the playing hall by the arbiter imediatelly once he noticed it. And at the same time call the ambulance since Tkachiev was constantly passing out at the table.
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