The New York Times-20080127-An Eruption of Bad Feelings Mars an Elite Tournament
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An Eruption of Bad Feelings Mars an Elite Tournament
Full Text (396 words)What has happened to good sportsmanship in chess?
Last Sunday, at the Corus International tournament in the Netherlands, an ugly situation arose when Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria refused to shake the hand of Nigel Short of England before their match.
Cheparinov's actions stemmed from a feud between Short and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, for whom Cheparinov has worked for several years. Short has said that Topalov may have cheated in past tournaments.
After Cheparinov's refusal, Short complained to the referee, who consulted new rules from the World Chess Federation that mandate players to shake hands or at least greet each other in a normal social manner. The referee called a forfeit.
Cheparinov appealed. And since the referee must first ask the player to shake hands before declaring a forfeit, the decision was overturned. Cheparinov was told to apologize, as well as to shake Short's hand. Short was furious, but won anyway.
On Tuesday, Topalov faced Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. The two have had bad blood since their 2006 world championship match, during which Topalov insinuated that Kramnik was consulting a computer on frequent bathroom breaks.
After Topalov lost the match, he made those charges explicit. Kramnik filed charges with the chess federation, saying Topalov had broken its ethics rules by accusing him without proof.
Topalov and his manager, Silvio Danailov, were reprimanded.
Before Tuesday's match, the players did not shake hands, or even look at each other. There was no forfeit because neither made an effort to shake hands or to be civil.
These incidents follow one last month in France in which three Latvian players accused Anna Rudolf of Hungary of having computer assistance transmitted through her tube of lip balm.
The opening in the Topalov-Kramnik game was the highly theoretical and sharp Moscow variation of the Semi-Slav Defense. Topalov's 12 Nf7 was new, sacrificing a knight to bring Black's king into the open.
Topalov's 17 Qc2 was a strong move; there was no way to stop the infiltration of his queen. After 18 Qg6, the twin threats of 19 Qg7 and 19 Qe6 guaranteed that White would win back his piece.
Sacrificing his queen with 27 cd Rf7 28 Rc6 Kb8 29 Nf7 allowed Topalov to mobilize all his pieces as well as gaining a passed pawn.
When there was no good way to prevent mate (46 Nc7 and 47 Rb7), Kramnik resigned.
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