The Chess World Cup 2017

[Kerry Liles]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

Shorts again in the playing hall. Now by Ivanchuk. The picture at http://chess-news.ru/node/23717 (text in Russian)
Though Ivanchuk was not playing.

lol - on a shorter person those might just be pants... :)

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

If we wish the sponsors to fund our tournaments and the media to promote them, we are all responsible to have an appropriate dress code for at least the official Chess World Championship Cycle competitions.

The same dress proposal had requirements for the official too. The chief arbiter should have kicked Zurab out of the hall if it was more than a proposal.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

Shorts again in the playing hall. Now by Ivanchuk. The picture at http://chess-news.ru/node/23717 (text in Russian)
Though Ivanchuk was not playing.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

Typical FIDE bullshit. They think all they have to do is write a letter and post it and that is all there is to it.
Z.A. is an incompetent moron and a suitable foil for IllusionOf. In his master's image...

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

The Chess World Cup 2017

September 11, 2017

Zurab Azmaiparashvili’s Statement from the official World Cup chess site today:

From 2012, when I became the Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, till nowadays, I have brought around 20 million USD for chess: We have organized top events like Grand Prix, Women Grand Prix (twice), Women and Individual European championships, European Youth and World Cadets Championship, FIDE World Cup and next year we are going to organize the Olympiad…

When a country and private sponsors invest such a big amount in chess, it is expected that it will be respected from all chess community and especially from the professional chess players who are the beneficiaries of the prize fund. Especially at the FIDE World Cup, for which we did anything possible (even took the loan from the Bank) to secure the chess players’ prize fund 4 months in advance.

When we are asking for sponsorship and big prize funds then the professional chess players and their unions should also bear the responsibility to protect these investments.

It is not appropriate for a chess player to declare a day before that he intentionally came with only one shorts and that he is ready to leave, because he has other more important obligations. Indeed, he left the tournament as he stated that he wished to do so only one day before!

(http://chess-news.ru/node/2368 1)

This is a top level tournament with 1,6 million prize fund and it is part of the WC cycle.

It is not a private or local tournament! It is not a youth event!

Such attitude is harming the organization through media and is preventing any future sponsor to invest in chess. This is a big damage to chess and its funding.

I have to dispel the confusion and say that nobody had told the player that he should be forfeited or that he could not play the game. Mr. Kovalyov was instructed by the Chief Arbiter as well as by the organizers, that according to the regulations he should have been dressed appropriately. But he was being ignorant. If he had just simply asked for our help, we would have sent a car to bring him some more clothes at our expense or even drive Mr. Kovalyov after the game to choose it by himself. What would be the problem in showing some respect to the organizers?

If I said some words, during a minute of an emotional conversation which followed, that insulted Mr. Kovalyov, I am ready to apologize and I would do it here as well as, in front of him if he were here in his position, playing his games, as he was supposed to do. I have always been ready in my life to correct any mistake and I have no problem to do it in this case as well.

But the truth is that nobody told that he should be forfeited, nobody told him that he could not play and nobody told him to leave the tournament. This was only his intention, which he revealed one day earlier.

And so, he left an empty board, a chess player without an opponent, damaging again the FIDE World Cup and its sponsors.

In social media, this fact has caused, in my opinion, incomprehensible reactions. Even a conspiracy theory was created – that all this was the reason Mr. Kovalyov left the tournament. It is absurd and even commenting on this subject is unnecessary. We respect each and every participant and naturally, we expect and demand from them the same respect and attitude towards the organizers and their colleagues. In spite of the fact, that Mr. Kovalyov’s attitude towards such a prestigious tournament was frivolous to begin with (changing the flight dates in a force majeure situation), nobody had even reprimanded him.

I am waiting for Mr. Kovalyov to also apologize for this disrespect towards the organizers and towards his colleagues for withdrawing from the tournament and affecting its results.

So, I want to ask any interested party, in your opinion is it worth for sponsors to put such amounts of money for prize funds, promoting their image, when chess players have such behaviors and attitude?

And I also want to say that if Mr. Kovalyov denied receiving his share of the prize fund this makes no difference for us. We have already paid 1.776 million to FIDE and we need to present to our sponsors what is the service that they paid for.

And finally, I would like to say – I’ll do my best to improve the image of our sport and the way chess top events look through mass media, including TV.

If we wish the sponsors to fund our tournaments and the media to promote them, we are all responsible to have an appropriate dress code for at least the official Chess World Championship Cycle competitions.

(signed) Tbilisi, 11.09.2017

http://cdn.fide.com/wp-content/uploa...-Statement.pdf
________

The statement has an air of injured innocence, that is, Z.A. is hurt by the notion that anyone would imply that he is in any way at fault.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

We have made a protest. Since the Olympiad is in the same country with the same organizers we need to have some discussions about a very public boycott if the protest does not yield a positive result.

By all means be sure to tell us the result of that protest... Maybe you will get a postcard from IllusionOf or one of his hired morons like Z.A.

I saw another post where someone wondered if Sambuev might have been persuaded to stay and act as a sort of 'second' for Anton... at first that
seemed like a great concept, but I have no idea whether the two of them get along or would get along. In any case, I imagine Sambuev likely had
a pre-booked flight to catch.

I really hope the CFC can actually support Anton in this outrageous incident. It seems sadly very clear the CFC has no leverage of any kind except
to stamp feet and complain about how pathetic FIDE is at all levels.

I can well understand Anton's reaction and in a way I respect his decision to effectively tell them to sod off. In an alternate universe he would have
taken off his shorts and played without pants...

I also noticed that Grischuk routinely wears t-shirts that can only be described as "Bohemian" (in a non-gyspy sort of way) and several other players
and Z.A. himself look far worse than Anton allegedly looked. I wonder if Anton regrets NOT punching him out...

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

The Chess World Cup 2017

September 11, 2017

1/16 Finals, Playoffs
Round 3, Games 7 and 8

Results

Game 7
5+3
Matlakov-Aronian 0-1

Game 8
5+3
Aronian-Matlakov 0.5-0.5

The game was agreed drawn but somehow was scored officially as a win for Aronian!

Matlakov is eliminated

Pairings for 1/8 Finals

1. Bu Xiangzhi-Peter Svidler
2. MVL-Alexander Grischuk
3. Vassily Ivanchuk-Anish Giri
4. Levon Aronian-Daniil Dubov
5. Wesley So-Baadur Jobava
6. Vladimir Fedoseev-Maxim Rodshtein
7. Evgeniy Najer-Richard Rapport
8. Wang Hao-Ding Liren

Games from Round 3 to follow

[Brent Golem]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

One guy managed to bring some money into chess, and he dressed up, all the time.

Seriously. Dress up or go home. The sponsors won't pay for a guy wearing shorts. It's so elementary I can't believe I have to explain it. Forget about the rest of the show. If The show is a guy wearing shorts.... nothing to sell here...

Sponsors are not what make any professional sport economically viable. Sponsorship money is icing on the cake. Sponsors and TV contracts are not based on how players dress, but rather based on ability to captivate an audience. The problem isn't the players, they are young and relatable to the internet generation. Grandmasters have never been more accessible to amateur players. I streamed the first match between GM Varuzhan Akobian and GM Anton Kovalyov, not because Akobian wore a suit and Kovalyov wore shorts, but because it was a GM I knew from St Louis Chess Club videos and he was playing a Canadian. Turned out I made a great choice and I never saw what they were wearing until a week later.

The Chess.com sponsored Chessbrah stream was great. I have no clue who is the World Cup sponsor, so that's the reason there is no money in professional chess sponsorship, Agon and broadcasters have very little captive audience to sell to sponsors. FIDE is on par with FIFA and the Olympic committee for being a terribly run organization. Chess is well positioned to become one of the pre-eminent e-sports if FIDE gets out of its own way. FIDE only has annual revenues of 1.8 to 2.8 million euros. I'd be surprised Chess.com doesn't have better revenues and they are doing a much better job of building a chess community. Chess.com will probably be the leader in growing chess interest over the next few years, more so than FIDE, and they don't enforce a dress code.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

I believe that the issue with the shorts would have been resolved easily enough and Anton would still be there if it wasn't for ZA. I respect Anton's integrity for walking away after being treated/abused the way he was.

Anton could also give a big F U to Zurab and come to the venue with a pair of pants. That's what Bobby Fischer did and he brought more money into chess than anyone before or after...

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

The Chess World Cup 2017

September 11, 2017

1/16 Finals, Playoffs
Round 3, Games 5 and 6

Results

Game Five
10+10

1. Aronian-Matlakov 1-0
2. Navara-Grischuk 0.5-0.5
3. Giri-Sethuraman 1-0

Matlakov lost a drawn ending

Game Six
10+10

1. Matlakov-Aronian 1-0
2. Grischuk-Navara 1-0
3. Sethuraman-Giri 0-1

Anish Giri has had a monumental struggle to stay in the contest. This from chess.com yesterday, which quoted Homer’s Odyssey:

“Then he raised a cry throughout the city, and as they heard it the mighty Laestrygonians came thronging from all sides, a host past counting, not like men but like the Giants. They hurled at us from the cliffs with rocks huge as a man could lift, and at once there rose throughout the ships a dreadful din, alike from men that were dying and from ships that were being crushed. And spearing them like fishes they bore them home, a loathly meal. Now while they were slaying those within the deep harbor, I meanwhile drew my sharp sword from beside my thigh, and cut therewith the cables of my dark-prowed ship; and quickly calling to my comrades bade them fall to their oars, that we might escape from out our evil plight. And they all tossed the sea with their oar-blades in fear of death, and joyfully seaward, away from the beetling cliffs, my ship sped on; but all those other ships were lost together there." (Homer, Odyssey, 10.120-10.134)

Anish Giri died a thousand deaths today. Several times he was about to resign his game with S.P. Sethuraman, and say goodbye to the World Cup. He had already worked out the first thing he would do: go to the room of his second GM Erwin l'Ami—not his own, where wife and son were waiting—and kick Erwin out.

"I wanted to be alone," said Giri.

But the Dutchman did not resign. He sailed his ship through all the dangers, missed a forced draw along the way, sailed further, and a bit further than necessary with his safe haven already in sight, but made it in the end.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/tbil...k-nakamura-out

Eliminated

Sethuraman
Navara

Going on to Round 4

Giri
Grischuk

Going to 5+3

Aronian-Matlakov

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

Anton wrote the second letter on his Facebook. Full text

A few clarifications, hopefully my last ones since I don't like to repeat myself.

1. The actual timing:

Everyday I would come about 15 minutes before the game. I was one of the very few players to do so, sometimes it was just me and maybe one or two players more. I wouldn't just sit, I would go in circles around the playing hall before and during the game. I was seen by several arbiters and even had a few eye contacts with some of them. Really, if you are an arbiter that is doing their job you must be blind not to see me. That day I made an exception and came about 10 minutes before the game. Mr. Deluga happened to be standing close to my board. He immediately asked me to change my shorts, his tone wasn't the nicest but he choose the right words to do so. Zurab later on approached me about 5 minutes before the game.

2. The color confusion:

I did NOT MAKE ANY CLAIM! I thought I'm playing with white and asked Mr. Deluga to check. While he went to check I talked to other arbiters who confirmed to me that I'm playing with black. I said it's OK and proceeded to explain why I confused the color. I didn't find the actual color pairing anywhere and I didn't receive an email from the organization as it happened before my game with Anand. So as reference I used the pairing tree where my name is above Rodshtein's and due to the pattern of this meaning that the player above plays with white, I assumed so. Anyways I told the arbiters that this is not a problem. And it really wasn't, since I already knew what Rodshtein plays with white, and although I didn't seriously prepare for this, those that know me, know that I have experience and really like playing against the Catalan opening. So again, for those that don't understand, playing with black that day was not an issue for me! I talked a little with the arbiters, one of them mentioned an anecdote that this has happened to Kamsky once, and that many players make the same confusion. Then I was approached by Mr. Deluga, he showed me the official pairing and I told him it's OK and we didn't speak again.

3. The threats from Zurab:

When Zurab approached me he didn't give me any warning. He assured me that I will be punished by FIDE. At that point I was shocked since I was not given any warning before. This was a huge shock for me before the game, since I don't know what "punished by FIDE" means. Will I be banned from playing chess? Will I get kicked out from the tournament? Will I be stripped away from my monetary prize? All of this questions crossed my mind. I knew that Zurab is the organizer of the tournament and an influential figure in FIDE, and in a prepotent way he yelled that he could do whatever he wants. So even after this threat I wasn't sure if there was point in playing my game. It was clear to me that I wasn't wanted there and Zurab wanted to destabilize me before my game.

4. The use of the racial slur:

Zurab used the word "gypsy" when referring to me multiple times. First he said that I look like one. Later on, when I inquired why he was so rude to me he did indeed respond "BECAUSE YOU'RE A GYPSY" and I believe he repeated this again when I was standing there in shock thinking what action to take. This was all done in a very condescending tone. If you don't know what somebody means when they call you a "gypsy" in a condescending tone and yet you claim it's not a big deal, then I recommend you informing yourself better.

5. The tone of the "conversation":

Zurab was yelling at me at all times during our "conversation", if you can call it that way. He "talked" to me in a very prepotent and condescending tone. I remained respectful till I couldn't take it anymore, and before doing anything impulsive I thought about the consequences and decided to leave. It was clear that Zurab was provoking me, it was obvious that I was upset and he kept repeating the same threats and insults. There were some people in the playing hall at that time, if you heard something, please speak up.

6. My shorts:

I don't know what category my shorts enter. They were a gift from my mother who does her best in buying good quality clothes. I felt very comfortable using this shorts, and to my standards this are some really nice shorts, but I'm not the type of person that follows fashion and is concerned about it. In no way I pretended to offend anybody using this shorts. As I already mentioned I even asked in the previous world cup if what I was wearing was OK (I was wearing other shorts, but they were certainly not better) and I was said that it's fine. In the previous world cup I also made it till round 3, beating former World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Continental Champion Sandro Mareco, and eventually losing to the famous super GM Fabiano Caruana.

If my shorts were actually a problem I should have been warned and I would have taken a cab to the mall and bought pants during the free day. It was really not a problem. And what happened in the previous world cup proves that I was willing to cooperate. To my understanding I was dressed decently, but I do come from a humble family, where moral values are put way above superficial things, and that's something I'm proud of and will not tolerate being shamed of. I was later on told that the rules about the dress code are vague and the way I was dressed was not specifically prohibited. Even in this case I WAS WILLING TO COOPERATE.

7. My hygiene:

Anybody that knows me, and/or has lived with me knows that I'm a clean person that showers everyday, and more than once. Claiming that because I wear shorts I'm probably a dirty person is a fallacy and if you don't know how I am, I recommend keeping such assumptions to yourself. Otherwise, what you're doing is wrong and I'm sure you will be outraged the same way as I am when hearing such nonsense about yourself.

8. My decision:

It seems that some people don't understand that I took the hard way out of this situation. To keep my dignity I declined winning several thousands dollars that would of helped my family's economical situation significantly, and instead I put them and myself in a hard situation since we lost about 3000 dollars in this affair, and this is a lot of money for us. Zurab might be used to treat with people that swallow their pride in order to make some dollars. I'm not one of that people. Dignity is way above any money and fame, if you don't see this I recommend you to do some soul searching.

I hope this is my last input about this situation and I can carry on with my daily life without getting distracted. So before you post anything please think twice and inform yourself well.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

The Chess World Cup 2017

September 11, 2017

1/16 Finals, Playoffs
Round 3, Games 3 and 4

Results

Game Three
25+10

1. Najer-Caruana 0.5-0.5
2. Aronian-Matlakov 0.5-0.5
3. Lenderman-MVL 0-1
4. Grischuk-Navara 0.5-0.5
5. Vidit-Ding Liren 0.5-0.5
6. Giri-Sethuraman 1-0
7. Rapport-Li Chao 1-0
8. Nepomniachtchi-Jobava 0.5-0.5

Game Four
25+10

1. Caruana-Najer 0-1
2. Matlakov-Aronian 0.5-0.5
3. MVL-Lenderman 0.5-0.5
4. Navara-Grischuk 0.5-0.5
5. Ding Liren-Vidit 1-0
6. Sethuraman-Giri 1-0
7. Li Chao-Rapport 0.5-0.5
8. Jobava-Nepomniachtchi 1-0

Eliminated

Caruana
Lenderman
Li Chao
Nepomniachtchi
Vidit

Going through to Round 4 (Sept. 12)

Najer
MVL
Rapport
Jobava
Ding Liren

[Sam Sharpe]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

I believe that the issue with the shorts would have been resolved easily enough and Anton would still be there if it wasn't for ZA. I respect Anton's integrity for walking away after being treated/abused the way he was.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

Just for the record:

Fischer dressed up, he asked for more money... and he got it.

And he was more the result of a generation than the result of a 'tension'.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The Chess World Cup 2017

The best paid sports are played in shorts, and they are much shorter than Anton's. If you wanna enforce a dress-code, write properly what that means. Otherwise it becomes shorts versus jeans.

Again... the very fact that we have to explain... it means you don't understand in the first place. Who said FIDE should decide what you wear?

You qualify for a tournament where you're gonna earn more than 10k. You are one of the 128 best in the world at what you do (chess). You then beat a former world champion at what you do (chess). Some journalists might show up tomorrow to see what you do (chess) and take some pictures.... What do you wear? Yeah, sure, let's rock that pair of shorts just like it's another Sunday...