This happened to one of my friends. Besides it being a funny story, it leads to a moral dilemma.
He was playing in the last round for the first place. He was better, though not winning, in the ending and the opponent was running out of time. At some moment the opponent claimed a draw. The arbiter asked him to play on. He refused claiming that his opponent “would try to trick him”. The arbiter saw his point and declared a draw. My friend appealed.
The quickly put together appeals committee included the arbiter and the travel companion of the opponent. It also included the hotel manager, who was seen as unbiased. With the votes 3-2, they decided to declare the game a draw. The opponent’s travel companion voted for a win for my friend; so no unfair bias there. The hotel manager voted for a draw. When asked if he played chess, he said, “yes.” My friend rephrased: “Do you know how the pieces move?” The answer was “most of them.”
Jokes aside: let’s vote on whether or not the committee made the right decision.
Not surprisingly Boris Avrukh did very well in the voting for the book of the year from Quality Chess, but he was overtaken by Martin Weteschik. This book certainly has longevity and some very dedicated fans, which is marked by the jump from obscurity to first place overnight in the middle of the voting period. I do suspect that someone fiddled with the settings and voted repeatedly.
However, it is clear that both books have tremendious support. So, I have decided to divide the honour into best middlegame book and best opening book.
We have debated a little bit which companies have the best designs. But I think it makes more sense to talk about books. Can you please give me some suggestions and second those suggestions you agree with. I will then put two polls together and we can see what people really think :-). Best and worst!
But suggest only ones you like here; not dislikes.
So, John is our most desired author? In that case it is good the world did not end in 2012 and he can be allowed to impress us with his great insights…
And then of course there is the issue of Main lines. Do you like them or not – and what are they really?
I will leave this one to speak for itself. All I want to add is that we always appreciate the feedback.
People love the McCutchian it seems. I better look up how it is spelled!
For most playing the Olympiad, this was a disaster of a tournament. Bad food, bad internet, ok hotels, RUBBISH location, decent playing conditions, inexperienced arbiters (who did not understand the three time repetition rule before move 30) and a general low-cost attitude to everything.
The internet coverage was probably not bad besides a glitch in round 1.
2014 and 2016 are both likely to be top-class events. Sadly I am now retired, but John, Colin and Andrew are all possible on the Scottish team by then! Maybe Cathy will play for the Scottish ladies team?!
After a very close run it was decided that White has compensation in the Morra Gambit. I personally do not feel inclined to accept it after reading Esserman’s book…
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