World Championship 2010

[Carl Hibbard]

It would never cross my mind. How does one do that, though, technically?

Using an 'iframe' surrounding the 'tfd.htm' version of the URL from the appropriate server

[Matt Mackenzie]

Anyway, creditable draw for Vishy today

Two years ago he beat Kramnik playing like Topalov - it looks like he now plans the opposite

[Alex Holowczak]

I wonder if Anand offered a draw (which Topalov obviously declined).

[LozCooper]

I wonder if Anand offered a draw (which Topalov obviously declined).

I assume he claimed the repetition

[Alex Holowczak]

I wonder if Anand offered a draw (which Topalov obviously declined).

I assume he claimed the repetition

That was my assumption, but I thought Anand might have offered a draw at two-fold repetition.

[Mick Norris]

Best quote I've seen so far

"Finally the arbiter has come to the board and stopped this outrage. DRAW! The ending has ruined my good mood and spoiled the chess festive occasion. Since the initiative of all these anti-draw scrapes belongs to Bulgarian part then it should answer for this. What has happened is evident disrespect towards the opponent and towards the chess on the whole. So, the game turned out to be pretty bare and short of any bright effects. Anand has chosen the most reliable and solid variation and demonstrated his special composure in defense, However hard Topalov may have tried he hadn’t real chance to penetrate the armour – and logical draw as a result. Score is even at 1,5-1,5. The comments have been made for you by yours truly, GM Sergey Shipov."

[Mick Norris]

More detail here:

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/wch-g ... more-24592

Here Topalov asked the arbiter to offer a draw to Anand. The scoresheets were signed, and no handshake took place. At the press conference Topalov said he simply forgot (but not before Anand jokingly said: 'maybe that has to go through the arbiter as well')

I look forward with interest to ""London rules" for 2012 - maybe draw offers have to arrive on red double decker buses

[Jonathan Bryant]

I assume he claimed the repetition

Amusingly enough - according to the Chess Vibes report cited above - Anand didn't claim the draw by repetition when he could have done. He simply repeated the position for the third time and left Topalov to offer the draw.

To be honest I think it's entirely reasonable for anybody to play on and on if that's what s/he wants to do but in my ever so humble opinion once the point is clearly about to be split offering a draw via the arbiter achieved very little other than to make Toppy come across as a bit of a nob.

[Roger de Coverly]

Anand didn't claim the draw by repetition when he coudl have done

According to Anand, they aren't playing to any special rules - well he isn't even if Topalov is.

If I remember correctly, the implementation of "Sofia" rules at the London Chess Classic was slightly different. Were players allowed to offer draws in the normal way, but the opponent couldn't accept without the arbiter's permission?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Anand didn't claim the draw by repetition when he coudl have done

According to Anand, they aren't playing to any special rules - well he isn't even if Topalov is.

If I remember correctly, the implementation of "Sofia" rules at the London Chess Classic was slightly different. Were players allowed to offer draws in the normal way, but the opponent couldn't accept without the arbiter's permission?

Presumably Dave Sedgewick would be best placed to answer this ... but to my memory draws could not be offered without the permission of the arbiter.

[Arshad Ali]

Will things start to get ugly in Sofia if Anand pulls ahead of Topalov? Why couldn't Anand have opted for neutral territory?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Will things start to get ugly in Sofia if Anand pulls ahead of Topalov? Why couldn't Anand have opted for neutral territory?

(a) very possibly.
(b) money - lack thereof.

[David Sedgwick]

Anand didn't claim the draw by repetition when he coudl have done

According to Anand, they aren't playing to any special rules - well he isn't even if Topalov is.

If I remember correctly, the implementation of "Sofia" rules at the London Chess Classic was slightly different. Were players allowed to offer draws in the normal way, but the opponent couldn't accept without the arbiter's permission?

Presumably Dave Sedgewick would be best placed to answer this ... but to my memory draws could not be offered without the permission of the arbiter.

Jonathan, sorry if I sound as though I've got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, but:

1. Please would you spell my name correctly in future;
2. It's Roger who is correct.

Albert Vasse (Chief Arbiter) and I had a meeting with Geurt Gijssen at the FIDE Congress in Halkidiki in October. We agreed that the correct procedure for implementing "Sofia Rules" under the 2009 FIDE Laws of Chess was as Roger describes.

In London it worked very well.

However, unknown to me at the time, it hadn't worked so well at the Tal Memorial in Moscow the previous month. Gijssen himself was the Chief Arbiter. He describes an episode in the game Leko-Ivanchuk, where Ivanchuk offered a draw and Leko thought for ten minutes before deciding that he wished to accept. Gijssen was minded to refuse, but Leko protested that he would have lost ten minutes.

See http://www.chesscafe.com/text/geurt140.pdf

We may need to have a minor rethink before London 2010.

[Roger de Coverly]

However, unknown to me at the time, it hadn't worked so well at the Tal Memorial in Moscow the previous month. Gijssen himself was the Chief Arbiter. He describes an episode in the game Leko-Ivanchuk, where Ivanchuk offered a draw and Leko thought for ten minutes before deciding that he wished to accept. Gijssen was minded to refuse, but Leko protested that he would have lost ten minutes.

See http://www.chesscafe.com/text/geurt140.pdf

We may need to have a minor rethink before London 2010.

Gijssen doesn't think that the arbiter should have chess knowledge though. I would have thought that the arbiter is acting on behalf of the spectators who would wish to see that a game was clearly drawn before a decision was made, but who were content to allow a draw in clearly dead positions. Therefore some level of expertise is needed.

Arbiters need to spell out the practicalities for the benefit of players though:-

(1) does time pressure or the presence of incremental move rates make a difference?
(2) should you summon the arbiter immediately a draw offer is made and if you do, can you continue to play even if the arbiter says it's Ok to draw?
(3) what happens if the arbiter wants time to make a decision?

[Alex Holowczak]

From the live game on the official website:

"Warning! It is absolutely prohibited the live broadcast of the moves or video during the game on other websites, media or software without the explicit permission of the organizers of the match.

This prohibition is being violated by ChessBase"

The video, yes. The moves, no.