Three decisive games in the 11th round but none of them had much impact on the top of the table. Bacrot moved back to +1 with a win over Karjakin, who dropped to -1. White would have had a lot more work to do had Karjakin played ..e5 a move earlier to get his bishop back to c8 asap. Then we had wins from the two oldest players in the field. Ivanchuk woke up to score his first win by beating Grischuk's King's Indian. Well, you can't blame it on the KID, which held up fine. But in this duel of time-trouble addicts it was Grischuk who finally hung his key d6 pawn and went for a desperation mating attack that failed. Gelfand continued his up and down ways with his fourth decisive game in the last five rounds. He beat Mamedyarov, who had his third decisive game in a row.
Am I a bad person for rooting against Mamedyarov in every game since he made those cheating accusations in January? From reading the comments I'm far from alone in this, but it feels a tiny bit unfair. Not that he knows about it or could care less, I'm sure. It feels a little obvious, but I can't help it. Should there be a statute of limitations on cheering against players who do or say obnoxious things, a la Topalov and the Elista scandals? Have you ever stopped liking someone's music, or movies, because they did or said something repulsive? I remember seeing the author Piers Anthony at a signing and talk at a Berkeley book store decades ago. He wrote punny sword-and-sorcery books my friends and I were fans of in high school (and apparently he is still cranking them out at 74!). Anyway, he was obnoxious at the signing, railing against some editors and publishers no one had heard of, insulting other authors, and taking some good whacks at people's questions along the way. I don't think any of us ever read his books again. Maybe he was just having a bad day. I suppose it might have been the sort of cantankerous talk I might appreciate from a favorite author now.
Getting back to Nalchik, with two rounds to play Aronian is still in clear first with Leko a half-point behind. They meet in Wednesday's final round. Tomorrow we have Leko-Kasimjanov and Kamsky-Aronian. The Armenian beat Kamsky on the black side of a Berlin at Corus this year.
mishamp in the comments here gives a bit of the Karjakin-Ivanchuk press conference with Ivanchuk chatting about who he considers a genius and who doesn't make the cut. The original is at the chesspro.ru site, which also has a lot of very good player photos.
Mig:
If this is true:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/europe/27kasparov.html?_r=3&ref=global-home
Then it should be a whole scene the day someone make a movie about Garry.
The statute of limitations on dissing a chessplayer for being obnoxious is "until they issue a genuine apology." As far as I know, Mamedyarov and Topalov, far from apologizing, have only reiterated their baseless and insulting accusations.
Let me guess... The Other Change of Hobbit, in Berkeley? I loved that place, with its comfy chairs and cats.
-- Jeff
Are you a good person for not rooting against Kasparov in every game since he made those cheating accusations against Deep Blue? Years ago at a small book store in Southern Vermont I was cash registered by a man I'd not seen there before and did not there see afterward who acted slightly uneasy; a later seen photograph of the author gave me to think it was John Irving; none of which has anything to do with my never having read any of his books. The list of players who'd thought they'd been in some or another way cheated would be I'm not sure what. Mamedyarov has a great smile.
Is anybody who has ever seen Tom Cruise in a chat show a bad person for thinking he's a creep
Interesting thinking , i forgot Garry´s acusations , i also believe that the person and the artist/player are two separate things .
I feel no shame on enjoing Kramniks games even though i dont trust him.
Agree with that. It's always been that way. Two of the best players ever, Alekhine and Fischer both said and did some very repulsive things. Their games are great however.
It strikes me that all the people attacking Mamedyarov are off base. If Mamedyarov thinks his opponent cheated, that's his opinion. Period. If his opponent didn't cheat, then GM Kurnosov (not sure about the spelling there) has nothing to worry about.
I definitely believe that the programmers of Deep Blue cheated. I'll go even further and state that I think the way that they cheated was to have GM Joel Benjamin incorporate changes to the program during the match. But that's just my opinion (I am unable to substantiate that because IBM has made sure no records are made available).
Perhaps all the people getting defensive about cheating have something to worry about themselves...? Let it go. Sheesh. The thing about cheaters is this. Just don't play with them again.
noyb, IBM published various logs after a while: http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/watch/html/c.shtml
They were allowed to change the program between games, so your "cheating" wouldn't be cheating.
Re: Mamedyarov. Of course he can have his opinion, but it's a different matter to express it publicly without proof. If I think you're a paedophile that's different from making a public accusation that could damage your reputation/career. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to say, as you do, if you're not a paedophile then you have nothing to worry about.
Your last paragraph is just ridiculous. People concerned about unproven accusation must be cheats themselves? You can just avoid playing someone suspected of cheating? Right...
I agrede with Ashish's sentiments. It is okay to be flustered in the heat of the moment... but you realize how stupid you have been then it is time for a genuine apology. In the case of Kasparov, he apologized about deep blue SEVERAL times (in the newspaper, in his books and in speeches).
I agree with Ashish's sentiments. It is okay to be flustered in the heat of the moment... but you realize how stupid you have been then it is time for a genuine apology. In the case of Kasparov, he apologized about deep blue SEVERAL times (in the newspaper, in his books and in speeches).
Hey Mig, no comments about GK's adventures in Sochi? Nice article in NYT.
Daniel,
You may be right about Kasparov apologizing for his Deep Blue cheating accusations but a google search for same came up empty.
Kasparov also apologized to Judit Polgar.
He said 'I am very sorry that you accused me of cheating, and even sorrier that there was a video of it'.
Kasparov apologized to IBM? Link please?
Do I detect a certain obsession with the past on this blog? Certain topics recur more often than "Jurassic Park" on our national broadcaster. Let IBM go guys..release your pain...
greg, I think that was a joke, and a nice one.
Good one Daniel. Good one.
Oh no, not these ridiculous conspiracy theories about IBM/Deep Blue again. I blame that nonsense "documentary" Game Over to a large degree for people treating Kasparov's BS accusations as if they were in any way reasonable.
I think it's not IBM, it's the double standards. We don't like Mamedyarov because he made ridiculous cheating accusations, but Kasparov's equally ridiculous accusations were OK. At least for Mig. Btw, have you seen what a cool thing he did in Sochi.
Jeez.
I assure you its not a joke. I read his apology in his own book on What life can teach you about chess. I will look for a page and exact quote later but in the footnotes it also made reference to a newspaper article, a speech and a previous mention in another book where apologized. Google does not know everything.
On another topic... I believe Leko should be given a frontpage interview on every chess media outlet ever for CRUSHING the petroff twice to tie with aronian for first going into the last round.
[Back to Nalchik:] What happened to "drawing master" Bacrot?? Eight draws were followed by four consecutive decisive games (white winning all of them). Did he take Mig's remark THAT seriously?? ,:)
And tomorrow Aronian-Leko _could_ be a final showdown for tournament victory. However, it may be unfortunate that they have the same number of points AND are one point clear of the field - hence, a (short) draw would mean shared first for both and may well be 'professional' behavior (!!?).
Thomas, I believe aronian will want to press with white. While a draw may come about due to no opponent wanting to throw the dice with risk... I expect that to be a long hard fought draw.
One must wonder if Leko's holes in the petroff weren't stuff he found while seconding for Kramnik to patch his holes in the petroff.
mishanp,
If you believe that IBM honestly published those logs then you are naive and haven't done your homework. Those logs were debunked as incomplete years ago. Also, IBM has NEVER released all of DEEP BLUE's calculations. So much for your first point...
Your last point is laughable. You obviously allowed your emotions to cloud your logic. Try reading what I wrote again. Not that I suspect it will do any good....
It strikes me that you're a moron. That's my opinion. Period.
You seem to imagine that the fact someone holds an opinion honestly means that it's necessarily OK for him to voice it publicly. It ain't so.
You never answered the point that IBM were allowed to change the code between games. Never been interested enough to find out, but that would be a rather comprehensive answer to your assertion that they cheated by doing so, would it not?
jcm
Well, I certainly haven't done any homework on the Deep Blue-Kasparov match - can you give us a link to where the logs were debunked? There was a Daily Dirt discussion of them here: http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2005/04/log_jam_deep_blue_and_kasparov.htm
Re: my laughable last point where emotion clouded out the logic... Feel free to make a logical point I can respond to. Otherwise there's just your original comment, which I'll paste here again, though it doesn't seem to improve much with repetition:
"Perhaps all the people getting defensive about cheating have something to worry about themselves...? Let it go. Sheesh. The thing about cheaters is this. Just don't play with them again."
Meanwhile, while we are waiting for proof that Kasparov apologized for claiming that IBM cheated, Aronian is squashing Leko like a grape.
Daniel, you were right and I was wrong ... that Aronian-Leko turned out to be a long and decisive game. And I am pleased to say so ,:).
Yet, my impression was that in the early part of the game (until around move 25) actually Leko tried [too] hard to win with the black pieces - eagerly awaiting expert comments and opinions on this.
However, in my opinion (for what it's worth) a fighting draw and consequently shared first place would have done best justice to the overall tournament performance of both players. Well, Leko has a legacy of losing crucial last-round games.
BTW, Bacrot continued his streak of non-drawing games, playing and winning with white again in today´s round.
Thomas -
Concerning your comment "Well, Leko has a legacy of losing crucial last-round games."
It may be that he lacks confidence because he has failed in past big games, so he loses again.
If that's what it is, I'd like to see him solve that psychological problem.
In the FWIW department, Mamedyarov wins a prize for "all-around developed sportsman!"
CO
Hi Daniel -
Are you still there? Did you find your exact quote and page number yet?
"I assure you its not a joke. I read his apology in his own book on What life can teach you about chess. I will look for a page and exact quote later but in the footnotes it also made reference to a newspaper article, a speech and a previous mention in another book where apologized."