Fair play!

[Andy Howie]

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2011/09/...nship.html

[Derek Howie]

OK, I'll be first to say it. It's a shame that the Czech football team doesn't follow the example of their chess players.

[Alan Tate]

I'm struggling to see the fair play element here. It seems Moiseenko tried a bit of gamesmanship by saying Navara had clipped a piece on the way to making a move with another piece (every chess player knows you have to do deliberately for it to count as touch move). You could say it is very sporting of Navara but that is not the word I would use to describe it!

[David Deary]

Personally I know of a specific individual who played my brother last season and 'cheated' at a congress by deliberately picking up a piece placing it down on the board took his hand off the piece to press the clock realising it was going to be taken he then picked the piece back up and moved it elsewhere.

Fair play is something we like to preach but in practice if someone cheats you, the arbiter asks for witnesses and if the boards to your left and right are empty - good luck! Its a farce, In my 12 years playing chess on and off that has never happened to me. If it did and my opponent didn't admit it the board would have been flipped over by me. Why would an adult cheat a 13 year old boy? :\

The case for video evidence in chess anyone? :U

[Andrew McHarg]

Personally I know of a specific individual who played my brother last season and 'cheated' at a congress by deliberately picking up a piece placing it down on the board took his hand off the piece to press the clock realising it was going to be taken he then picked the piece back up and moved it elsewhere.

Fair play is something we like to preach but in practice if someone cheats you, the arbiter asks for witnesses and if the boards to your left and right are empty - good luck! Its a farce, In my 12 years playing chess on and off that has never happened to me. If it did and my opponent didn't admit it the board would have been flipped over by me. Why would an adult cheat a 13 year old boy? :\

The case for video evidence in chess anyone? :U

I think most people are more honourable than that.

I was playing a guy once and he put his Queen in a place where my Knight could just capture it for nothing and then pressed his clock, and then quickly put his hand back on his Queen and started moving it around as if he hadn't yet decided. When I told him that he had already made the move and even pressed the clock, he agreed and then resigned without making a fuss. I think it was just an impulse, when the horror of what he had done became immediately apparent to him. If he had made a fuss over it I would have been very angry! I might even have resorted to throwing the pieces all over the place and leaving, but I probably wouldn't have because I was still winning anyway.

Anyway, there's a silly wee irrelevant story, it's nice to see some nice gestures at the highest level, whether technically correct or not it's still a good demonstration of honour and integrity.

[Alex McFarlane]

Navara is right handed so the chances of him doing more than a slight brushing of the king before touching the bishop is greatly reduced. With varifocal glasses, if you look through the wrong part of the lens then it can affect your co-ordination. This was not the case here.

I can understand a player if he thought a piece had been touched making a gesture before realising that it was not deliberate. Whilst not impossible this seems an unlikely senario in this case.

I'm struggling to see why FIDE seem to be making a virtue out of the actions of both players. Now if Moiseenko had declined the draw offer then we really would have witnessed good sportsmanship.

I've also seen that the clock, which was stopped by Navara, did not restart and that Moiseenko did not play too well between moves 35 and 40 possibly as a result of this. To my mind this would have been a more plausible explanation for Navara's subsequent draw offer but it doesn't seem to be the one being put forward.

[Alan Tate]

There is video footage but I can't seem to find it just now.
Having watched it, it can be seen that Navara's hands were shaking at points, and he seemed to move the pieces like a beginner(!) - not sure if he has coordination issues but seems likely.
Agree that if it was really fair play then Moiseenko should have declined the draw offer.
On the other hand maybe we shouldn't knock some positive reporting of chess for a change? Even if we are not getting the real story.

[robin moore]

David Deary wrote..

Personally I know of a specific individual who played my brother last season and 'cheated' at a congress by deliberately picking up a piece placing it down on the board took his hand off the piece to press the clock realising it was going to be taken he then picked the piece back up and moved it elsewhere.

Fair play is something we like to preach but in practice if someone cheats you, the arbiter asks for witnesses and if the boards to your left and right are empty - good luck! Its a farce, In my 12 years playing chess on and off that has never happened to me. If it did and my opponent didn't admit it the board would have been flipped over by me. Why would an adult cheat a 13 year old boy

?

At the Glasgow congress by any chance?

[David Deary]

At the Glasgow congress by any chance?

Yep - got it in one buddy.