Was this an illegal move?

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Chris Rice
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Was this an illegal move?

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:51 pm

I was watching a 2015 blitz game between Nakamura and Caruana and at 8:40 on the video things went completely mad. I thought Caruana by accident played an illegal move but the game continued to a draw. Under the current rules I assume Nakamura should have been awarded the game or is this incorrect?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymGP_rQ ... Nw&index=2

David Sedgwick
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Re: Was this an illegal move?

Post by David Sedgwick » Mon Jun 12, 2017 2:54 pm

Chris Rice wrote:I was watching a 2015 blitz game between Nakamura and Caruana and at 8:40 on the video things went completely mad. I thought Caruana by accident played an illegal move but the game continued to a draw. Under the current rules I assume Nakamura should have been awarded the game or is this incorrect?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymGP_rQ ... Nw&index=2
Thank you very much for drawing my attention to this video, which I had not previously seen.

As to the correct decision then and now, my not particularly useful comments are as follows:

1. We need to know to which Laws the game was being played. There are at least two possibilities, probably three.

2. It looked to me as though Caruana did not press the clock as such, but knocked it accidentally while placing the queen on the board. Was that the view of Tony Rich (the arbiter)?

3. If this was a completely accidental infraction by Caruana, I'm not sure what the decision should be whatever Laws were being used.

Views are welcome, of course.

I'm expecting to see Tony Rich later this month and I'll try to remember to ask him about the incident.

NickFaulks
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Re: Was this an illegal move?

Post by NickFaulks » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:15 pm

Looking at this in slow motion, it still isn't quite clear how the clock was pressed. I think his hand banged into the queens, both rocked around and one of them clipped the clock. Very unlucky.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Was this an illegal move?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:26 pm

NickFaulks wrote:Looking at this in slow motion, it still isn't quite clear how the clock was pressed. I think his hand banged into the queens, both rocked around and one of them clipped the clock. Very unlucky.
A frame-by-frame analysis would pick up whether it was Caruana's hand or something else that nudged the clock lever. I managed to pause the video on a frame that shows part of Caruana's hand (one of the fingers or the thumb) hitting the clock lever as he picks up the queen. It seems that the queens were close enough to the clock that the player going to pick them up risks hitting the clock at the same time. Maybe a case there for not putting the extra queens next to the clock!

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Re: Was this an illegal move?

Post by NickFaulks » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:37 pm

I still think his hand knocked the queen, which knocked the clock. His hand didn't go near the clock.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Was this an illegal move?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:48 pm

Yes, you are right. I've re-watched it in slow-mo (there is a setting on YouTube for this, down to quarter speed) and he didn't pick the queen up cleanly. He knocked into both, picked up the black queen, dropped it on (or it wobbled and touched) the clock lever and then he picked it up and did the promotion. The online comments back that up. That is clearly accidental.

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