English Chess Forum

Some actual quotes from the man himself here . His comments make perfect sense to me. My favourite quote from the article above, Dubov talking about for how long he will have to self-isolate: It really depends on where you start counting, and it seems to be a very flexible thing. I will not pretend...

When has Dubov 'publicly shown little concern about basic preventive measures against the spread of the disease'? Until he appeared on the chess24 broadcast yesterday I don't recall him saying anything publicly on the subject. When he was asked to wear a mask by the tournament organisers, made a bi...

Did the tournament organisers actually confirm that they demanded Dubov to wear a mask despite the contract guaranteeing the opposite? So far as I have seen, they have confirmed nothing. If I have to guess, I suspect the contract might say that "the players are not normally required to wear a mask ...

Also he didn’t (I assume) contract Covid as a result of not wearing a mask. If you assume so... then it might be just karma. I repeat myself: nothing surprising that someone contracted covid after publicly showing little concern about basic preventive measures against the spread of the disease. He ...

In addition to a simple principled point about the contract that the tournament was being played under. Defaulting therefore reduced his chances in the tournament, but didn’t jeopardise his rating and playing with a mask was contrary to contractual agreement. I find questionable the argument about ...

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:54 am

Dubov has COVID

So, someone contracted covid after showing little concern about basic preventive measures against the spread of the disease; nothing surprising here. I'd suggest we call this "the Djokovic gambit".

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:30 am

There must also be players who claim their opponent has cheated because they were dissatisfied with the result of the game.

I believe what you just described accounts for the overwhelming majority of online cheating claims.

I think a far better system would be to require every member, when paying their ECF membership fee, to select which organisation should represent them. I could then select Nottinghamshire, or the MCCU, or the 4NCL, or Tim Wall, or John Reyes, or any of those entitled to vote (i.e. not restricted by...

https://twitter.com/FIDE_chess/status/1450461937117040640 From FIDE's twitter account: "The Organizers of the FIDE http://Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss are working with the government to agree on an exemption regarding the high-level international sports events. We will update you as...

In the strange times we inhabit, I'm not sure how you are supposed to find a sponsor who doesn't give offence to someone. Sure. But how often do you see mainstream newspapers reporting about unusual sponsorship agreements? You can't possibly deny this arrangement looks very odd. It's not only The G...

We are very used to anonymous pieces in LiChess, by now, "for fear of retribution." Perhaps it is so. Or perhaps they are just made up... Perhaps the LiChess comments are just made up. However, even if those comments were completely made up, I find it difficult to dismiss the concern about this spo...

This has been reported already on the "media comments on chess" thread but definitely deserves its own thread. Fide sparks anger with ‘gross’ breast enlargement sponsor for women’s chess This is the FIDE announcement https://www.fide.com/news/1351 It would be good to know who in FIDE decided about t...

I'm following the Norway chess tournament on chess24. Does anyone understand the standings numbers, particularly in the scores, the second number. Normally this would be the number of games played or the max points available to the player so far. With the armageddon game played after a draw, chess24...

I think Paolo is right. Although if he has happened to read any Italian press, they might not be the most neutral. Italian press is obviously not to be trusted on the subject, but it was not only them. This is a good summary in English: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/08/englands-pena...

Speaking to friends in the Czech Republic and Germany, we appear to have got a bad press over the laser pen incident and that few Italians will be at the final. They said most people are supporting Italy and that England is not popular. From what I read in non English press, reaching the final than...