Alan Burke wrote:Alex - If the game had to be eventually played and with the default for Cheparinov not shaking hands having been reversed, surely the ruling was made that shaking hands was not compulsory ? If the procedure is not written down then surely players could claim they do not know of this 'procedure' ?
It was published on the FIDE website, so it was written down. It isn't in the Laws of Chess, but it might be tucked away elsewhere in the FIDE Handbook. I've never bothered to search for it. What Roger suggests is probably quite likely.
I can't comment on the appeal, because I don't know the details of it. They could have decided:
(1) It wasn't part of the Laws of Chess (i.e. it wasn't a rule, it was just somewhere else); it hadn't gone through the requisite legal stuff.
(2) Cheparinov wasn't aware it was compulsory, due to improper notification of the rule. If it was just tucked away on the website, it may not have been announced as a rule at the tournament itself, or in Cheparinov's contract.