Saturday 12 November 2011

Cracking under pressure

The players at Street Chess continue provide sources of amusement. Today was a good example, with a dramatic last round game on the menu.
Milan Grcic was one of 4 players tied for first, all on 4.5/6. His last round opponent was Mos Ali on 4. Two of the other players on 4.5 were playing each other so the odds were pretty good that someone was going to get to 5.5. Under the circumstances it was hardly surprising that last round nerves might play a part in the result. Indeed when the round started both Grcic and Ali were still finishing up a conversation, away from the board. After a few minutes the game began in earnest.
Fortunately for Grcic he was able to handle the final round pressure a little better than Ali, and found a neat checkmate in 4 moves. This moved him up to 5.5, and as only one other player in the leading group was able to win, enabled him to take home $37.50 as part of his shared first place. As for Ali, his unfortunate loss left him stuck on 4 points, and out of the money.

Ali,Mos - Grcic,Milan [A00]
Street Chess Canberra, 12.11.2011

1.f3 e5 2.Kf2 d5 3.Kg3 Bc5 4.c3 Qg5# 0-1

14 comments:

Paul said...

Mos got his ham smoked...What was he thinkjng (or not) by playing 1 f3 ? 4...e3...

Paul said...

4 e3 keeps him alive....

Anonymous said...

I say ban them both for cheating. Two obvious friends organized for Milan to win in order to get at least a share of first. Not player over 1700 would EVER play such an opening. I am 100% serious that some thing should be done about this!! These are ACF rated rapid games so the ACF should be indformed.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the comment above. The fact that these are ACF rated games and there is a small amount of prize money involved is an absolute disgrace. Both players involved in this should be ashamed of themselves.

Garvin said...

Instead of just being two anonymous posters, I will put my name to my post. I thought this was a disgrace too, but thought I might just be over-reacting to a situation.

How is this not game fixing?

Paul said...

I am in the USA and do not know these players, but my question was why such an opening move for White to begin with ? If cheating did occur then someone here deserves to be penalized !

Anonymous said...

Mos just walked his king out to be mated. I bet they both thought it quite amusing, but I suspect the other tournament leaders did not. And I agree with Garvin: those with big opinions should have names.

Ashley Oakes (AO)

Nick Beare said...

I was sitting right next to this game when it was played and I don't believe it to be intentional.  Mos looked pretty surprised when he was mated.  As for playing 1.f3, 2.Ke2 the opening is genuine.  Even though Mos is a good player he can miss simple things, he dropped a whole rook against me for free in rd 3 in same tournament. 

Nick Beare said...

2.Kf2 rather. I think it's called hammerschlang or something, it's, played by ACT junior Glenn Qi quite frequently.

Anonymous said...

I still think it was intentional. Yes, f3 and Kg2 I believe is an opening. But the inclusion of Kg3 surely is not.

I trust that you will, Shaun, as an international arbiter, be taking this matter further?

Nick Beare said...

I have been told that Kg3 can be played in some lines. All this suspicion is inappropriate. People shouldn't accuse others of throwing a game just because they played a bad move, that's not fair. Chess players should feel free to play whatever moves they want over the chess board and shouldn't be judged for making mistakes.

Anonymous said...

Nowadays cheating does occur in Chess tournaments. Did it here ? I have no idea.

Anonymous said...

Mos' repetoire for games he wants to win or draw against strong opposition certainly doesn't include f3, Kg2, Kg3 systems - check the database. If this appeared in a tournament I played in I'd be annoyed at what would appear to me subjectively as match fixing. It happens in cricket and other sports, and if it happened here, its not fair for everyone.

-Peter P

Anonymous said...

I didn't know you had a database of Australian Rapid games by Mos, Peter. Did it ever occur to you that people play differently in rapid games?