Dear Editor,
With reference to the recently concluded National Chess Federation Qualification Tournament, it is a sad day for the sport of chess if the decision and position taken by the Tournament Director, Mr Irshad Mohammed, is allowed to stand. I am referring to the game between Mr Roy Sharma and Mr Errol Tiwari.
I have done enormous research on the decision and have been unable to find one occasion when a game of chess has ever been ordered replayed because of wrong colours, especially after the game was completed. In the preface to the FIDE laws of chess, it is stated, “Where cases are not precisely regulated by an article of the laws, it should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the laws. The laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgment and absolute objectivity.” That very article proves Mr Roy Sharma to be correct.
Under Article 5 51- 6 it is stated that the game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns.
This immediately ends the game. Mr Errol Tiwari, President of the Guyana Chess Federation and chess columnist of Sunday Stabroek resigned his game against Mr Sharma after he realized that he would be mated on the next move. It is ironic that Mr Tiwari’s column of Sunday, October 19, spoke of the speed and strength of Mr Nathoo’s play. I wonder how he would describe a player who took only six minutes on his clock to destroy his opponent in 43 moves. When one considers the ease and rapidity with which such a player confronts his opponents, it is no wonder that one of them resigned after 43 moves in six minutes.
The fiasco has left a huge hole on the chess scene of Guyana. It is the biggest blunder yet, and if the Guyana Chess Federation is serious about developing chess in this country, then it needs to correct this abnormality and create an environment where participants can expect correct decisions.
One is left to wonder how many times a chess game can be won. Mr Sharma must feel he has to win against his opponent and then checkmate the arbiter also to score a point. Sport officials should never be jury, judge and executioner and the controversy that erupted between Mr Tiwari and Mr Sharma placed the arbiter smack in the middle of the ring. Suffice it to say that there were at least four members of the executive present during the controversy and nothing was done. There was a discussion between them directly after the 4th Round and the issue was not even discussed.
I hope that Mr Sharma (who was a past Tournament Director) will continue to carry this fight so that all of chess will benefit in the long run. Some day, I hope chess will return to the glory it attained during the seventies and eighties.
I am calling on the Director of Sports to look into this issue and to ask the necessary questions that beg to be answered and if possible, call on the Guyana Chess Federation to convene a meeting with him to find a way forward out of this morass. Let chess not be checkmated.
Yours faithfully,
Rudolph Thomas
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Tournament Director, National Chess Championships Qualification Tournament, Mr Irshad Mohamed, for any comments he may have wished to make, and received the following response:
“During the fourth round of the National Chess Championships Qualification Tournament, Messrs Tiwari and Sharma played their game using the wrong colours. As soon as the matter was brought to my attention, I indicated to both players that the game should be replayed in an effort to rectify the error. There was time to do so and the replayed game would finish well before the start of the following round.
“Mr Sharma refused to replay the game, and after one hour had elapsed on his clock, he forfeited the game to his opponent. Mr Sharma subsequently refused to play his five remaining games of the tournament although he was paired to do so in each of those instances.
“His argument as I understand it, is that the Tournament Director (TD) should not have ruled that Game Four be replayed. The TD is comparable in authority to an umpire in cricket; his decisions are respected by the players although they might not agree with those decisions. In September of 2006, during the Kramnik-Topalov World Championship match in Kalymika, Kramnik refused to play Game Five over a statement issued by his opponent’s camp that he was taking frequent bathroom breaks which were ‘strange, if not suspicious.’ Kramnik lost that game on forfeit.
“The question arises, what does Mr Sharma want? I do not know and therefore I can dwell on this matter no longer. The promotion of chess and the development of the game will continue. At present, arrangements are being put in place to hold the National Championships which will be followed by a Schools Championship Tournament and finally, a grand open-air Simultaneous Chess Exhibition in mid-December. Good luck to all the players who are participating in these events.”
