As the title might indicate, the 12th Metropolitan International (November 9-13) in Los Angeles was not a good tournament. But that is such a vast understatement that it’s necessary to go into details about this event, which was the worst run International Tournament I have ever experienced.
Let’s start with the Big Lie, as this overshadows all the rest and indeed casts the legality of the entire tournament into question. Here’s the astonishing falsehood, written by organizer Ankit Gupta, which was published in Chess Life Online, posted November 16, 2011. In the second paragraph, Gupta writes: “This tournament is the 12th in its series and was held in Suite C998 of the California Market Center on 110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles 90079. The tournament was organized by Ankit Gupta and the chief arbiter was Randy Hough.”
Looks pretty normal, doesn’t it? Did you notice the train wreck of untruth above? You wouldn’t, unless you had been there.
Before I reveal the answer, let’s skip over to the FIDE website for a moment. Gupta mentions above that the Chief Arbiter, or CA, was Randy Hough. What are the duties of the CA?
The FIDE website enlightens us simply and clearly: “The duties of the CA are as specified by the Laws of Chess, the regulations of the competition and other FIDE Rules. During the event he also has to keep the record of each round, to oversee the proper course of the competition, to ensure order in the playing venue and players’ comfort during play, and to supervise the work of the technical staff of the competition.”
This is all very normal—it’s just what tournament directors are supposed to do, though this being an International event, there are some additional wrinkles. Randy Hough has carried out these duties competently in any number of events, for example the recent SCCF closed Championship, held at the Beverly Hills CC, where I played. He was there to solve problems, make rulings, get the games recorded, etc.
The Big Lie is that at Metro 12, Randy Hough never appeared. He wasn’t there for the first round, the last round, or any round in between. I played all nine rounds in the playing hall (which is more than I can say about some other players, but more on that later) and believe me, I would have noticed. The tournament was rife with problems, especially from Round 2 to the end, and there was never a Chief Arbiter. A further problem is that Randy is an International Arbiter, so all the FIDE business (for example, one player, Harut Akopyan, made an IM norm) is now called into question. How can you have an International tournament without a Chief Arbiter? How can the organizer, who knows full well the Chief Arbiter never showed up at the venue, claim that “the chief arbiter was Randy Hough”—when Randy Hough was never there.
That’s got to make some kind of chess journalism Razzie award!
Now let’s go round by round of this “wonderful” event. I’ll cover my results and compare them with the highest rated player in the tournament, IM Andranik Matikozyan, as well as point out various interesting or sickening things that I personally observed.
Round 1, Wednesday night, November 9
Organizer Ankit Gupta assumed the role of Deputy Arbiter and started the tournament.
I played the fighting Chigorin Defense against FM Dale Haessel of Canada: I finally claimed a clear edge in the ending and scored the full point in 71 moves.
IM Andranik Matikozyan came fifty minutes late, played for ten minutes with his opponent Harut Akopyan, and made a twenty move draw.
Matikozyan is noted for such “titanic” struggles in the Metro events – here’s one from Metro 4
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 2, Thursday morning, November 10
This round started by itself. Since the Chief Arbiter was not there, and the Deputy Arbiter/Organizer Ankit Gupta was not there, one of the players, IM Amanov started the clocks.
I won a nice King’s Gambit against Michael Casella—the game was featured in my last blog—but here it is one more time.
Of considerable interest to all the contestants was the game Matikozyan vs. Kavutskiy. Matikozyan’s clock was running down, and finally passed the one hour mark, when one would assume his opponent would claim a forfeit. However, his opponent was not there. Time for the Chief Arbiter to make a ruling! But of course the Chief Arbiter was not there. Deputy Arbiter? Nix. Player’s committee? Alas, though having a Players committee is normal at all international events (there has been one at every non-Metro International that I have ever played in) and though some of the early Metro events did in fact have a Player’s Committee, in this particular event no such committee had been designated.
So the players watched as Matikozyan’s clock went all the way to zero (the first time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes, then there was an additional 30 minutes).
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 3, Thursday night, November 10
Ankit Gupta started the round. I won a long ending against Vadim Kudryavtsev.
Matikozyan did not show up, but his clock was not started. No announcement was made by the Deputy Arbiter/Organizer about the two unplayed Matikozyan games.
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 4, Friday morning, November 11
The round started by itself with no arbiter of any type. My winning streak came to an end as I lost to the well prepared Akopyan.
Matikozyan showed up, apparently ready to play, and tried the Evans Gambit. His opponent, Dale Haessel, made a known blunder on move 8. Thus Matikozyan had the chance to reach a close to winning position (about plus .9 on my Fritz) then and there, as has been previously played.
The refutation can be seen on move eight: 8. Nxf7! Kxf7 9. Bxe6+ Kf8 (9… Kxe6 10. Qd5+ Ke7 11. Qxa5 with clear advantage to White) 10. Bb3 Qf6 11. O-O d6 12. f4 Bb6+ 13. Kh1 Nh6 14. e5! and White went on to win in Baudin,F -Queguiner,D, Fouesnant 1997.
Instead, Matikozyan went into an innocuous ending and made a draw in 24 moves. At this point it became clear that Matikozyan would draw every game unless someone could defeat him, and I turned out to be that person (though it wasn’t much of a game). But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 5, Friday afternoon, November 11
Ankit Gupta started the round. A side event also began on this night: the Metro Qualifier, where somewhat lower rated players (as compared to the closed section) vied for the chance to play in a future closed event.
Matikozyan drew with Michael Casella in 24 moves.
At some point during the round, someone, presumably Ankit Gupta, marked the result of Matikozyan – Kavutskiy (the ”time forfeit” game from the second round) as a draw. No explanation was given to the players as to where and when the game was played—I just saw the result mysteriously appear as I was walking around the room. In any case, the Matikozyan – Kavutskiy game had not been played in the playing hall.
I won with the exchange French. While this opening has a drawish reputation, one can use it to play for the win—if that is your desire! After some time pressure misadventures I made move 40 with an extra pawn—and ground out the win, despite my opponent Tatev Abrahamyan’s stubborn resistance, in 118 moves.
All well and good—except for the fact that in this round the dreaded “Crap Attack” began.
Someone, presumably from the Qualifier (since the attack only began when the Qualifier began, though that in itself is not proof) dropped some enormous turds in the men’s room toilets (both of them!) and didn’t flush. The stench was terrible until someone, fortunately not me, got most of the crap to go down, though the smell was awful and the visual residue, if you cared to look, was still pretty bad.
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 6, Saturday morning, November 12
I had a brain fart (sorry for the excessive metaphor!) and overlooked a mate in two against Kayden Troff, and lost quickly.
Matikozyan drew with Kudryavtsev in 21 moves.
The crap attack continued with, if one may say so, fresh crap. At this point the line from the FIDE website might come into your head, that one of the duties of the CA was “to ensure order in the playing venue and players’ comfort during play.” Time for the CA to call a plumber!
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 7, Saturday afternoon, November 12
Ankit Gupta started the round. I was White against Matikozyan. My opponent seemed completely uninterested in the game, preferring to blast music through his headphones. The sound was so loud I complained several times. With no Chief Arbiter on hand, I went to Deputy Arbiter Gupta, who did ask Matikozyan to turn off the music. What if the game had been played in the morning, when there was no arbiter to turn to? In any case, I won an easy game—it’s hardly worth putting in, but here it is for the record.
Basically this is just a variation of my win vs. Tatev Abrahamyan from the state championship, posted in my blog.
The crap was still clogging the toilets.
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 8, Sunday morning, November 13
This day is when it all hit the fan. I was barely able to make a pre round restroom stop (for number one, fortunately), as the stench was so overpowering. A quick look, out of morbid curiosity, revealed that both men’s toilets were hopelessly jammed with crap.
I was at the round on time, 10 AM. Dale Haessel of Canada was not, but it wasn’t his fault. The pairing sheets given to all the players listed Sunday’s AM round as starting at 11:00 AM—but Metro regulars like myself assumed this to be a misprint, as indeed it was (previous Metro events started at 10 AM). So the night before I had emailed Ankit Gupta and he informed me that the round was at 10 AM as I suspected. However, Mr. Haessel had no way of knowing this. He always came to the rounds on time, or even a few minutes early—so on this day he arrived a few minutes before 11 AM, only to find he was already behind almost an hour on his clock! I think he would have a good case for getting his time back—but who could he turn to? Chief Arbiter Randy Hough? Not there. Deputy Arbiter and Organizer Ankit Gupta? Not there. Player’s Committee? Nonexistent. To Haessel’s great credit, he played the game without complaint and despite his time shortage, hung tough and made a draw vs. Michael Casella.
Let’s stop for a moment and consider the situation here: it’s Sunday morning and the building of the playing site, the California Market Center, is in lockdown mode as they don’t normally do business on Sunday. No director or arbiter was in charge or even physically there. Toilets were stinking and unusable. Children were playing in the Qualifier, and indeed there was one young participant in the Closed, Kayden Troff. What if an emergency had occurred? What if a chess dispute arose, for example one over the confusing three time repetition rule, that nearly always requires an arbiter’s ruling?
Then a relatively small disaster occurred. Perhaps overwhelmed by the stench, my body reacted with an overwhelming urge for Number two (sorry for those whose sensibility I am offending, but I’m just the reporter here—we’re all human and we all have the same equipment). I was playing Kavutskiy and behind on time. The bathroom here? Unthinkable. With the building locked down, going down one floor probably wouldn’t work. Consult the arbiter? No arbiter to consult. What I did was take the elevator down nine floors to the first floor, on the theory that since they had a guard on duty, there would be a working bathroom on the first floor, and I was right. I got back to the game refreshed, but having lost a considerable amount of time on my clock, though nothing like that lost by Mr. Haessel. However, unlike him, I blundered in an even position and lost.
Instead of my mistaken 26… Qb8? the counter attacking 26… Qa6 is equal.
Needless to say, long before this, Matikozyan used the Exchange French (not to play for a win as I had against the same opponent) to make a quick draw against Tatev Abrahamian in 21 moves.
At this point, I felt that things could not get worse—but of course, whenever you think that, they do … the snoring attack was coming!
And finally, for the record—
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Round 9 (the last round), Sunday afternoon, November 13
Ankit Gupta started the round, and marked ½ – ½ as the result of Amanov-Matikozyan from the third round, a game no one had seen played. The Deputy Arbiter then came over to my board and gave me my appearance fee (all the IMs in the event were paid appearance fees) and then, while I was looking down to count the money—disappeared! I was going to say that something had to be done about the crap situation—but Ankit was nowhere to be seen in the playing room. I checked the pairing sheet, saw the draw marked in for Amanov – Matikozyan (I check the scores every round, and there had always been an open space by that game until now) but no sign of any arbiter.
I went back to my table and continued my game.
Then we heard it—everyone heard it, players in the Closed, in the Qualifier, spectators—the loudest snoring I have ever heard—“this horrible snoring” line popped into my head from the classic horror movie, Suspiria: “She’s here, she’s there, right behind that sheet!” That was the evil Black Queen, snoring with terrifying power … and someone was doing just that … but where? No one was visible! Then I saw Rank and File Editor Larry Stevens (who was playing in the Qualifier) frantically trying to close a partition that shut off the back of the room. He got it partly closed, but not all the way. The snoring was still roaring, disturbing every player there. I went up to Larry and asked, “Who’s doing that terrible snoring?”
“Ankit,” he answered simply.
That, as they say, was the last straw. I went back to my board and tried to concentrate, but the snoring attack continued. I wondered how Gert Gijssen (the well known arbiter) would rule on this predicament. Though Mr. Gijssen has the popular question and answer column An Arbiter’s Notebook on Chess Cafe, I bet he never came across this situation before!
We really needed a ruling, right now, from the CA for this question: “Should someone shake the Deputy Arbiter/Organizer and wake him up, and if so, who?”
But with no CA on the premises, we played on through the snoring. My opponent concentrated better through the snoring attack and won the game.
Matikozyan had long gone, having drawn with Troff in 29 moves (the longest of his eight draws!).
I left the stink behind.
Chief Arbiter Randy Hough never appeared.
Aftermath
After we got the kids to bed that night, my wife Liz and I had quite a discussion about future Metro events: should I play in them? Liz had accompanied me on my last trip to Hungary, and we both longed for Laszlo Nagy’s smooth organization there: the player’s committee always formed before the start of the first round, International Arbiter present for all rounds, ready to solve any disputes—and working bathrooms of course!
But this was Los Angeles, not Budapest, and the Metro events were the only game in town as far as International events went. Besides all that, we needed the appearance fee money, especially in these tough economic times.
On the other hand … playing through the crap attack/snoring attack again was not inviting! Further, there was the matter of the non-played (at least in the tournament room) games Matikozyan-Kavutskiy and Amanov-Matikozyan. In both cases, at a later time, a draw was entered on the pairing sheet, though there was no evidence the games had been played, no announcement, and of course no ruling by the Chief Arbiter on the second round “time forfeit.” Though I personally had not done anything unethical, this was a can of worms with which I did not want to be associated.
We went off to uneasy sleep, with no decision made.
We didn’t have long to wait for decision time: on November 15, two days after the tournament ended, Ankit Gupta sent me an email inviting me to the next Metro IM International, to be played December 7-11 with the same appearance fee as before.
More discussion between Liz and me: what to do? The principled course was “just say no” the practical/financial course was “take the money.” But then I thought, here I have been playing in these Metro events for a year—don’t I deserve a raise? So on the next day, November 16, I emailed Ankit as follows, “Yes, I would like to play, but given that I was the only one of the three IMs who played all games in the tournament hall, and fought in all of them, I think I should get a raise” and then went on to ask for a hundred dollars more than my previous regular rate.
One might say that did not go over well. The next day, November 17, I got a two page diatribe in response, in tone most unpleasant, and ending with a take it or leave it option to continue at my regular rate. He did say the reason for Matikozyan’s second day no show was that his Grandmother was sick, but I think the time for that announcement was well past.
I was appalled by Ankit’s tone after I (as I saw it) had kept a quality professional manner throughout these events, especially this last one. I thought perhaps he had got out of the wrong side of bed (apparently he needs his sleep!) and might apologize later, and in any case I was too angry to make a proper decision on the spot. So I consulted with Liz—we really did need the money but the (in this case metaphorical) crap was rising and if it were just me, if I didn’t have Liz and our boys (now 5 and 2) to consider, I would have said no immediately. I decided the best thing to do was wait a few hours and see which way the wind was blowing when things calmed down.
I waited a few hours and checked my email again. Another Ankit email (this is still the same day, November 17)—could this be an apology? No, this was another blast, but much shorter: he pulled the offer off the table, and said he was going with another IM for the December event as well as the next few upcoming events.
Now from a business point of view this was totally unethical: he made an offer, I made a counter-offer, then he specifically stated that the original offer was still on. Without giving me a chance to respond (I would say 48 hours, but at least give me 24!) he suddenly pulls the offer off the table. So the decision was made for me.
Stunned by this harsh action, I went to Chess Life Online to see if there was anything about the no arbiter tournament. There I saw Ankit Gupta’s article, that had been posted the day before, November 16, under the title “Amanov & Akopyan Top 12th FIDE Metropolitan Invitational.” This was the article that, as I already mentioned, contained the Big Lie: “the chief arbiter was Randy Hough.”
While the “snoring attack” was the last straw for me as a player, the above mentioned falsehood was the last straw for me as a chess journalist. I could not remain silent any longer.
No one likes being a whistle blower. I’d love to report that the Metro events were the greatest thing since sliced bread, and a few of them—those directed by the conscientious Harold Bogner—were. But they went downhill, they slid into the crap, and here we are left with this mess. And I don’t like the great game of chess sullied by a big lie.
Oh, one more thing: the missing games suddenly showed up in a database sent to me by Jack Peters on November 18, one day after the two emails from Ankit (I didn’t reply to either of them). Anyway, Jack sent me all the games of Metro 12. I don’t know how Jack got them—as far as I know he is not affiliated with Metro Chess. In any case, the first “missing game”, Matikozyan – Kavutskiy, is the “regulation” Metro Chess French exchange draw in 21 moves (recall Matikozyan-Abrahamyan from round 8).
Note that this game is quite similar to another from Metro 7.
The database says Matikozyan-Kavutskiy was played on November 10, the same day that the game was scheduled—the day that Matikozyan’s clock ran down to zero.
The other missing game, Amanov-Matikozyan, is much more interesting. Readers who have been paying attention will recall that Ankit posted the result as a draw on the last day of the tournament, November 13—but according to the database that Jack sent me, the game was played on November 14, one day later. Perhaps Ankit had a psychic wave that the game would be drawn!?
The game itself is a normal Sicilian where White (Amanov) outplays Black (Matikozyan) until move 24.
At the end of the game, White could play 25.Be5, a strong and natural move, with a direct threat to Black’s kingside. White’s two raking bishops give him an obvious advantage—my Fritz 12 puts it at about + .8, or clear advantage to White—but needless to say, 25.Be5 was not played, for the players agreed to a draw.
As for the legalities, I’ve informed FIDE, US Chess and the SCCF—and I’ve sent a two part question to Geurt Gijssen, about the legality of the event as a whole, and what should we have done about the snoring organizer!
From now on, if I come to a tournament and there is no arbiter, I’m withdrawing immediately: I can’t take any more crap!
Dear Tim,
I’m really shocked to see you write such an offensive blog. I’ve always thought that we were on reasonably good terms with each other, at least considering the many interesting games we’ve had in the past two years. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe I’ve ever done anything to harmful or insulting to you in any way, which is why I was really offended by this post, where you seemingly accuse me of cheating or fixing the game with Matikozyan. Yes, the game was played offsite. Yes, it was an exchange French, but the game was played!
As you mention, Matikozyan’s grandmother fell ill and went to the hospital right before the event started, I don’t know all the details–but I agreed to play the game with Andranik at his home in the early morning to make things more convenient to him and so that he could go visit her afterwards. Obviously a sick family member is a serious issue for anyone, and he would have been well within his rights to withdraw from the tournament immediately, but since finding another foreign IM in such a small timeframe is an impossible task, the whole tournament would have been cancelled. Instead of this, Andranik chose to play and keep the tournament running. Yes, 8 out of his 9 games ended in draws. But they were all over 20 moves, and lasted longer than one hour, which is in complete accordance to the rules. This includes my game with him, as well as Amanov’s game with him. All of his games were completely legitimate.
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be able to play well in a tournament if one of my family members was in the hospital–it would probably be a huge distraction and I too would want to end every game as quickly as I could.
Yes, my opening choice of the French defense allows any decent player to quickly make a draw with White if they so choose, this is something I can live with since my style of chess is not reckless.
I think there are a few reasons you could have written such nonsense:
1) Before the last day, you had 5/7 and were in contention for first place. On the last day, you lost both your games to me and Amanov and thus finished fourth or fifth. I think it’s kind of curious that Amanov and I are the 2 players you accuse of cheating.
2) You wrote that you asked for more money to play in the next event. This is very strange to me, considering all the “atrocities” that were committed by the tournament organizer and everyone else. I think if you really believed in half the “crap” that you wrote you wouldn’t agree to play again for an extra hundred dollars. It actually seems like you were trying to solicit some sort of bribe from Ankit Gupta, and when he refused, only then did you write this, probably as a way to get back at Metropolitan Chess.
Anyways, if you had played a game offsite that ended in a draw I would certainly give you the benefit of the doubt that the game was actually played, but for some reason you do not reciprocate this towards me, even though I’ve done nothing to you to warrant this kind of verbal hostility.
Harutyan Akopyan played a great tournament, and fully deserved the IM norm, and it really sucks that you are trying to sully his norm and ruin the reputation of Metropolitan Chess. Metro has run so many strong events in the past year and has done great things for Southern California chess, but I guess this doesn’t seem to matter to you because you had to take an elevator to use a restroom.
By the way, in our game, 26…Qa6 was definitely a better move than Qb8, but after 27.Qb5 Qxb5 28.axb5, I think you have a really difficult endgame to hold with your weakness on b6 and White’s control of the c-file. Houdini evaluates the position as equal, but probably for a human it would be a very difficult defense. Anyways, it just goes to show that you make rash assumptions without actually taking time to think things through and consider the other side.
Sincerely,
Kostya Kavutskiy
Dear Kostya,
Lots of people have made comments about my writing, for good or bad, but I have to hand it to you: no one has ever made me laugh harder than you did with your critique! Man, I’m dying here! You are 19 years old, right? Here you are, a smart young man (even if you do play the most boring chess imaginable—I’d slit my wrists if I had to play moves like 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.b3 as you played in our game) and you write this three page letter while studiously avoiding the 900 pound gorilla in the room: there was no International Arbiter at this tournament! I hammer this point home in my coverage of every round of the tournament—and you, young man, keep your eyes averted like if you don’t look, the gorilla won’t get you. Cracks me up!
Anyway, let me answer some of your “points”. First, I “seemingly accuse” you of cheating, then later on, you raise me and write, “Amanov and I are the 2 players you accuse of cheating.” Dude, let me tell you: if I accuse you of cheating, you will know it. I’ll put it right in the title next to “Big Lie”—Kostya is cheating! But I said no such thing, about you or Amanov. What I did was report on what happened at the tournament. If you want to call what you did cheating, hey that’s fine with me, but I didn’t say that.
Let’s go back to what I did say: in the second round, you were paired with Matikozyan. His clock was started, his clock ran down to zero. Looks like a time forfeit to everyone in the room, but no ruling is made, as … (see the gorilla, Kostya?) there is no Arbiter!
I have played in international tournaments for more years than you have been alive, and I have never ever played in an international tournament that did not have an International Arbiter. This tournament did not have an International Arbiter, and so was in violation of FIDE rules from day one.
In a properly run tournament, the Chief Arbiter would have made an announcement to all the players that one contestant had an ill family member, and that if we agreed, a couple of games could be played offsite, and I’m sure everyone would have agreed. But there was no announcement here—because (there he is, Kostya!) there was no Chief Arbiter! The only way I found out about Matikozyan’s grandmother was a passing line in Ankit’s diatribe to me, after the tournament.
“All his games were completely legitimate” about Matikozyan’s short draws, and “lasted more than one hour”—hey, I admired the way Andranik got around that, come fifty minutes late and play ten, as I reported he did in the first round—it’s kind of legal I guess!
And now I’ve accused you and Amanov of cheating because losing to you guys cost me first place … Kostya, what can I do with you? First of all, why didn’t I “accuse” (remember I didn’t accuse you or Amanov of cheating) Troff and Akopyan, who I also lost to?
Again, I simply reported: Matikozyan – Kavutskiy and Amanov – Matikozyan were marked as draws under mysterious circumstances, which have only been partially explained. The latter game, as I pointed out, was marked as a draw by Ankit Gupta a day before it was played, according to the database. Just psychic I guess! And just when Amanov gets a clear advantage, he takes a draw—why? I’m just asking the questions.
Furthermore, first place meant nothing to me. I wouldn’t have got one cent more if I had come in first or tenth, I was playing for a fixed appearance fee only. I do play every game to win, but that’s a matter of personal pride—winning the tournament was not an issue.
Wrapping up, I did not “solicit a bribe” and I had a good reason to ask for more money, as I said in my blog: I have a responsibility to provide for my family, a responsibility you know nothing about. I’ll take a lot of crap to do that, but there are limits …
And here’s where I really start to crack up again: you write, “it really sucks that you are trying to sully his norm and ruin the reputation of Metropolitan Chess”—dude, there was no Arbiter! The tournament was in violation of FIDE rules from day one. I was not the organizer who hired a no-show arbiter. I was not the no-show arbiter. I was not the organizer who lied about the no-show arbiter (and that’s all I need to say about Ankit Gupta’s “reputation”). See the gorilla, Kostya? Big, black, furry, nine hundred pounds?
Tim, I’m glad I gave you a chuckle in your hard financial times, but it seems that you missed the point of my response. I was not trying to refute any of your claims about the chief arbiter or most of the other critical “issues” you heroically expose (turds, snoring, etc) because they had nothing to do with me. I was simply responding to the several places in your post where you strongly imply that my game with Matikozyan wasn’t legitimately played.
If your post was about hockey, or horseback riding, I wouldn’t have left a comment, because I also have nothing to do with either of those things. But if somewhere in your post you also insinuated that I had been involved in something unethical then I would feel obliged to respond to that. Do you see what I’m trying to say? I did not avoid any “gorillas” because there aren’t any in my room and therefore I have no reason to talk about any such gorillas, as fat as they are. Notice that that was my first time ever commenting on your blog, as I’m pretty sure that was the first time you’ve mentioned me in such a negative light.
To be perfectly clear, my issue with your post was that along with all of the other really negative things you say about Metro 12, you also throw in my game with Matikozyan haphazardly, calling it a “missing game”, and using it as further support that there is something wrong with Metro Chess. So obviously anyone reading it will be led to believe that you yourself don’t believe the game was legitimate. Yes it was played offsite, but it was a completely legal, albeit short affair.
You never explicitly state that I cheated, but you certainly make it sound like I did something unlawful, when in fact all I did was agree to play a game offsite at an earlier time than the scheduled round…oh my! If your post didn’t mention my name, I doubt I would have left a comment at all–so do you see why I wrote that first response?
There was no announcement made that we played the game offsite…is that really a big deal? Did you lose sleep wondering whether or not Matikozyan tried with all his might to prove an advantage in the Exchange French?
I may be only 19 years old, but it seems that I already have the common sense not to post negative information about other people on the internet, particularly when I have no evidence to back it up. Isn’t that libel? It’s at the very least quite insulting. Especially since I’ve never done anything to harm or insult you in any way…
My first response (and this one) are 100% meant to convince you that my game with Matikozyan was indeed played, and my hope is that you will just accept what I’m saying. I can understand if you had your doubts, considering you did not see the game happen live, but since I’m telling you now that it was legitimate there is no reason for you to continue implying and insinuating that I did something unlawful.
I think I’ve covered all the important points so far, so now we go on to the fun stuff!
I really feel you have deluded yourself in a lot of ways, and the only reason I’m mentioning any of this is because your first response to my comment was very dismissive and teased me a bit, so I guess it is my turn to poke fun at you over the internet.
You say you didn’t care about winning the tournament, but how could that be true? You’ve played in at least 10 of these Metro Invitationals and have never gotten first place, despite being the valiant International Master who plays “fighting chess”. You’d think you’d win at least one of them!
You say your accusations have nothing to do with losing to me and Amanov–that’s probably mostly true, but I still think it must have fueled your anger a little bit. Next up is how you were denied more money and then uninvited to future Metro tournaments, and only after this did you decide to write your blog…I’m simply questioning your intentions–are you really upset with how the tournament was ran or are you upset with other things as well? Isn’t it curious that of the 50 other people at the tournament no one else wrote such a massive negative post about anything that took place in the tournament?
Let’s move on to some of your other delusions:
“My opponent concentrated better through the snoring attack and won the game.”
This was referring to your game with Amanov. This turns out to be a small delusion but it is very telling of your thought process. The problem with your statement here is that you were already down an uncompensated piece when the snoring attack began! So did that really affect the final result of the game?
Another thing you’re probably wrong about is the reason you were uninvited to future tournaments. I’m pretty sure it is due to your low FIDE rating more than anything else. You are an International Master and yet you actually bring down the average rating of the tournament, making it harder for players to achieve norms, isn’t that silly?!
I guess now it’s time to defend my choice against you of 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.b3!?–This is actually something I came up with over the board, and I think it is quite interesting. The point is that it prevents the standard e5-break in your usual Fluid Dutch, and if you play some other line such as the Leningrad or the Stonewall (like in the game), then I can transpose back to favorable systems for white where the bishop is developed on b2. Also I don’t have to develop my other pieces until you choose what sort of Dutch you want to play. This is actually my favorite point, the fact that Black has already committed to weakening his king and his dark squares with the move 1…f5?! allows white a number of good setups.
“The most boring chess imaginable”…led to a pretty cool queen sacrifice in our game! Isn’t that slightly ironic? I mean it doesn’t compare with one of your fine wins in the Budapest Gambit, but at least give credit where credit is due!
Probably I’ve said way too much already, and I know that any game that I lose to you from now on will probably end up in one of these posts or in one of your books, but that is a risk I’m willing to take.
I hope you won’t take any of my immature 19-year-old jabs at you too seriously, but you’re the one who mentioned the fact that I’m so youthful!
Best,
Kostya
In my opinion, the only fighting player in Southern California is FM Michael Casella. I am sure Mr. Taylor would agree that Casella would rather lose than play a lifeless draw. Mr. Taylor knows that a win against Casella is a big deal, so much so that he blogged about it twice. I hope the Metro Chess folks are paying Casella an appearance fee.
PS: Alekhine Alert is a great book.
Thank you for your comment on Alekhine Alert, which by the way, features a fighting draw between Casella and me (full of sacrifices and counter sacrifices before the point is split!).
While I agree that Michael Casella is a fighting player, I don’t agree that he is “the only fighting player in Southern California” as you write. I am right next to him! I would say we are two of the most fighting players in the area, which is why our games are always of great interest.
Metro Chess only pays appearance fees to IMs and GMs, and organizer Ankit Gupta does not appear to appreciate fighting players. As previously noted, when I asked for a raise in my appearance fee based on my fighting record, he disinvited me from future Metro events! And then of course continued to invite the specialists in the short draw.
This was a very entertaining post. Well written.
I also appreciate that you did not remove Kostya Kavutskiy comments.
That nobody woke the snoring organizer strikes me as strange to say the least. By far most people I know here (The Netherlands) would have approached him the minute he started snoring.
I’m also a bit curious about the results of the ‘snoring’ round. Was there more blundering then in ‘normal’ rounds, or is perhaps the opposite true, more short draws because off the disturbance?
Is there a way for me to get the .pgn off al the games from the final round?
Hello and thank you for your good comment!
I know I blundered in the last round, but I’m not sure about others. As for the games, they are available on the Megabase update from Chess base, and I suppose This week in chess as well.
http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=58&view=article
1.42g
Tournaments that make changes to favour one or more players (for example by altering the number of rounds, or the order of rounds, or providing particular opponents, not otherwise participating in the event), shall be excluded.
First of all, Kostya’s b3 in this system has been used by none other than Larsen and Korchnoi.
Next, I played in one of the qualifier metro events during which time I thought it was odd there was NEVER a td available for either the IM norm event or the regular qualifier. As a senior TD, I was appalled and pulled Ankit aside after the event to congratulate on him on a well run event minus a rather gaping hole: No TDs, No arbiters. To which he responded, “Randy Hough was here the whole time right?” As though he could feign ignorance. Of course, a great tournament report went up afterwards with Randy Hough being the wonderful CA and having great things to say about the players and their games. Rather odd, given Mr. Hough never attended the event.