Using the opportunity of pretty much all chess players gathering in Warsaw, Poland, we decided to ask some of the top GMs in the world a very simple question: What is your favourite OTB chess game which involved you winning due to wild animal intervention?
GM Magnus Carlsen „I am not sure what are you asking, sorry. “
GM Alireza Firouzja „That is not how chess works, seems to me you are misinformed. “
GM Ding Liren „Gonna be no comment from me, chief. “
GM Fabiano Caruana "Could you be a little bit clearer in what you mean? Is that some sort of metaphor? “
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi „I don’t follow. “
GM Levon Aronian „Yeah, I think you are probably mistaking chess for running with the bulls maybe? “
GM Anish Giri „That would have to be a game against Gata Kamsky I played in 2013, Fide Grand Prix in Beijing. It was a Sicilian which I had under control and was able to steer towards a draw with black. Chinese though used Pandas, which is their national mascot as sort of decoration for the tourney, they were running around among the tables. It makes sense, they are black and white, fits well with the chessboard. There was a key moment where Kamsky got distracted and started feeding them bamboo, thinking it is all very cute. He got a bit careless and missed my Rd8 idea. Pandas are hella cute. “
GM Wesley So „That seems like it would be illegal, no? “
GM Alexander Grischuk „I never heard of such thing. “
GM Richard Rapport „I think there was this Giri-Kamsky game in Tokyo or something, but that was the only incident of such kind I ever heard of. “
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov „I don’t think we call knights wild animals, and it’s not interventions, it’s just moves. Sorry. “
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave „I don’t have anything to say. “
GM Tigran L. Petrosian „There was a game I had that involved a certain kind of Fish, but I don’t want to give details. “
GM Jan-Krysztof Duda „That never happens in chess. It is a board game. You must have gotten the wrong guy “
GM Leinier Dominguez „I had a lot of weird experiences at the chessboard during my time but nothing like what you are asking. Sorry. “
GM Viswanathan Anand „Why would you ask me such a question? “
GM Wang Hao „I have no idea how to answer this question. “
GM Sergey Karjakin „Ooooh that’s a tough one, but it would be probably the European u14 championship in 2001, in Chalkidiki, Greece. In first round I played this dude Azizis, very resilient. What he did not account for (and really nobody in the tournament did) was my relationship with nature at that time. During my times with Vladimir (you can guess which one) I mastered my energy in such a way that I could just put a thought in the world, and it would just happen. A wild owl appeared and sat on the game clock it was Azizis turn. Then the owl basically took a dump on the clock and turns out Azizis is allergic to owl dumps. He simply could not touch the clock after that. So, his time ran out and this is how I started my road to victory. “
GM Nikita Vitiugov „...what do you mean by wild animal intervention?“
GM Veselin Topalov „I saved couple of draws online using help of my pets and their comfort, but that is neither wild animal, win or over the board.“
GM Teimour Radjabov „I had prep of this type ready for the previous Candidates.“
GM Hikaru Nakamura „Would make for a good content but no, never happened.“
