Double forfeit at the Blitz Wch

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[Event "FIDE World Blitz-ch Open 2023"]
[Site "Samarkand"]
[Date "2023.12.29"]
[Round "11.2"]
[White "Dubov, Daniil"]
[Black "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2710"]
[BlackElo "2771"]
[PlyCount "24"]
[EventDate "2023.12.19"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventCountry "UZB"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Nd4 Nd5 3. Nb3 Nb6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Ne4 Ne5 6. Ng5 Ng4 7. Nf3 Nf6 8. Ng1 Ng8 9. Nc5 Nc4 10. Na4 Na5 11. Nc3 Nc6 12. Nb1 Nb8 1/2-1/2

Arbiter: 0:0!

Well, according to my experience such things can happen. Don’t overstress Article 1 of the FIDE rules.

@Sarg0n said in #1:
Don’t overstress Article 1 of the FIDE rules.

This is simply a variation on countless arranged draws in FIDE tournaments. I have the feeling that the FIDE considered its tournament to have been made fun of, and so penalized both players. Trouble is, even if they had made the rule for the Blitz WC that no draw before the 20th or 30th move would be allowed, Nepo and Daniil could simply have repeated 3+ times with exactly the same result.

Given the many precedence cases, I can ́t see any reason to deny the players their respective 0,5 points.

PS not speaking Russian, I ́d love a summary of the conversation between the players before the game started!

It's an example of match fixing so arbiter is right to award the double default. In practice there are many GM draws that go unpunished but issue is that in a case like this it's so blatant that there is no plausible deniability.

I've seen an otb game where they prearranged a draw beforehand and then white captured all of black's pieces and then the black king was stalemated on h2. That game was also awarded a double default.

Basically criteria used is whether both sides are playing best moves or trying to win. So question is whether you think 2700+ GMs playing 12 moves without developing a piece or moving a pawn was their best play. Just as an example if black instead of playing 12...Nb8 had played 12...e5 then black has transposed into a 1.e4 opening with an extra 2.Nc3. So unless you assume I have better opening skills than a guy who finished runner up in the World Championships it's clear he wasn't trying his best.

Smarter way to go about it is to just arrange to play an opening line that leads to a theoretical draw. There are many opening lines that end in an early perpetual check that are relatively main line theory so you can claim opponent just did opening prep. Playing so many suboptimal moves basically is screaming to the world game is fixed as neither player tried to exploit obvious flaws in opponent's play.

It's a bit harsh on the players involved but when you do something silly like that you're basically asking the arbiter to give the double forfeit. It also sends a signal particularly to young impressionable players not to imitate them.

According to the FIDE fair play rules it is simply cheating.

The final results with Dubov ending second, half point behind winner, make this jest look even more stupid.

Yeah I saw that and it was hilarious how they did it, but..... it does nothing to inspire us in chess at all. I do get Levy's (of Gotham Chess You Tube fame) point that 12 rounds in a day is grueling. I don't do speed chess, so I am not speaking from experience at all. Overall it leaves a bad taste in my mouth though.

If you think Dubov vs. Nepo was bad, then read this:

slate.com/culture/2012/08/badminton-scandal-olympics-2012-why-were-those-olympic-badminton-players-trying-to-lose-and-why-is-the-sport-so-dirty.html

Badminton! Even more harmless than chess, you ́d think!! :)

If I'm an advertiser, I'd look at that game and get ticked; to the point of perhaps not supporting tourneys in the future.