Telling ex-world champion to shhhh

Telling ex-world champion Kramnik to shhhh, and other chess stories
May 11, 2011

Alex McFarlane is one of three chess arbiters overseeing the candidates tournament in the Russian city of Kazan – the highest honour ever attained by any Scottish chess player or official. The winner of the elite eight-player knockout goes on to face world champion Vishy Anand in a match next year.

9 May – Playoffs and doping tests
The two Russians, Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk, qualify for the semis, beating Timur Radjabov and Levon Aronian respectively in rapidplay games. Kramnik–Radjabov saw play interrupted due to a faulty clock. At the time, the position looked to be drawn, which was all the Azerbaijani grandmaster needed to qualify – but after a delay of 13 minutes he lost, and then lost the replay.

What a day. I can only imagine how much stress the players were under. The arbiters, too, were feeling the pressure before the start of the playoffs: I found myself checking that I could reset a DGT XL [chess clock], even though I have done it hundreds of times before.

I was allocated Aronian–Grischuk, with Franca Dapiran doing Kramnik–Radjabov and chief arbiter Ignatius Leong “floating”. As things transpired, I got the easy option.

Before the start of play, a technician informed us that the Kramnik–Radjabov clock was not showing up with the electronic display. This often happens when the batteries are weak, but not so weak as to give a warning sign. The clock was replaced.

The session duly commenced at 3pm local time. It was agreed that we would give 15 minutes between games but not wait to start both simultaneously, as that could cause a large delay and there was the prospect of a very long day – four rapidplay games, ten blitz and an Armageddon. My first game lasted longer than the other, so my second started ten minutes after the Kramnik–Radjabov one. However, they finished games two, three and four whilst I was still on game three.

It was decided to start my game four at the same time as the blitz game of the other competitors. As I was watching this game, I heard a bleep from the other clock, as when it is being reset. I looked round to see both players indicating the clock showing 00 and the other two arbiters moving swiftly towards the incident.

It was immediately decided that the game should continue with a replacement clock set at the times found either from the video footage or from the display of the games. There was some disturbance, though not excessive under the circumstances. It was certainly enough for me to consider halting my game, but not enough for me actually to do so. I was observed to request Kramnik to keep quiet during the incident. Does that sound like me? A picture published on ChessBase was captioned: “They discuss the situation, while arbiter Alex McFarlane admonishes them to keep it [the noise] down.”

There was a bit of a dispute, with one player saying the game should be annulled and the other wanting to play on. Eventually, everything was sorted and the games continued using a third clock. I am not sure, but I believe part of the delay in restarting was to allow the players to compose themselves.

As my match finished first, I had to escort one of the players to the press interview and then for a doping test. The reason for having doping tests in chess has more to do with getting chess into the Olympics than anything else. With very few exceptions, there are no drugs which will give benefits to chess players without doing short- to medium-term severe damage.

Following the interview, I had to escort the player to the medical room – where, much to my relief, my duties ended. I believe that the player then had 30 minutes to supply the necessary.