Sevian's physical attack on Niemann's king

Kevin Eleven

Only Chess

19 Oct 22

Kevin Eleven

Joined: 06 May 15
Moves: 27445

19 Oct 22

2 edits

(at the US Chess Championship)

Why was that not grounds for Sevian immediately forfeiting the game? He did that on Niemann's time, without even announcing "J'adoube" as far as I know. Plus the way he put the king back on the board (not on its original square) seemed rather huffy.

GMs behaving badly does not set a good example of self-control and sportsmanship for the kids.

Mayor

Joined: 08 Oct 22
Moves: 579

19 Oct 22

2 edits

I saw it live and it was hilarious.
I was like "wtf!?"

The big websites are trying to make it light and not a big deal but if Hans did that they would have written whole articles about it and demanding a forfeit.
Sam definitely looks like an idiot right now. He lost too so it's water under a bridge I guess.

Mayor

Joined: 08 Oct 22
Moves: 579

19 Oct 22

Here is the incident and it's funny.

Kevin Eleven

Joined: 06 May 15
Moves: 27445

19 Oct 22

2 edits

@mayor said
Here is the incident and it's funny.

[youtube]/VW-zbgL_j2g[/youtube]

Thank you. I had only seen a much briefer video from Chess24.

I hope it was just that the black king's cross was loose and needed some glue (as Hans said later). In that case, Sevian should have called the arbiter over on his time.

However, on a tangent, I wonder if USCF and FIDE might consider removing the crosses from all the kings used in their games.

What I would not like to see is keeping the crosses but adding alternative kings with Star-and-Crescent, Star-of-David, Om, or Dunjia Qimen crests (for example). I think that would be divisive and contrary to the beneficial convivial influence of international chess.

Mayor

Joined: 08 Oct 22
Moves: 579

19 Oct 22

Those sets have loose crosses because the cross can break easily and they are expensive sets so they make the crosses replaceable.

So Sam has no excuse.

Mayor

Joined: 08 Oct 22
Moves: 579

19 Oct 22

Apparently they glued all of them last night for the last round today.

I'm watching it live now.

Kevin Eleven

Joined: 06 May 15
Moves: 27445

19 Oct 22

@mayor said
Those sets have loose crosses because the cross can break easily and they are expensive sets so they make the crosses replaceable.

So Sam has no excuse.

Plus topologically it would be difficult or impossible to turn a king on a lathe and have a flat cross atop his crown.

Shallow Blue

Joined: 18 Jan 07
Moves: 12477

20 Oct 22

@kevin-eleven said
Plus topologically it would be difficult or impossible to turn a king on a lathe and have a flat cross atop his crown.

True; but what they often do is turn the king until it's the whole king up to his crown, and just a cylinder on top of that. Then they hand-carve the cross out of the cylinder.

Daodejing

Joined: 04 Sep 22
Moves: 2922

20 Oct 22

-1

https://twitter.com/i/status/1582510806721523717
WOW!!
https://twitter.com/SusanPolgar/status/1582710272917008389/photo/3
and
the comment of Daniel ... KING! :-) in

At least the arbiter had to stop this nonsense immediately - Niemann would have been banned for the tournament!

stephanie108

Joined: 19 Oct 22
Moves: 672

24 Oct 22

Wow,. You may have to start banning chess sets like the Zagreb set with spiked finials and Latvian set as well. They can be turned into weapons... 😱 🙄

mchill

Cryptic

Behind the scenes

Joined: 27 Jun 16
Moves: 3283

24 Oct 22

4 edits

@kevin-eleven said
(at the US Chess Championship)

Why was that not grounds for Sevian immediately forfeiting the game? He did that on Niemann's time, without even announcing "J'adoube" as far as I know. Plus the way he put the king back on the board (not on its original square) seemed rather huffy.

GMs behaving badly does not set a good example of self-control and sportsmanship for the kids.

Normally, the tournament director(s) would have handled this affair equitably, with a minimum of commotion; sadly, the Carlsen - Niemann melodrama has put situations like this under a white-hot spotlight and created a new and nauseating subculture devoted to tabloid chess.

Let's bring back Rita Skeeter from the Harry Potter days to interview Sevian and get his account of this physical attack and ascertain for ourselves if it stems from his childhood obsession with eggplant. Inquiring minds want to know! 🤔

Shallow Blue

Joined: 18 Jan 07
Moves: 12477

25 Oct 22

@stephanie108 said
Wow,. You may have to start banning chess sets like the Zagreb set with spiked finials and Latvian set as well. They can be turned into weapons...

They do look impractical, yes. The Zagreb set is pretty, but rather too ornate for tournament use, and frankly the Latvian royalty look like they could fall over if you breathe on them too hard. Nah, I'll have either of those for display on my coffee table, and a normal, sturdy plain Lardy-Staunton or Dubrovnik set to actually play with.