Fair Decision?

Friday, August 29, 2008 Pestaño: An unfair decision By Frank “Boy” Pestaño Chessmoso MY BARKADA and drinking buddy in college Rogelio “Tata” Morelos who, belongs to a family of chess players, just gave me a handwritten note criticizing the showdown between grandmasters Eugene Torre and Joey Antonio that was dubbed as the QC Chess Road Show. “Dear Chessmoso, Just recently, two top Filipino grandmasters had a showdown with a reported P200,000 as prize money offered by the sponsors. I was eagerly waiting for the result of the seven-game confrontation, which to my dismay ended in a draw. What left a bad taste to my gin and tonic-watered mouth was that the two, who tied on the sixth game, did not play the tiebreak seventh game, but instead, decided by themselves to divide the pot money. I find this to be beggarly and highly impolite for the GMs to do. It is like Pacquaio and De La Hoya stopping at the 10th round of a scheduled 12 rounds and deciding to call it a draw after being informed by the judges that both have the same scores. Are the actions of the two GMs allowed in chess tournaments? If so, the people who drafted the rules should be made to swallow the chess pieces of that tournament and add the board as dessert. The tournament was supposed to be a showdown on who is the master of whom.” I personally would like to know who the better player is, as I have been following their careers for a long time. Now, after much hype and publicity, there is no decision. I don’t know the inside story but isn’t it unfair to the chess-playing community?

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Interesting. I wonder what the reaction of the "chess world" would have been if Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih had decided amongst themselves to stop playing and split the prize money at the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - and declare themselves de facto "co-winners." Would that have generated as much screaming, hair-pulling and collective angst (mostly among male players, it seems) as the Armageddon play-off that actually place did?