PoPChess

From indianexpress.com on 3rd-round action at the Kolkata Open.

In an unusual incident at the ongoing Kolkata Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament on Thursday, a top-rated French player had to concede his game after he couldn’t sit through his match against his opponent. Reason — he showed up drunk at the venue, slept through his moves several times over, and eventually had to be carried off.

No bonus points for guessing who it was. One of our favorite, well, one of the only, chess party animals. Last time for something like this? I believe there was a “sporting violation” of sorts when most of the members of a team showed up much the worse for wear at a Russian team championship last year. Drunk vs hungover isn’t really a line we need to walk, I suppose. Did they test his BAC?

The match lasted over an hour, with the French player repeatedly dozing off while contemplating a move. Each time he fell asleep, players around would try to wake him up with a shake of the shoulder. Some even offered him water, and Tkachiev, having briefly refreshed himself at the change room while his opponent waited, dozed off again and eventually had to be carried off. Russian-born Tkachiev, aged 35, is an accomplished chess player, and had played against Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship Knockout back in 2001. Chess star Nigel Short, the biggest attraction at the event, expressed his disgust at the incident, advising the organisers to promptly eject him from the tournament.

But he apparently came back to play in the next round. The UK Times has a little more, extrapolating from the Indian Express original, doing some googling, and adding some background to paint the recently crowned French champion as more suitably Dionysian. Over on the other boards where people were conscious and presumably sober, the resurgent insurgent, Nigel Short, freshly returned to #1 UK status, started out his third consecutive event with a 3/3 score. He then gave up a draw to sit a half-point back of Chanda. Top seed Mamedyarov hung a pawn to 13.Nxa5 in the 4th round and lost.