Controversy in Chess - Mamedyarov vs. Kurnosov

This video takes a look at the game played between Mamedyarov and Kurnosov at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, Russia.

Mamedyarov accused his fellow grandmaster of cheating, and dropped out of the tournament. No evidence was found whatsoever, even after the arbiter checked the contents of Kurnosov's jacket. All that was found was a pencil, smokes, and a lighter.

This video looks at the game, and the PGN is available on my blog at http://www.jrobichess.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• chess
• controversy
• jrobi
• jrobichess
• grandmaster
• opening
• tactics
• cheating
• tournament

[HeadDominion]

Whenever I accuse someone (if I should at all accuse, and I don't like doing this at all) I would make absolutely sure without a shadow of a doubt. and even then before going to the arbiters I would give the opposition a chance to answer the charges brought forward.

Just like Othello says "Be sure, villian, be sure before calling my wife a whore".

[jrobichess]

Great comment!

[calleroev]

I made a drinking game out of the "uhm...". I killed my liver in the first 5 minutes =) Great vids though. Maybe cut back a little on the uhms though.

[Limboman1988]

And I thought that chess players were wise...

[zanedabrain]

I am not that strong of a player and I seen Knight takes b2 (I wouldn't have played it without further analysis as I only had 5 seconds or so to evaluate during the video), if he was cheating it would have been played.

[dhopetheartist]

I, am not a chess player, by any stretch of the imagination. I do play on occassion with my friend. He and I usually end up in a stalemate, because of my limited knowledge of how to play the game. I play just trying to keep him from winning, unlike those who are playing to win. What I have always found interesting, is that there are so called "standard" moves, and that there are advantages to either black or white, yet what kind of game would this then be?

[mrrubiks501]

Just a situation of a player being embarrassed in a small number of moves.

[rebelsouljaz]

im confused, so how do you play this game?

[DanielxLira]

@Apjooz me too, and im 100% amateur :S

[BMackQ]

Great video, I absolutely agree with you, jrobi. What makes human's chess (played by humans instead of computers) so beatiful is the way the player is thinking and planning his strategy and in the end make the moves he believes to be in his favour. I doesn't have to be the strongest move or even the best move, but if the opponent doesn't see those moves it's simple: if you eliminate all posibilities and none of them are viable the only one left is the imposible! (computer did it!).

[TheSurvivorjunkie]

i think that its wrong to accuse them, but i think that Mamedyarov already had it in his head that his opponent was cheating. thus when his opponent came back from a smoke with a brilliant move. we know what he was thinking. but i think they should put restrictions on whether or not players can leave and smoke. there should be smoking areas inside the building or something. but whos to stop them from going to the bathroom and analyzing things?

[TheSurvivorjunkie]

i think that allowing player to leave the room doing their games just begs for accusations. however i myself would be dying for a ciggarete if my opponent took 40 mins. to make a move. so i think to avoid these situations they should limit whether or not players can leave the room to smoke. maybe they should let them smoke at the board.. just a thought.