Sportsmanship in Chess

Hello fellow chess lovers!

Sportsmanship is a key part of any sport, not just chess. The handshake, in my opinion, is the most important gesture in chess. Of course, nowadays we unfortunately cannot play over-the-board chess much, but during the coronavirus the handshake in the few OTB tournaments that are played has been replaced by elbow bumps as you can see in the thumbnail.

The handshake symbolizes the beginning of a game, or a draw offer, or the end of the game. It is by far one of the most important gestures in chess, and if you do not offer a handshake at the start of the match, you may just end up like Ivan Cheparinov!

In 2008, English Grandmaster Nigel Short played a game against Ivan Cheparinov, a Bulgarian Chess Grandmaster, at the Wijk aan Zee 2008. Both are strong players. Even before the round started, the English Grandmaster offered the Bulgarian his hand to shake, as a gesture, wishing him all the best. Cheparinov simply ignored him.

That was the first red flag. Short obviously meant well! When the rounds were going to start, Short stretched out his hand, again asking for a handshake to signify the beginning of the match. Cheparinov practically recoiled from Short's hand. 

This is ridiculous, of course. Imagine starting off a game with no handshake and both players resenting each other. It would have been incredibly ugly. Short knew something was up and he called the arbiter and explained the situation to him. The arbiter had probably never seen something like this ever before! Quite poor sportsmanship on Cheparinov's part. The game was quickly forfeited and the result was declared 1-0, meaning Short has won. 

Cheparinov was enraged. The reason for him not playing was because supposedly Nigel Short had 'gravely insulted Cheparinov and his team.' There was some controversy regarding the forfeit as while Cheparinov's team said that there was no such rule that the players had to shake hands, while Short said the arbiter had to be reminded of this rule (meaning he believed it existed while the other team did not). The Appeals Committee decided to give Ivan a chance to play if he apologized on the free day that was drawing nearer, shook Short's hand, and played the game. Ivan accepted. Short went on to win the game.

Poor Nigel! No player should have to endure this. Here's what Chessbase wrote (The Chessbase  team was staying at the same hotel as Short at the time of the game)

"Short vs Cheparinov replayed

Sunday's handshake affair shook Wijk aan Zee 2008 – and most obviously Nigel Short, who was staying in the same hotel as we were and with whom we imbibed in a midnight drink. The English grandmaster was still shaking as he sipped his glass of red wine. It was clear that the refusal by his opponent to accept his handshake had had a deeply disruptive effect on his emotional balance. Nigel had received the decision of the Appeals Committee and was not at all happy with that. Ivan Cheparinov was expected to issue a "public excuse" ("apology" was the intended word) before 11 a.m. the next day, which Nigel was expected to accept. The replay of the game was scheduled for two and a half hours later, at 1:30 p.m. on the free day.

When he heard about the decision Nigel was incandescent with rage and informed the Committee that he had no intention of replaying the game. He left the venue immediately and joined our correspondent Steve Giddins in a nearby Italian restaurant. "I have never seen Nigel so angry," Steve writes in his BCM report. "He was literally almost speechless, and being pretty lost for words myself, we hardly exchanged more than 3-4 sentences for almost a whole hour, as we sat in the restaurant. One thing Short did say was 'It looks as though I have played my last game in this tournament'. It was impossible to know what to say, or how even to attempt to help him come to terms with such a manifest injustice.

Here's the game:

There are other examples of poor sportsmanship too, unfortunately, like when Aron Nimzowitsch exclaimed 'Why must I lose to this idiot!' near the end of a bad game he played.

Here's how to be a good sport in chess (some basic guidelines):

Do not use outside materials like engines, opening trees, tablebases, etc

Do shake hands with your opponent

Do not insult your opponent (trash talk, etc.)

Do not distract your opponent

If your opponent has declined a draw, do not incessantly keep offering draws. The maximum number of draws you should offer is three (and even that is a little much!)

Do get off to a good start by saying 'Best of Luck'

Lose graciously

Here's a great example of a Chess Legend being a good sport: 

Chessable Masters Online Chess Tournament: This event had been running smoothly until the Semi-finals, where the matches featured Magnus Carlsen v Ding Liren & Anish Giri v Ian Nepomniachtchi. In the first game of the Carlsen-Ding match, the players reached a drawn rook & pawn endgame (diagram 1), where Carlsen’s passed a-pawn was neutralised by Ding’s extra king-side pawn, when Ding’s internet connection dropped out! He did not reconnect until after his time had elapsed, so Carlsen was awarded the win & was now up 1-0 in the 4-game match.

Magnus’s response to this was to ensure that the score was evened out after game 2 & in the process managed to be part of the fastest ever loss by a reigning World Champion! The ‘game’ went 1. c4 e6 2. g3 Qg5 3. Bg2 Qxd2+ 4. Qxd2 1-0 Commentators Yasser Seriwan, Sam Shankland & Anna Rudolf all commented on the sporting nature of the resignation by Carlsen. Afterwards Carlsen was asked about his decision to resign & he said that it was one way that he could make things right, although he would have preferred to simply go to a 0.5-0.5 score rather than a 1-1 score, but he felt it was the only way to make things right. He noted that in the final position of game 1, Ding had a number of reasonable moves, so it was not as though it was still tricky to achieve the draw, so splitting the point was the fairest result & given that he could not change the already awarded 1-0 result, resigning game two was the next best alternative. He also said that he preferred to win the match over the board, rather than because of a technicality. ~Credit: Gardnier Chess, IA Kerry Stead

Here are some chess.com guidelines on how to be a good sport:
Sportsmanship in Chess. 

I hope you enjoyed this article! Be a good sport! 🤝