Kramnik-Demchenko Controversy

I saw that in the Chess World Cup, Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) knocked out Anton Demchenko (RUS) in the second round.  While this result is not surprising, the way it happened was.  Kramnik won the first game with white, forcing Demchenko to win the next day.  Today, Demchenko, in a must-win situation with white, agreed to a draw in 10 moves, leading to his elimination.  The 10 move game was an Italian and white finished with more time on the clock than he started with.  The draw was not forced and there was no objective reason why white should have agreed to a draw given the tournament situation.  I've heard, but cannot confirm, that Demchenko is/was Kramnik's second or is/was employed by him.  Demchenko got 2 FIDE points for the draw and gained 9 points in the tournament after upsetting Areshchenko (UKR) in the first round.  Perhaps he just wanted to gain a few points and go home.  

I considered the possibility that since both players are Russian, Demchenko stepped aside to allow the stronger Russian to win, but this seems unlikely given that Dubov upset Karjakin and knocked him out.

Whether employment, rating, or nationality was a motivating factor, this whole thing makes chess look bad.  If anyone has any thoughts or knows more about this please share.

Yes, but what about dubov and karjakin.  There are so many Russians that this is a bit weird and I've never seen such a short draw in this situation 

Karjakin had to go because he nearly beat Carlsen in the last world championship. Ever wondered why the world championship ends on Carlsen's birthday?

I don't know Demchenko's situation but there could also be practical reasons. Each night he stays costs him money. If he has an assistant, that's double the cost. Another day might also cost him in whatever else he does to earn a living.

Given the number of moves, the short draw might've been driven more by departure time than anything else. That's all versus the chance that he not only wins in the Italian but also wins in the tiebreaker.

Maybe he just wants to be able to say he held Kramnik to a draw in a major tournament.

Bobby: but if that's the case, it seems like a major scandal to me.  Imagine if in some other competition or sport someone just laid down and basically lost on purpose due to money.  It's not much different than match fixing if that's what happened.

The World Cup is the biggest event a guy like Demchenko will play in all year.  I seriously doubt he would knock himself out to save the cost of a night at a hotel in Georgia.  

Update: he told chess.com in an interview that he wasn't feeling well (no mention of any relationship between him and Kramnik).  I'm not buying it though.  If he actually wanted to win, he either would have avoided a line that he couldn't contractually play or picked a different opening.  This guy is about 2550 rated; I doubt he has any huge novelties in his back pocket.  Given that he lost yesterday, he had a whole day to find a good, playable line that could at least give him practical chances.

I don't think it had anything to do with the opening or any "purchased" lines.  I think Demchenko, if he is employed by Kramnik, just threw the game and knocked himself out to benefit his employer.  If that's true, he might have thrown the game that he lost with black as well and just given Kramnik a bye into the third round.  To me, this is a huge scandal, if it's true.  Imagine if a tennis player at Wimbledon threw a match to a second/mentor/coach/friend.  The player would be banned for sure

Carlsen with White played to a 30 move draw in the last game of his world championship match with Karjakin in 2016 leaving the score level and forcing a rapid tiebreak.  Aronian with White took a 15 move draw against Nakamura in Sinquefield blitz this year, blunting his own lead.  In interviews, players who do this sometimes say they didn't sleep well, or were tired.  Part of it is just nerves I think.

He was being peaceful. Stop insisting on violence!

It's always going to be hard to win on demand against the world #3.  A draw gave him a couple rating points.  He was probably happy enough to get that.

I disagree with bobby and wayne.  Throwing a match is a huge deal, especially if money was a factor.  While I know that semi-arranged draws are part of chess, this is essentially a loss because it knocks the player out of the event.  If he was really content to draw, he could have played 20-30 moves with a slight edge and tried to press a bit before taking it.  If Kramnik had fully equalized and Demchenko had no play, I would get taking a draw against the world #3, but to not even try is ridiculous. 

I'm still wondering if he deliberately lost the first game.  Then its definitely an issue

GM Maurice Ashley often speaks out against short draws.  You could see the incredulous look on his face when Aronian and Nakamura shook hands.  The arbiter went over to them, and looked at the position.  I thought for a moment that the arbiter was going to tell them to play on, but he didn't.

Regardless of the reasons I'm sure Maurice is well aware that no one in their right mind would be willing to be a sponsor for any sport in which things like this happen. This is pretty much the kind of thing that makes it really hard for him to sell the game.

"Each night he stays costs him money. If he has an assistant, that's double the cost. Another day might also cost him in whatever else he does to earn a living"

But beating Kramnik would maybe earn him more long term?! I wonder if he really was that worried about winning the game, he could have won the tiebreak and earned much more money too.

"This guy is about 2550 rated; I doubt he has any huge novelties in his back pocket"

"I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Of all the things someone could complain about, a 2550 agreeing to a quick draw against a 2800 in a must-win situation does not even make the top 100"

Maybe not a big thing, but why is everyone turning a 2650 into a 2550? Still, it wouldn't have cost him to play a game rather than draw in the opening.

"Carlsen with White played to a 30 move draw in the last game of his world championship match with Karjakin in 2016 leaving the score level and forcing a rapid tiebreak"

Yes, but it had been more strange if he had done that if the draw meant that he lost the match, as in this case...

"Can you honestly say that you would want to continue playing that against a World Champion (and one who became a World Champion by beating Garry Kasparov, no less?)"

The match against Kasparov was 17 years ago :-) I think most 2650 players (and "me") rather would play the game instead of not doing it :-)

My point with the Carlsen and Aronian examples is that they were the favourites, and so should probably be pressing for wins with White.  Demchenko faced a much stronger opponent, so it's not surprising that he would see a draw as a satisfactory result.

Maybe, but at the same time Kramnik has lost with white to players like Meier, Naiditsch, Vallejo and Fedoseev last years, so I think the Kasparov match is not too relevant here. In this situation I thought it was a bit weak not to even try, for a 2650 with white.

He said he was feeling unwell. Ever tried to play a tournament game while coming down with the flu, or even a bad cold?

This is all well and good but a simple counter-argument is that the man should've never entered into a tournament in which he would face such players in the first place. I mean what other scenarios were possible here? Him having a clear lead over the best players in the world and not having the problem you mentioned here at all? He couldn't have expected that could he? Isn't the entire point of the world cup to try and get a shot at the candidates? I don't know... The way I see it, if the only way you would continue against a player like Kraminik is in a superior position then you may as well just not even play players like Kramnik because you're just wasting your time.