Controversy At The 2011 Corsica Masters [UPDATED]

The 2011 Corsica Masters tournament comes to a finish on 31 October when Vishy Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov will meet in the final.

The tournament has an unusual format, starting with a 9 round Swiss event at a standard (long) time control, from which the top 14 players advanced to a rapid KO stage where they were joined by Vishy Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

The scores of the qualifiers from the Swiss competition were:

The Swiss event was notable for two controversial decisions by the tournament organisers.  In round 4, the Iranian GM Ehsan Gahem Maghami was paired with the Israeli FM Ehud Shachar.  Maghami (pictured below) refused to play his opponent on account of his Israeli nationality, and as a result not only forfeited the game but was excluded by the organisers from the rest of the tournament.

GM Ehsan Gahem Maghami

The chief organiser Léonard Battesti issued the following statement:

The Iranian Grand Master Ehsan Maghami Ghaem informed me of his refusal to play against his opponent of the fourth round, the Israeli Fide Master Ehud Shachar. I told Mr. Ghaem Maghami that as an organizer of a sporting International competition, I could not accede to his request to change the pairings, for him to play against another player. The presence of five Israeli players in this tournament is known by all participants since Saturday, October 22. It honors our competition as well as the presence of Iranian players and about thirty other nationalities. The motto of our Federation is Gens una sumus, we develop in Corsica awareness of the positive aspects of chess sport on our youth, being complicity of any form of segregation would be unworthy, and in total contradiction with the foundations of our sport action. So regretfully I have to exclude the player who unfortunately has persisted in his choice, inspite of my imprecations. I regret it. But I could not escape from our responsibilities.

The second incident occurred in round 5 of the Swiss competition, when the organisers decided to forfeit both Mark Arnold and Rauf Mamedov for agreeing to a 22-move draw in contravention of the event's anti-draw rules.  Both players qualified for the KO stage despite this setback.

The results of the rapid KO stage of the event (time control 15 minutes plus 3 sec/move)

UPDATE: ANAND WON THE FINAL Vs. MAMEDYAROV 2-0. Games below.