Zero Tolerance?
After four rounds at the European Indivdual Chess Championships, just two players lead the men's event with perfect scores.
GM's Baadur Jobava of Georgia and and Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine (pictured) have a half point lead over a 15-strong chasing pack on 3.5/4.
On a side note, an interesting petition has been made to the organisers, signed by over 100 of the participants at the event, asking for an amendment to the 'zero tolerance' rule for late arrivals.
Recent FIDE changes to the official laws of chess now mean that unless otherwise stated, all FIDE events operate a policy commonly known as 'zero-tolerance' for late arrivals at a game. If a player is not seated an ready at exactly the time a round is due to start, he/she loses the game by default.
Rule 6.6a states: Any player who arrives at the chessboard after the start of the session shall lose the game. Thus the default time is 0 minutes. The rules of a competition may specify otherwise. (From the official rules).
The petitioners are requesting that the default time be changed from 0 minutes to 30 minutes, to allow players some leeway. I blame mischievous cats...
pic from icanhascheezburger.com
