As stupid as golf?

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3496673

Caught by who?

The opponent? If a player has to try and ascertain what their opponent is furiously writing down across the table, you better believe that's a distraction.

The TD? Is he going to be reviewing everybody's notes after each game?



Pre-writing your move is simply a bad habit that has been taught by a lot of coaches. There is zero need to do that. The scoresheet is for recording the moves played on the board.

Wow, apparently So's biogical mom was "stalking" him all tourney. That explains a lot, including his obvious distress in the first game interview when his mom disappeared during the game for a bit.

Yeah, it's pretty disgusting the grief his family is giving him. Not only ambushing him everywhere but saying they're going to disown him. Obviously it explains his shaky form in this tournament, after a couple of years of incredible consistency.

I don't think the rule is silly because it's necessary to write on a scoresheet. I think it's a poor rule because I don't believe it's necessarily distracting and it's such an ineffective method of cheating.

If you allow writing notes, but not writing down your analysis, where do you draw the line? Is it OK to write individual moves? Squares? Diagrams of a chessboard? Analysis in a foreign language with a foreign alphabet? It is clear to me that the only reasonable rule is a prescriptive one that specifies the only things players may write: the moves, time usage, and offers or claims of a draw.

Sounds like the arbiter handled it very well, giving two warnings and consulting with experienced colleagues before stepping in to forfeit the game. The only thing I don't understand is how So could still have thought what he was doing was ok after the first two warnings - either So is being disingenuous or the arbiter really didn't do a good job communicating with him.

It seems odd to me that players keep their own time/score in top-level championship matches to begin with.

http://www.startribune.com/local/299426421.html

Not odd at all. See golf.

Man that's messed up. So should get restraining orders against his mom and aunt. He's 21 and they are ****ing with his career and mental health at this point. **** them. Just because they gave birth to him doesn't mean he owes them a damn thing.
They are sounding like Michelle Wie's parents, who would follow her around the golf course barking at her when she was 14. Get a ****ing life. Let your children spread their damn wings.

I think better analogies are to things like Go, Shogi, or even stuff like Pool/Snooker or even Darts. In none of these are the players expected to keep their own score.

In large ordinary tournaments with big fields or when everything is hundreds of yards apart like in Golf it may be necessary but it is weird when two players are sitting in the middle of an auditorium playing the world championship match with a huge crowd and lots of observers and they administrate the game themselves. Imo this is also weird if they keep their own scorecards in eg the U.S. Amateur final in golf where there are only two players and tons of observers.

When you have a camera recording everything, the game scores are largely unnecessary, yes. But, recording your moves is simply part of the rules of chess. The rulebook applies to every player. I think making rule exceptions for certain players is a road you don't need to go down.

Akobian...what an angle shoot.....

How distracted or distressed could he really be from this action?

I was watching the interview with the TM from the tournament on chessbase and he said that he had warned So from writing notes on the scoresheet. Well he was not writing notes on the scoresheet but another piece of paper so if you really wanted to get technical...wouldnt the warning process start over then..

Still I will now root against Akobian every chance I get...weenie

Great prediction from a friend of mine immediately after hearing

I doubt there is anything to the Mother stalking story. He's a kid who has never had a setback in his career before. Now he has a bad tournament so he's trying to rationalize it. If he had won the tournament he would have been thanking his Mom for her support.

Throwing his mother under the bus, to that extent, to cover for a bad tournament? I can't imagine that. If that was the case, he's an incredibly sick person.

Well, her husband/manager Truong wrote a statement http://en.chessbase.com/post/what-is...ley-so#discuss for chessbase, basically stating that he has nothing to do with the whole thing. For some reason, he attached to this statement random private family photos of Wesley taken in the last days, basically contradicting himself. Completely weird imo.

Didn't that story say they had to kick his mom and aunt out of the building?

Isn't he totally untrustworthy? Maybe I get distorted reports (I don't live in the US) but I only ever hear of him when he is libelling, lying or cheating someone.

Nakamura and Krush win. Shocking

Is there anyone in chess with a cushier deal than Krush in this event? Ev of probably 12k+ for one event against 2200s. Makes her petulance seem especially ungracious when she doesn't win it.

That might be a bit unfair as there are a few strong players who don't play and didn't play the women's wc who presumably could get invited. So it can't be as financially attractive as I was thinking.

The whole saga with So is ridiculous. His biological mother did an interview that seems semi-insane to me: http://www.chessdom.com/eleanor-so-w...c_location=ufi.

Here is So's reply on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wesleyso/po...52891558827857.

Wtf is going on?!

What stands out to me is the statement that he called RBC and they told him his savings were not there. There's no way a bank would provide that information without the account holder going there in person and providing ID. Something is very fishy here.

Could be a joint account or something. I didn't find that necessarily made up or the strangest part of all this.

The whole thing just seems quite strange and even if on side or the other is mainly telling the truth, it seems like there is a lot more to the story.