Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Compensation for the material lost

I was reading the New In Chess report of the Morelia/Linares tournament in which Teimour Radjabov did not compete. This, you will recall, was because he had his laptop stolen from a hotel room en route to Morelia, a theft for which the organisers unaccountably failed to compensate him despite it being in an entirely different place to Morelia and Radjabov senior choosing to ignore the popular advice which says it's unwise to leave irreplaceable items in your hotel room. Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam continues:
he also failed to understand why they had refused to financially compensate him for the material and emotional damage suffered. In the press release no amount was mentioned, but but allegedly he had demanded $100,000. When I later asked Rajbadov if this amount was correct, he didn't deny it, but preferred not to be specific. Given the information that was stolen he and his father found the amount reasonable.
I am still hopeful that the organisers will see sense and accept responsibility, thereby setting a precedent for other claims: and with this in mind I have composed the following press release which I propose to issue shortly.

On the weekend of 5-7 May I played in the Four Nations Chess League at Wokefield Park in Berkshire, which entailed on two of these days a train journey from London Paddington to Mortimer via Reading.

Unaccountably the organisers failed to inform me that engineering works were likely to take place on the Sunday, meaning that the train from Reading to Mortimer would be replaced by a bus: or that trains leaving Paddington are subject to delays which may (and did) result in the train arriving late at Reading and the replacement bus having already departed.

I am therefore submitting a claim to the 4NCL Management Board for, in the first instance, the sum of ₤3, this being the amount which I was obliged to pay for the local bus to Mortimer village from Reading: and in the second instance, for the emotional distress which I underwent as a result of missing the replacement bus.


I estimate the appropriate compensation for this distress to be ₤97 and I am therefore invoicing the Four Nations Chess League for the total sum of ₤100 which I anticipate will be paid without delay or demur.

9 comments:

Tom Chivers said...

Very good. This idea could run and run. So I was ten minutes late for a London League game last year, because TFL didn't inform me of the road works around St Paul's, which meant my bus didn't move for twenty minutes and in the end I had to get out and walk. However, this put me in a rather foul mood and I proceeded to blast my opponent off the board rather quickly as a result, which meant I got to the pub earlier than usual. In short I'd like a new liver, whether from TFL or the London League.

Anonymous said...

"Given the information that was stolen...."

Does that mean stolen as in lost to them forever or stolen as in, potentially now available to rivals?

If the former then I guess they've since invested in a backing up system.

Anonymous said...

I've been to Patzcuaro (not for any chess) and it struck me as a pretty quiet provincial town. Of course that doesn't guarantee anything safety wise, but I would be surprised if the "very high crime rated town" was accurate.
Andrew

Anonymous said...

I would also question the use of the phrase "tragic circumstances" in the press release (as quoted on chessbase) as a bit of an hysterical over-reaction.

A tragedy is the death of a loved one, the kidnapping of a child or a life destroyed in some way shape or form. The theft of a computer, regardless of what's stored on it, hardly counts.

Perhaps I should be a bit more sympathetic to the English as a 2nd language issue but if you seem to think $100,000 is suitable compensation for a loss then you probably are deluded enough to see your loss as a tragedy.

Anonymous said...

Mind you, not winning a chess game for nearly four months - now that's a tragedy.

Who do I get compo from for being rubbish at chess?

Anonymous said...

ejh

Given the way you then played on the Sunday, I think I might be the one to have a reasonable claim for damages!

--Michael Yeo

ejh said...

Kind of you, Michael.

Anybody wishing to know what game Michael is referring to can look for it here. I say "look for" rather than "find" because:

(a) currently it's not working ;
(b) when it was working earlier the game appeared to be incorrectly recorded as a draw!

Anonymous said...

Just had a very quick run through and it looked like a fine effort ejh- well played! Before playing through the game, I assumed that Michael was your team captain and that you had lost horribly!
Andrew

ejh said...

Insofar as it matters 32...Rf8 is rather stronger at the end (as seen instantly by Lalic, S, looking at a pocket set on the way home).

8...Kf8 is not, in fact, the TN claimed by me in the pub afterwards and Pinski doesn't rate it in his Italian/Evans book but I think it's worth a closer look. If White takes on g7 the king position is going to be weak anyway so why not keep the extra pawn?