Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What Happened Next VIII


Vyzmanavin-Kramnik, Moscow 1994


Yesterday we left Vyzmanavin in an easily winning position having just played 53. Be4-f3 against Kramnink in their Armageddon shoot-out from the PCA Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament in the Kremlin.

At this point, as Morgan pointed out in yesterday's comments box, Vyzmanavin offered Kramnik a draw. But, leaving aside the question of why anybody would do such a thing when two comfortable pawns up, why would they split the point when failing to win sees them knocked out of the tournament?

IM Pein takes up the story
"... and now Vyzmanavin, under the impression he was playing the Black pieces (!) when he would go through on the Black-wins-a-drawn-game rule, offered a draw. A shocked Kramnik retained sufficient presence of mind to accept, then got up from his chair in a daze. His opponent also got up and starting pacing around on stage, wondering whatever had possessed him."

- Chess Magazine 59(4), July 1994

Insert your own wah-wah-wah-waaaaaaaaaahh sound here.



My friend and fellow blogger Morgan Daniels
celebrates his correct answer to "What Happened Next? VIII"


6 comments:

ejh said...

Absolutely fantastic

Morgan Daniels said...

Oh good

ejh said...

It's not that mad, by the way. Stressed people do this sort of thing all the time - you carry out a normal action but one of the elements is absent or entirely reversed, like stepping out into the road because the figure has changed from green to red.

Jonathan B said...

The video of the finish is priceless.

Vyz offers the draw

Kramnik accepts - clearly trying not to guffaw in his opponents face

Vyz puts his hand to his head, the reality sinking in.

The arbiter turns to Vyz with a "what the feck did you just do?" look on his face.

ejh said...

Is it somewhere we can see it?

Jonathan B said...

I don't think so.

I have it on the Grandmaster Video edition of the tournament. happy to lend it out but that probably doesn't help you.

I'm not aware of the clip being on youtube.