‘Plug the fucking laptop in!’ Hans Niemann, the lively 19-year-old from the US, was left fuming – understandably – after his loss to Jan-Krzysztof Duda at the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami. The organisers set up the equipment, but Duda’s laptop ran out of juice at a tense moment when both players had about a minute remaining. By the time it was resolved, Duda had gained several minutes to think and found an accurate continuation, posing difficult problems in the endgame. An exasperated Niemann lost the game, and collapsed in the next two as well, losing a clean 3-0 sweep in the four-game match.
The technical mishap was all the more absurd since the players were all at the same venue in Miami, and could just as well have played mano a mano. But this event, the FTX Crypto Cup, was the latest in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the series of online rapid events initiated by Magnus Carlsen during the pandemic. Besides, it is claimed that competitive video games (such as Dota 2 and League of Legends) are now a billion-dollar market, so promoting chess as an eSport is a plausible marketing pitch, even if it rankles the purists.
But also in over-the-board play, unexpected stoppages are not that uncommon – I was once the beneficiary of a timely fire alarm in a difficult position. And during the first game of the Fischer-Petrosian Candidates match in Buenos Aires, 1971, the lights went out due to a power cut. On that occasion, the arbiter stopped Fischer’s clock, and Petrosian left the stage while Fischer remained at the board. Petrosian complained, so Fischer agreed to let his clock run while he sat thinking in the dark.
Niemann’s colourful interview after his match with Duda was eclipsed the very next day, when he beat Magnus Carlsen in the first game of their match.
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