A short win

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So I just tuned in to see what's going on at Corus, and was somewhat surprised to see that the game Short-Cheparinov went 1. e4 c5 1-0. Yes, that's the entire game.

Apparently Cheparinov refused to shake Short's hand and so, per the recent rule change, forfeited the game. At this point I've no idea how the incident played out, but I can't see it reflecting favourably on either player. Cheparinov is clearly an idiot for refusing to shake Short's hand; I'm willing to presume that Short is probably an idiot for insisting on the rule being enforced.

As various people pointed out at the time, losing a game in such circumstances is really rather extraordinary. I suppose it was inevitable that, once the rule existed, two idiots would eventually get together and cause it to be applied. Shaking hands is nice, of course, but it's hard to see how this sort of thing is good for the game.

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