Karpov: 'I don't understand these idiots'

by ChessBase
11/27/2003 – Former world champion Anatoly Karpov is out of the Benidorm All-Star tournament. His plane from Brazil was delayed and Karpov claimed he was too exhausted to play his first round game against 16-year-old Teimour Radjabov. When his request to postpone the game was denied he angrily withdrew from the tournament (some sources say he was disqualified). Here's the full story and the results of the first day.

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Anatoli Karpov arrived in Benidorm for the All-Star tournament straight from Brazil, on a plane that was delayed. He was paired in the first round to play against the 16-year-old star from Baku, Teimour Radjabov, with the black pieces. Karpov claimed that he had been deprived of sleep and requested the game to be posponed to Friday in the morning. Radjabov declined and was declared winner by forfeit. After hearing this Karpov withdrew from the tournament (some Spanish sources say he was "disqualified"). Since he had also failed to appear for the second game against Judit Polgar, for which according to the rules he had to be disqualified from the tournament by the arbiter, the latter interpretation is not unreasonable.

Mark Crowther reports that during a conversation with the press office of the tournament, Karpov said: "I don't understand these idiots. Postponing a game for reasons of force majeure is normal in our sport. My conclusion is that the current bad situation in the chess world is not surprising, because they deserve it!" Many of the other ten participants of the All-Stars said they were annoyed because Karpov is notorious for such incidents.

Standings after day one

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