Everything About This Clip Stinks – Chess Pro Forfeits in $1.5M Tournament After a Mouse Slip Caused Him to Make The Wrong Move

BOOOO!!!! 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅

I feel like chess has done a lot of great things lately. They've been in the headlines way more than I can ever remember them being in the past. Chess is especially great with controversy. From kicking out the hot-headed face of their sport for wearing jeans to a tournament. 

To the Great Vibrating Anal Beads Chess Scandal of 2022.

To the Great Vibrating Anal Beads Chess Scandal of 2023 (which received far less publicity, but was still very real).

And on top of the occasional cheating/jeans controversy, any chess match involving World Champion Magnus Carlsen ends up making waves across the internet. The man is a lightning rod of chess electricty. 

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I suppose the world of chess owes a lot to Magnus Carlsen specifically. But regardless off how they got here, chess is seemingly more popular than ever. The fact that a clip of a random chess pro mistakingly moving a pawn and resigning from a tournament even came across my desk is a testament to how far chess has come. But that clip in particular… I hate everything that's happening in that room (except for the enthusiastic announcers, they're doing just great).

I'll work in reverse order of things that stink most about this tournament. For starters, the man who misclicked his mouse (Jan-Krzysztof Duda) should be able to undo that move. Or there should be some type of failsafe in place to prevent that from happening. If it's truly an honest mistake that would never have happened on a real board, at bare minimum he should be able to appeal the move to his opponent. If his opponent is a chess-respecting gentleman who knows that the move was completely unintentional, he'd probably do the respectable thing and allow his opponent to rescind the mistake. 

Secondly, it's a little pathetic that Duda didn't even consider finishing out the game. Maybe his accidental move was far more disastrous and unrecoverable from than I realize. But even if it was, you're playing in a chess tournament for $1.5 million. It was only the 5th move of the game. It ain't over til it's over. I can't imagine how disgusted any of my youth sports coaches would be if I'd have done the equivalent of that, and just quit on the spot after a bad mistake. If Jan-Krzysztof Duda had managed to climb out of that hole, it would have been an all-time feat of chess. Maybe his opponent would have had a mouse slip on the next move. Anything can happen in the heat of competition. But he didn't even give that a chance.

But by far the most egregious thing about this entire clip is the fact that these chess professionals are sitting 10-feet from each other, but are playing chess virtually on a computer. What the hell is that? This mishap wouldn't even have been possible if they were simply playing on a real-life chess board. I'm sure this tournament has some reason for why they do it this way. Maybe the virtual board they're playing on allows for a better viewing experience. But couldn't they have a third guy sit off to the side and log the moves into whatever computer chess platform they're playing on? That would be the same thing, right? When the clip started, I assumed the players were in completely different parts of the world. Then after the game, they just walk into the same frame and shake hands. I know that online chess has been massive for the sport, but when you have two competitors in the same real-life room, just play real-life chess on a real-life chess board. 

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However, I suppose if thew were playing physical chess, then they wouldn't have gone viral for this disastrous mouse slip, and non-chess fans wouldn't be talking about the group stage of the Armageddon chess tournament. Maybe chess is playing 3D-chess while I'm sitting here getting my ass pounded (figuratively) by a homeless man in Washington Square Park. Chess seems to be doing great right now. Who am I to tell chess how to chess?