"That's extremely bannable" - GothamChess, GMHikaru, and more react to Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniil Dubov's controversial draw

The chess scene has recently been plagued with a lot of drama, and the latest one involves Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniil Dubov, two popular Chess Grandmasters from Russia. For context, the duo agreed to a draw after 12 moves yesterday (December 29), during which both only moved their knights before returning them to their home squares.

This naturally sparked a lot of debate within the community, with many calling them out for allegedly pre-arranging the draw. YouTuber Levy "GothamChess" said this:

"At the end of the day, there should be something in place about pre-arranged draws, cause in any other sport, it's like, extremely bannable, you get punished and everything."

(Timestamp: 26:34)

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"Chess has a problem" - Community reacts to Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniil Dubov's controversial draw

The World Blitz Chess Championship 2023 saw another controversy as two highly-rated Grandmasters, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniil Dubov, opted for a draw after engaging in a rather unconventional and meme-worthy opening.

Naturally, this triggered a wave of reactions from the online community. Notably, FIDE took notice and docked points from both players for their decision. Chief Arbiter Syrovy said:

"In my eyes, both players are responsible for it, I consider they prearranged the result of the game. My opinion is based on the moves they played."

Chief arbiter penalises both Grandmasters (Image via X/@FIDE)

Levy, in his YouTube video, also said this:

"Chess has this problem, and I don't think this type of stuff should happen. Like, if you wanna make a draw, play an opening. But who am I? Dubov, Nepo, they don't care about my opinion. Nobody's gonna listen to the YouTuber."

Twitch streamer and Grandmaster Hikaru "GMHikaru" shared his reaction to the controversial draw, stating that he doesn't believe they should be suspended from the tournament since it leaves the door open for discussion over other openings that force players to draw. He said:

"In my opinion, I don't think anything is going to happen for the simple reason that if you choose to give both players a zero and/or disqualify them from the event, it's going to set a precedent that going forward it will be very difficult to patrol in terms of whether games are prearranged."

(Timestamp: 21:19)

Ian himself took to his X account to post a link to a classical music piece titled Dance of the Knights, comically alluding to his odd draw against Dubov:

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Due to each player losing 0.5 points, the two are currently tied for second place with a score of 8.5 each. If they had retained their points, they would be sharing the top spot with other players such as Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.