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1994-06-13
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77 lines
Evans on Chess. March 18, 1994. Copyright by GM Larry Evans.
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Why is f4 an illegal move?
TOUCH MOVE!
Chess is perfect. People aren't.
The rules of the game are clear, concise and consistent. The fourth edition
of the USCF Official Rules of Chess (1993) is 400 pages long and the bulk of
the book deals not with how the pieces move, but with those who move the
pieces.
Touch move means that you must move a piece if you touch it. To adjust a
piece, you must first say "J'adoube" or "I adjust." If you go to a square and
change your mind, you can go elsewhere if your hand is still on it. But once
your hand quits the piece, the move stands.
It's hard to enforce this rule in the heat of battle. A case in point is the
game between 17-year-old Hungarian whiz Judith Polgar and world champion Gary
Kasparov, 31, at a super tourney in Linares, Spain.
Their encounter in round five features a mysterious Rook move (12...Rd8)
whose aim is murky. After a tough fight Polgar threw in the towel in view of
47 Kg1 e2 48 Re1 Qd4 49 Kh1 Nf2 50 Kg1 Nh3 51 Kh1 Qg1! 52 Rxg1 Nf2 smothered
mate.
Days later Polgar complained that Kasparov took back a move. She said he
played 36...Nc5 but changed it to Nf8 after seeing that 37 Bc6 wins.
Since the rules specify that a protest must be lodged during play, nothing
could be done because Polgar had resigned. "I was playing the World Champion
and I didn't want to cause unpleasantness during my first invitation to such
an important event. I was also afraid that if my complaint was overruled I
would be penalized on the clock when we were in time pressure," she
explained.
"I have the feeling I did not take my hand off the piece," said Kasparov.
"My conscience is clear."
"Kasparov did not take his hand off the knight, so he had a perfect right to
change his move," said the chief arbiter.
Yet the naked eye can be fooled. A video revealed that Kasparov took his hand
off the knight for exactly 1/4 of a second! Deliberate foul or an attempt to
change his grip on the knight to reverse direction? Who can ever say for
sure? Some critics rushed to judgment and called it cheating. But Robert
Solso, a noted cognitive psychologist, said that a time span of 250
milliseconds is too short to make a conscious decision.
Are instant TV replays coming next in chess? On the international level it
happened once at a blitz event in Saint John, Canada, 1988 (see diagram).
White: JUDITH POLGAR Black: GARY KASPAROV Sicilian Defense 1994 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3
d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 f4 e6 7 Be2 Be7 8 0-0 Qc7 9 Qe1 Nbd7 10 a4
b6 11 Bf3 Bb7 12 Kg1 Rd8?! 13 Be3 0-0 14 Qg3 Nc5 15 f5 e5 16 Bh6 Ne8 17 Nb3
Nd7 18 Rad1 Kh8 19 Be3 Nef6 20 Qf2 Rfe8 21 Rfe1 Bf8 22 Bg5 h6 23 Bh4 Rc8 24
Qf1 Be7 25 Nd2 Qc5 26 Nb3 Qb4 27 Be2 Bxe4 28 Nxe4 Nxe4 29 Bxe7 Rxe7 30 Bf3
Nef6 31 Qxa6 R7e8 32 Qe2 Kg8 33 Bb7 Rc4 34 Qd2 Qxa4 35 Qxd6 Rxc2 36 Nd2 Nf8
37 Ne4 N8d7 38 Nxf6 Nxf6 39 Qxb6 Ng4 40 Rf1 e4 41 Bd5 e3 42 Bb3 Qe4 43 Bxc2
Qxc2 44 Rd8 Rxd8 45 Qxd8 Kh7 46 Qe7 Qc4 White Resigns
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SOLUTION: It's illegal to make a move exposing a king to check. When an
instant replay proved he had not punched his clock to complete the move,
Vaganian was allowed to retract f4 against Georgiev and won.