Chennai : V Anand , the heartbeat behind India’s chess boom, said that authorities cannot change the rules pertaining to multiple withdrawals and multiple re-entry by some players in a tournament because the “rule applies to all circumstances.”Speaking on the sidelines of the Chennai GM chess meet on Sunday, the former world champion said, “As long as it’s within the rules when they (players) do it, I think we just move on.” He was responding to TOI’ s questions on some Indian GMs making a mockery of Swiss League tournaments by playing select rounds in a given tournament.Success against weaker players (even difference of more than Elo 400) gives them 0.8 Elo point per win; and withdrawals against stronger players eliminate losing rating points.India’s 92nd GM Aaryan Varshney and 99th GM, the most recent, Rathanvel VS have achieved their norms by exploiting the lacuna.Pranesh lets Arjun off the hookM Pranesh, the lowest rated player in the eight-man round robin event, may rue losing out on a strong continuation against Arjun Erigaisi on the 24th move in the Italian Opening. Ten moves later, Arjun found three-fold repetition via queen check in queen, rook, knight and pawns vs queen, two bishops and pawns endgame. The other games between Hans Niemann and Alireza Firouzja and Dmitry Andreikin and Nihal Sarin were without drama.
