Penalty for smoking

Two Chinese chess grandmasters Wang Yue and Li Chao lost their tiebreak games in the recent Chess World Cup in Russia because they were smoking!

The chessers were enjoying each puff in the smoking area and showed up two minutes late for their game. The chief arbiter, however, ruled that they lost by default, a decision that both the grandmasters didn’t contest.

When asked what happened, Wang Yue had this explanation: “We were smoking in the smoking room. Someone came in and said that we are late for the game. We rushed into the playing hall but it was already too late. It is terrible! But there are rules and we agree that everyone should follow them.”

Terrible indeed! Losing a game by forfeit, in any sport, is a terrifying experience. I’d rather get beat by black and blue while fighting it out.

Yue (ELO 2734) and Chao (ELO 2596) were part of the 10 Chinese players who qualified for the tournament and were the only ones left standing after the third round. Their disqualification left China without any representative in this tournament.

The two GMs suggested to organizers that they put up a giant screen viewable from the smoking room or elsewhere so that players will know if their game is due. They said they have such giant screens in China during chess tournaments. I don’t know if the organizers would install giant screen considering the tournament is in its last few rounds.

What would be prudent for these Chinese players to do is quit smoking! I don’t think they would. During an interview later in the tournament, Yue said that after what happened “you only think of a long smoke.”

Chao has the raw end of the deal – he only learned to smoke while in Russia – to give Yue company!

When these two grandmasters go home to China, I just hope they won’t be asked to smoke until they drop! Chinese authorities may not buy their alibi at all.

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The Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC), organizers of the Cebu City Marathon, will hold the third and final running clinic tomorrow at Active Zone in Ayala. Jim Saret and Julius Giron, two running coaches from Manila, will be the speakers. Toby Claudio of Runnr Cebu invited these coaches to Cebu. Runnr is a running specialty store that recently opened shop in Ayala.

The clinic starts at 2 pm and will continue until 4 pm. Seats will be limited, thus if you haven’t registered yet, please call 232-8518 to 19.

With barely a month left until the Cebu City Marathon, most of the runners are already fine-tuning their strategy for the run and any tips from these expert coaches would be very helpful.

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GOOD LUCK to Harty Satina, Dr. “Yong” Larrazabal III and his wife Donna Cruz who will run the Macau Marathon this weekend. Same goes to my tukayo Raffy Uytiepo who will join a big Cebuano group to the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon over the weekend as well. The group includes Atan, Jeson and Genito Guardo, Joel Garganera, Ian Baguio and Allan Decantar. In addition, there’s Mark Cans, Ramsay and Renee Quijano, who will be running in the 21K category with Raffy Uytiepo.

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