Leave it to Hikaru Nakamura to give us another lesson in how not to play chess. That is, literally, how not to pick up the pieces and move them. Last year, he taught us not to castle with both hands. (You might remember that in an Armageddon playoff game with Ian Nepomniachtchi, he did the two-handed castle and won, and the Russian’s protest was denied because it came too late, after the game.)
This time, in the World Championship Qualifiers tournament in Moscow, Nakamura was defending a difficult rook-and-pawn endgame against Levon Aronian. At one point Hikaru touched his king, clearly and deliberately, and then realized that moving the king would be a game-losing blunder. At that point he lamely said, “J’adoube,” and Aronian called over the arbiter. The arbiter ruled in Aronian’s favor, and if you watch the video there is no doubt that the ruling was correct. Nakamura moved his king and resigned a couple moves later.
Time once again for a refresher on the touch-move rule. The key points are: 1) If you want to touch a piece without moving it, you have to say “I adjust” or “J’adoube” first. 2) If you touch your own piece without saying “J’adoube,” you have to move it (if there is a legal way to do so); if you touch your opponent’s piece without saying “J’adoube,” you have to take it (if there is a legal way to do so). 3) If you move the piece and let go, that is your move. If you have not let go, you can still change your mind and move it to a different square. 4) If you have clearly touched a piece inadvertently (e.g., knocking it over as you reach for another piece), you are not compelled to move it.
Of course, this last proviso creates a gray zone, but that’s where common sense and sportsmanship need to come into play. The touch-move rule comes up probably at least once a month in the kids’ chess club that I run. “You let go of the queen!” “No I didn’t!” Usually in such cases, I remind them that this is a chess club, not a tournament, and they are playing a friendly game. In such a case I tend to allow the kid who allegedly touched the piece to do something else instead. I haven’t yet had to deal with it in a tournament. (I only run one tournament a year, and the kids who play in the tournament are way more careful about touching pieces than kids in chess club.)
I think the more fundamental issue is one of sportsmanship. If you don’t practice good sportsmanship when it’s easy, you won’t be able to do it when it’s hard. To me, that’s why Nakamura reacted the way he did — trying to get away with “adjusting” the piece.
Looking back through my old posts, I found that I wrote about touch moves once before, in this post from 2011. It’s well worth reading again, because the same issue of sportsmanship arises. A kid playing in his third USCF tournament (and only his ninth rated game ever) is beating a GM. He adjusts his opponent’s pawn on h3, but without saying anything. The GM realizes that the kid has a way of capturing on h3 (a suicidal move) and demands that the kid do it.
The GM was acting within the letter of the rules. You can’t find fault with him there. But he was also not acting in the spirit of good sportsmanship. The sportsmanlike thing to do would have been to realize that the kid didn’t know about the “J’adoube” rule, to realize that there is no way a kid who has been playing on a 2500 level would want to take that pawn, and he should let the incident pass and tell the kid about the rule after the game.
How many GM’s would do this? In the first round of a weekend tournament, when a loss will probably cost them a chance at first prize? As I said, if you don’t practice sportsmanship when it’s easy you won’t be able to do it when it’s hard. So the GM failed the test, and maybe discouraged a promising young kid from playing tournament chess.
I’ve been fortunate enough not to have any touch-move controversies in my tournament career. The closest call, maybe, came in 2006 in a game of great personal importance to me. It was a game against a class A player whom I will not name (because he’s innocent!), and it was the first-ever appearance of the Bryntse Gambit in an OTB tournament.
Dana Mackenzie – NN
1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3 de 4. Ng5 Nf6 5. Bc4 Bg4?! 6. Qxg4! …
This queen sac is the defining move of the Bryntse Gambit.
6. … Nxg4 7. Bxf7+ Kd7 8. Be6+ Kc6 9. Bxg4 e5
This may actually be the best move. But the followup is not.
10. Nf7 Qh4+? 11. g3 …
Position after 11. g3. Black to move.
FEN: rn3b1r/pp3Npp/2k5/2p1p3/4pPBq/6P1/PPPP3P/RNB1K2R b KQ – 0 11
Black now played a move that I can only write as “11. … xg4.” He snatched my bishop as a prequel to taking it with his queen… and then he froze. Presumably that was when he saw that 11. … Qxg4?? would be met by 12. Nxe5+, winning. This is, like, the basic trap in the Bryntse Gambit.
There my opponent sat, holding my bishop in his hand, for the longest time. It was at least five minutes, perhaps closer to ten. I can’t imagine what he was thinking about all that time. It was clearly not an inadvertent touch — he had my bishop in his hand! There is no other piece that can take the bishop. He has to take it with the queen. So there is literally nothing, from the chess point of view, to think about. I can only think that during those ten minutes he was trying to decide whether he could somehow get away with bending the touch-move rule. Maybe a Nakamura-style “J’adoube”? Maybe if he sat long enough, I would get up and leave the board, and he could put the bishop back? Fortunately, I had a friend, Jeff Mallett, who was playing in the tournament and happened to see the incident, and just sort of hung around our board in case a dispute arose and I needed an eyewitness.
In the end, my opponent did the right and the sportsmanlike thing. He completed the capture, I played the knight check, and he resigned. The Bryntse Gambit had won its debut game.
Of course, this is just a historical footnote, because the very next day I got my second chance to play the Bryntse Gambit. This time it was against an International Master named David Pruess. If you’d like to know how that one turned out, go to Chessgames.com.
What about you? Do any of my readers have any favorite stories about the touch move rule? Have you won or lost any games as a result of it? Have you seen any disputes, and if so, how were they resolved?
