back to article Boozy chess grandmaster passes out mid-game

Roistering Russian grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev, long famed as the Oliver Reed of the international pro chess circuit, reportedly passed out drunk during a tournament match in India and "had to be carried off". According to the Indian Express, grog-swilling brainbox Tkachiev - born in Russia but nowadays playing as a …

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  1. Scott 19
    Troll

    Nice

    P*ssed at work and no instant dismissal, where do i sign up.

  2. It wasnt me

    genius

    Excellent article. I bet when you got up this morning you didnt think you'd get the words "chess crumpet connoisseur collaborator" all in the same sentence, did you?

  3. chamira
    Pint

    Go on!

    Very glad this sort of thing still goes on, irresponsible alcoholic intellectuals, god bless them.

  4. blackworx
    Thumb Up

    Murray Head

    Now I've got One Night in Bangkok stuck on a loop. Not such a bad thing considering it was the Balamory theme tune beforehand.

  5. Owen Sweeney
    Pint

    This reminds me of Boris Yeltsin

    He visited Ireland back in 1994 and was due to meet the Irish Prime Minister at Shannon Airport.

    However, he failed to exit from the plane and rumours abounded that the man had a heart attack/stroke - call it what you will..

    http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/1111.html##2

    Enlightens us more

    Another Red in the bed conspiracy theory.

    Checkmate!

  6. Paul Johnston
    Thumb Up

    What no Sam Sloane

    Thought it was Sam who started this off!

    quote

    After the 2000 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, I devised an online "Beauty Contest for Girl Grandmasters", based primarily on photographs I had taken during the Olympiad.

    See http://www.anusha.com/fidegirl.htm

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    If only I had known...

    ...that the chess player's lifestyle could be like that, I wouldn't have given up chess club at school. Joined the computer club instead, waste of time that turned out to be, nobody writes in Pascal anymore.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Mah Jongg

    During the Queens Silver Jubilee, not being a royalist, I spent 19 hours playing Mah Jongg, whilst drinking & smoking hash all day! The only breaks we had was to go out to re-fuel & get more skins!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Trust me..

    ...playing chess when you're sober is one of the single most boring things one can participate in.

    Playing chess while ratted out your tits, however, is like a roller-coaster ride without any thing to hold onto. They should make it compulsory that you have to be at least three sheets to the wind before you even decide who goes first.

    Plus, I've found that I've always played my best chess when both me and my opponent is snottered wi' the drink.

  10. Richard Scratcher
    Pint

    Don't blame the player...

    ...blame the person who bought him this chess set for Christmas:

    www.shotglasschess.com

  11. John Colby

    @ Anonymous Coward

    You found the IT angle, then.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    RE: Trust me.. #

    ..white goes first by the way...

    chess ain't dull, I love chess; although I will grant you it is more entertaining with a lovely single malt and a large reefa.

    The only board game you can play over and over again relentlessly, with each game being entirely different, and you never stop learning. Genius.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Good ol days

    I used to play a bit of Chess casually, my favorite event in Ireland was the Kilkenny Congress held every November. On Sunday Nights, the Blitz section was preceded by an open bar, according to this years entry form its sponsored by Smithwicks Brewery. Good times, getting hammered and playing against masters.

  14. Metalattakk

    RE: RE: Trust me...#

    Yeah, but who goes white, ya Bacchanalian buffoon! :D

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I gave it up

    Thought I was alright at it until I went to India and played against a 13 year old boy who wiped the floor with me over and over and over, day in, day out for three weeks. Didn't win once. He reckoned that, out of all his mates, he was about average skill. Very demoralising!

    And the best players I know of can play equally well or better when rat arsed and/or stoned outta their gourds, the bastards!

  16. Robert Hill
    Thumb Up

    Totally believe this...

    I watched a "man vs machine" chess exhibition at the New York Athletic Club about 5 years ago, and while I cannot remember which Russian grandmaster was playing, I DO remember that I passed through the floor below the exhibition, where they were setting up for one HELL of a party post-match, with plenty of food, bar staff at ready, and a horde of Russian women with impossibly high cheekbones, blonder than blonde hair, and 5" heels parading around with champaign glasses half-full, awaiting the end of the match. This was, of course, out of the public eye, and I only found it because I was their with a NYAC member who could go anywhere in the club. I remember thinking that chess was such an intellectual game, so pure, so innocent - and then...and then I wished I was a grandmaster!!!

  17. Jenkins
    Thumb Up

    いい人

    I approve of this product and/or service.

  18. Steve Roper
    Pint

    Surprising that he passed out

    I know a few people from that part of the world (Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia itself) and one thing they all have in common is their superhuman capacity for holding alcohol. My Ukrainian acquaintance makes her own vodka, with which you could launch the space shuttle. The Polish guy chugs HALF A LITRE of Polish firewater FOR BREAKFAST every day, and seems none the worse for it!

    So if this guy passed out at the chess table, I can only imagine that his 'refreshment' must have consisted of at least a petrol tank's worth of neat Smirnoff, and I hope the the people who carried him off didn't smoke anywhere near him...

  19. Astarte

    That's one way of winning

    I trust his opponent was granted the game and went on to play again? Or was he responsible for spiking a drink or two?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Is there one among us

    who could deny handling pawn more enthusiastically when drunk?

    Or picking up a queen who bashed the bishop?

  21. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    @ Surprising that he passed out

    I think that's why they don't do many cremations: too much danger of combustion..

  22. Mothballs
    Thumb Up

    Check, please.

    I once did something very similar during a game of Dominoes in a North-east pub one Sunday lunchtime. I don't recall any press involvement.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Re: Totally believe this...

    Robert Hill wrote:

    "I watched a "man vs machine" chess exhibition at the New York Athletic Club about 5 years ago [...] one HELL of a party post-match [...] a horde of Russian women with impossibly high cheekbones, blonder than blonde hair, and 5" heels parading around with champaign glasses half-full, awaiting the end of the match."

    So what happened when the robots won?

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