The Violence Of Chess

Chess is a game of war.

The object is to capture your opponent's king, using your army of pawns, your knights and your bishops, all characters that would have comprised a Medieval court.

Normally, there is no blood shed in a chess match.

However, when one is playing at war, do not be surprised if a genuine physical attack takes place.

All's fair in love and war, but chess has its rules of engagement and those who try to bypass the rules may find themselves getting hauled out of a toilet cubicle by the scruff of the neck and throttled.

Gabriel Mirza was playing (fighting might be a better term for a war game) a match against a sixteen-year-old at a tournament in Limerick when he grew suspicious about the lad's frequent bathroom breaks.

Before every move, the opponent had an urge to use the toilet. Nervous bladder? Irritable bowel syndrome? Easy enough to check out the reason.

Mr. Mirza discovered the boy was hiding in a cubicle with an Android tablet, using it to research chess moves. Cheating. Playing dirty.

He was having none of it, not someone so dedicated to chess that he runs the St. Michael's Chess Club in Limerick in his free time. Mr. Mirza wanted to bring attention to the cheat, to have the lad tossed out of the tournament in disgrace. Then he could go back to playing chess against humans rather than computers, matching wits insteads of battling bytes.

How does a man get someone out of a cubicle that's locked? Exactly, he kicks in the door, an action that had the added benefit of getting everyone's attention. Those alerted by the row held Mr. Mirza back, because it just doesn't look good to have a grown man beating a sixteen-year-old chess aficionado. You just know the lad was slight, probably wearing glasses, and wouldn't know how to clench his fist properly.

Of course the cheater was expelled from the tournament. Unfortunately for Mr. Mirza, his noble act resulted in his expulsion as well. Apparently he should have called the guards rather than take matters into his own hands.

In his official reprimand, it was mentioned that his action could bring the game of chess into disrepute.

This wasn't a hockey match in Canada, after all. We cannot tolerate violence in games of war.