Sofia rule
The Sofia Rule is a tournament rule in chess . It prohibits players from agreeing draws directly with one another .
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When applying the Sofia rule, a draw may not be offered directly to the opponent, but an offer of a draw must be made to the referee . This decides whether the position is simplified enough that a draw agreement is acceptable.
If the referee allows the draw offer, he passes it on to the opponent, who then - as in the case of a direct draw offer according to Article 9.1 of the FIDE rules - decides whether to accept it or continue playing.
The rule applies regardless of the progress of the game, so it is not linked to a minimum number of moves. Nor does the Sofia rule affect in any way the possibility of a draw complaint, for example in the case of repetitions according to Article 9.2 of the FIDE rules or in application of the 50-move rule .
history
At the suggestion of Silvio Danailow and Wesselin Topalow , the rule at the M-Tel Masters in Sofia was applied for the first time at an important tournament from May 11 to 22, 2005 and named after the venue. Since it was previously used in tournaments in Corsica , it is also called the Corsica or Sofia-Corsica rule. The Sofia rule was also applied at the Grand Slam Masters in Bilbao in 2008 and 2009.
The challenger Wesselin Topalov had suggested that the Sofia rule be applied to the 2010 World Chess Championship . After world champion Viswanathan Anand had refused and invoked the official rules, Topalov announced that he would unilaterally apply the Sofia rule by not speaking to his opponent during the game and under no circumstances accepting draw offers.
background
The sense of the rule is the desire for hard-fought chess games; in particular, short draws after a few moves should be prevented. This is particularly relevant in tournaments, for example when two players want to spare themselves for important encounters in a game that is meaningless to them.
The Sofia rule is not part of the FIDE rules, but can be announced and enforced by an organizer for a tournament in addition to the official regulations. The tournament will then still be evaluated for the official ranking list.
Since the referee has to decide on the admissibility of a draw offer based on the position reached, considerable demands are made on his ability to assess the position. In Sofia itself the referee responsible for this decision was a GM with an Elo rating of over 2600 ( Zurab Asmaiparashvili ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Sofia rule. Should it be obligatory? On: chessdom.com. April 15, 2007, accessed May 2, 2010.
- ↑ 2nd ACP - FIDE meeting. ( Memento of October 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Notice from the Association of Chess Professionals. On: chess-players.org. Retrieved May 2, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Looking forward to the World Championship Match Anand - Topalov in Sofia , The Week in Chess , April 5, 2010 (English).