06 October 2020

Armenian Gin Fizzle

One of the most maddening aspects of internet and web technology is how resources appear and disappear from one day to the next. 'Here today, gone tomorrow', as they say. When future chess historians look for the page captured in the following image, originally published 27 September 2020, what will they find?


'Armenia Eagles Win 2020 PRO Chess League'
(chess.com)

The first paragraph informed,

On Sunday the Armenia Eagles won the 2020 PRO Chess League by defeating the Saint Louis Arch Bishops 9.5-6.5. The Eagles won $20,000 for their victory while the Arch Bishops earned $10,000.

Later we learned,

It was 36-year-old GM Tigran L. Petrosian—the only player of the four who played in three consecutive league seasons—who became the Man of the Match. The namesake of Armenia's world champion in the 1960s scored a stunning 3.5/4 against four players who are rated at least 100 higher than him in standard chess.

For the record, 'Armenia's world champion in the 1960s' was Tigran V. Petrosian (1929-1984). What did his 2020 namesake -- shown in a white shirt in the photo above -- have to say about his stellar PRO Chess League performance?

Asked about his secret, Petrosian didn't have a particularly child-friendly first reply when he (jokingly?) revealed that he had been drinking gin during the match. But he continued: "I'm a retired chess player, but I like blitz and rapid. Usually, I'm not playing bad in this kind of stuff, so I am happy that I could help my team."

The last trace of that page in Google's cache was 1 October 2020. On that same day, we learned, Saint Louis Arch Bishops 2020 PRO Chess League Champions; Armenia Eagles Disqualified (chess.com):-

The Saint Louis Arch Bishops are the winners of the 2020 PRO Chess League championship. The Armenia Eagles have been disqualified from the 2020 season due to fair play violations. After a thorough investigation, Chess.com's Fair Play team determined that GM Tigran L. Petrosian, who played for the Armenia Eagles, violated fair play regulations during games in both the semifinal and final matches that took place on September 25 and 27, respectively.

To learn the fate of Petrosian, his team, and the three teams previously placed 2nd-4th for the 2020 season, see that linked article. The year 2020 now has another reason to be remembered as a bad year.

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