Sad as it is, doping is so prevalent in sports that it comes to no surprise when an athlete is busted … but chess? CHESS? Yes, folks, here’s the Great Chess Doping Scandal of grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, ranked third of the world:
Who knows what was going through Ivanchuk’s head when, on Nov. 25 in Dresden, the last day of the Chess Olympiad, he lost to Gata Kamsky? What we do know,
however, is that when the game against the American ended, a judge asked Ivanchuk to submit to a drug test. Instead, he stormed out of the room in the conference center, kicked a concrete pillar in the lobby, pounded a countertop in the cafeteria with his fists and then vanished into the coatroom. Throughout this performance, he was followed by a handful of officials.
No one could convince Ivanchuk to provide a small amount of urine for the test. And because refusal is treated as a positive test result, he is now considered guilty of doping and could be barred from professional chess for two years.
Photo: erral [Flickr]
