Coronavirus

checknraise · 17-03-2020 12:14am

Crap situation to find yourself in. Based on the information about the virus one would imagine he is not the profile of person who is not at risk.

Will be in Russia for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully he gets looked after well.

Joedryan · 17-03-2020 12:15am

sodacat11 wrote: »

I don't know how people are even thinking about chess at the moment. I will just be happy if I and the people I love are still alive at the end of this disaster.

Indeed, well said. I was looking forward to the candidates but now the whole thing seems obscene that it is going ahead, saw everybody didnt turn up to the opening ceremony and they are all wearing masks.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 12:20am

Joedryan wrote: »

Meanwhile, all sporting events in the world are cancelled, countries in lockdown, but the geniuses in FIDE have decided lets go ahead with the candidates

You couldnt make it up.

But Russia if very safe surely? Has to be tiny risk no? really tiny

Joedryan · 17-03-2020 12:28am

spidersweb wrote: »

But Russia if very safe surely? Has to be tiny risk no? really tiny

why very safe? It'll be the same as everywhere else. Worse if anything, I wouldnt trust the official figures at all.

Grischuk has said there is a 50% chance the tournament wont finish, I'd put it higher, but it simply shouldnt be happening, its obscene.

Ficheall · 17-03-2020 12:42am

Of all the sports competitions in the world, surely this has to be one of the easiest to move online?

checknraise · 17-03-2020 12:50am

I don't think you can move a tournament of the candidates stature online. It would almost be a completely different game and would take away allot from the tournament.

What happens if the tournament is cancelled does Radjabov get his spot back?

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 1:24am

Joedryan wrote: »

why very safe? It'll be the same as everywhere else. Worse if anything, I wouldnt trust the official figures at all.

Grischuk has said there is a 50% chance the tournament wont finish, I'd put it higher, but it simply shouldnt be happening, its obscene.

Safe because Russia is a strictly no open border country that took swift action back in January and they have had a very very small number of cases. They will not end up anything like the rest, such as Spain or Italy. There are very logical reasons why Italy was so badly effected so quickly. Those things do not apply in Russia and so far they have contained it.Maybe they won't be able to contain it, but still no comparison with the open borders, no borders nations.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR1kXELmidIKFPi6lwrYv-bxoz-VMJSN21gnt37eNuubDW36c-Dhh7NW2UU#countries

The case of the Irish kid is not yet confirmed and it might be just that they are not taking any chances. He is stuck in Russia for two weeks now in Q.

DancingSpaniel · 17-03-2020 9:20am

Russia seems to be closing its borders:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-russia-border-close-flights-when-residents-latest-a9405131.html
Hope our man is doing ok and gets home soon.

sodacat11 · 17-03-2020 9:40am

DancingSpaniel wrote: »

Russia seems to be closing its borders:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-russia-border-close-flights-when-residents-latest-a9405131.html
Hope our man is doing ok and gets home soon.

Presumably "our man" had the virus before he travelled so he would have been in contact with people on the plane, then people in the bus/taxi, then his opponents, and all those people will in turn have had contact with others. Probably "our man" will only have mild symptoms and recover quickly but I wonder what the long term effects of his parents bringing him to play chess at a time like this will be for others?

cdeb · 17-03-2020 9:44am

Entirely possible it was contracted over there too. Estonian and French players there too, and both countries are worse hit than us at the moment (or even last Thursday when everyone flew out - seems an age ago now, but we only had 20 or so cases then)

Either way, while you can argue the tournament shouldn't have gone ahead or players should have withdrawn (and many did), ultimately all this seems inevitable to be honest. People going down the pub or to Cheltenham will have done far more damage than a chess player going to Murmansk.

checknraise · 17-03-2020 10:05am

Its my understanding that "our man" was tested multiple times while in Russia along with everyone else. It was only on the last day that he was flagged as having the virus and was stopped from boarding his flight.

If what we know about the virus is correct you would imagine everyone who played the tournament should be in quarantine as there is an extremely good chance everyone has it.

RooksPawn · 17-03-2020 11:07am

People writing "our man" and "him" are either guessing (there were girls in the squad too) or they are giving away too much information. Unfair to the families involved.

I agree it was crazy to go out of the country at all at this time, especially to such a emote place - three flights each way to get there and back perhaps?

cdeb · 17-03-2020 11:09am

No, they're reading the news.

Murmansk is Dublin-Moscow and Moscow-Murmansk. And that somewhere as remote as Murmansk is just two flights from Dublin is of course part of the global problem here.

pummice · 17-03-2020 11:14am

spidersweb wrote: »

I blame the government.

You spelt that word incorrectly. It should be Gubbermint.

DancingSpaniel · 17-03-2020 11:29am

The player is in quarantine in Siberia with travel and borders closing across Europe. What a horrible situation to be in. We all know him. I hope he gets back home safely and think we should stop berating him for an unwise decision.

cdeb · 17-03-2020 12:45pm

Murmansk isn't anywhere near Siberia btw. It's in Murmansk.

Agree with your post otherwise though.

mikhail · 17-03-2020 1:45pm

cdeb wrote: »

Murmansk isn't anywhere near Siberia btw. It's in Murmansk.

I must admit, I had to look it up myself.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 3:36pm

checknraise wrote: »

Its my understanding that "our man" was tested multiple times while in Russia along with everyone else. It was only on the last day that he was flagged as having the virus and was stopped from boarding his flight.

If what we know about the virus is correct you would imagine everyone who played the tournament should be in quarantine as there is an extremely good chance everyone has it.

Or nobody actually has it there? Not confirmed yet. He looked and sounded fine on the video he sent around. So, just a major bummer to have to be stuck in Q for two weeks, which is what the Russians are doing more and more now to be on the safer side as they tighten up things even more than before.

Nobody is to blame anyway. Murmansk is probably among the least likely places on the planet to pick it up from.

Beginning to wonder if the panic and hysteria is not getting the better of prudence and proportional thinking. Cheltenham, as was pointed out, was surely vastly more risky.

Life has to go on? At some point. Candidates tournament seem very safe and a good way to get through the lock down phase.

Chess24 special offer of 40% off and only 7:99 a month is a great offer.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 3:43pm

DancingSpaniel wrote: »

The player is in quarantine in Siberia with travel and borders closing across Europe. What a horrible situation to be in. We all know him. I hope he gets back home safely and think we should stop berating him for an unwise decision.

No, many people have no idea who the player is and it is irrelevant anyway.

Nothing unwise involved here and or to be blamed for. So, nobody should be berating anybody. Just bad luck and things are moving at incredible speed everywhere anyway. Just got caught on the wrong side of some bad luck.

Main thing is that he is safe and sound and will be fine. Two weeks from now and he will be home and no danger to anybody.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 3:52pm

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/16/irish-citizen-in-russias-arctic-hospitalized-with-suspected-coronavirus-a69641

The young man had competed in a chess tournament held last weekend at the Meridian Hotel in central Murmansk, the Murmansk Bulletin reported. All of the competitors underwent coronavirus tests, and the Irish man’s results came back as “preliminarily positive.”

sodacat11 · 17-03-2020 4:34pm

DancingSpaniel wrote: »

The player is in quarantine in Siberia with travel and borders closing across Europe. What a horrible situation to be in. We all know him. I hope he gets back home safely and think we should stop berating him for an unwise decision.

I don't blame the youngster, I blame his parents.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 4:35pm

sodacat11 wrote: »

I don't blame the youngster, I blame his parents.

I would not blame anybody. Bad luck with bad timing.

RooksPawn · 17-03-2020 5:00pm

spidersweb wrote: »

...
Nobody is to blame anyway. Murmansk is probably among the least likely places on the planet to pick it up from.

Surely there's a huge wrong assumption here? It was only a 3-day tournament and the incubation period of Covid-19 is usually reckoned to be 5+ days.

So isn't it almost certain that the person concerned had been infected prior to getting to Murmansk (especially as they had no prior cases there) and this is almost certainly a case of community transmission in Ireland.

I hope that somebody connected with the group has informed the HSE but it wasn't on the lunchtime news.

spidersweb · 17-03-2020 5:31pm

RooksPawn wrote: »

Surely there's a huge wrong assumption here? It was only a 3-day tournament and the incubation period of Covid-19 is usually reckoned to be 5+ days.

So isn't it almost certain that the person concerned had been infected prior to getting to Murmansk (especially as they had no prior cases there) and this is almost certainly a case of community transmission in Ireland.

I hope that somebody connected with the group has informed the HSE but it wasn't on the lunchtime news.

It is very logical to assume that a country with such a low rate is safe, and especially a far off relatively isolated place like as in here. Yes agree that makes sense.

However, the fact is that "the Irish man’s results came back as “preliminarily positive.”

So, we don't even know if he really was infected at all (My guess is that he isn't/wasn't) and they are just forcing people to be in Q for two weeks soon after they had arrived only when departing (policies changing by the day if not the hour, all over the world) Now Russia has a policy of not letting foreigners into the country anymore until May!

Nobody who went there thought they had the virus and maybe it was just a false positive and they are just being ultra safe. Then again maybe this is an incredible coincidence and an extremely unlucky and rare case of community transmission in Ireland. So far I think Ireland has about 300 (?) out of 4.5 million population, so if we double, treble of multiply by a factor of ten, the odds of having the virus are tiny. Maybe he was just amazingly unlucky?

cdeb · 17-03-2020 5:39pm

Someone has to get it I guess. I agree the trip to Murmansk itself wasn't particularly dangerous - there's more cases here, if you believe the respective numbers. The real unfortunate aspect is being stuck in a Russian hospital for a fortnight. While repatriation rights will exist in a fortnight, the question of course is - will planes be flying?

That said, mayn't be the worst of things to get it out of the way, if the HSE are even half-way right. And if getting it once means you can't get it again for a while.

Joedryan · 17-03-2020 10:29pm

spidersweb wrote: »

It is very logical to assume that a country with such a low rate is safe, and especially a far off relatively isolated place like as in here. Yes agree that makes sense.

However, the fact is that "the Irish man’s results came back as “preliminarily positive.”

So, we don't even know if he really was infected at all (My guess is that he isn't/wasn't) and they are just forcing people to be in Q for two weeks soon after they had arrived only when departing (policies changing by the day if not the hour, all over the world) Now Russia has a policy of not letting foreigners into the country anymore until May!

Nobody who went there thought they had the virus and maybe it was just a false positive and they are just being ultra safe. Then again maybe this is an incredible coincidence and an extremely unlucky and rare case of community transmission in Ireland. So far I think Ireland has about 300 (?) out of 4.5 million population, so if we double, treble of multiply by a factor of ten, the odds of having the virus are tiny. Maybe he was just amazingly unlucky?

ahem. As with your Russia comment earlier, dont trust any figures coming out of there.

Bear in mind also travel, airports, stuck in an airplane, etc.

On the candidates today was bizarre, multiple people coughing (MVL especially) and poor ol Karpov didnt hear about the virus was going around trying to shake everybodys hand.

namenotavailablE · 26-03-2020 12:47pm

Agadmator's chess channel is reporting that the remaining rounds of the Candidates have been postponed.

spidersweb · 26-03-2020 3:31pm

namenotavailabl wrote: »

Agadmator's chess channel is reporting that the remaining rounds of the Candidates have been postponed.

"Agadmator" The Gerry Springer of chess - or far worse.

Even he can get something right sometimes. A truly awful Youtuber though. Can barely play chess it seems. He might be worse than the virus.

brilliantboy · 26-03-2020 4:29pm

spidersweb wrote: »

Even he can get something right sometimes. A truly awful Youtuber though. Can barely play chess it seems. He might be worse than the virus.

Can barely play chess but probably still strong enough to compete in our national championships

spidersweb · 26-03-2020 6:01pm

brilliantboy wrote: »

Can barely play chess but probably still strong enough to compete in our national championships

Really? Is he over 1900? You would never know it, to judge by his chess videos, maybe he would slip in at the bottom I guess. His videos are worth a look to appreciate how bad it can be done.

He is not the worst though. The other giant is this guy:

https://youtu.be/432p0RdkkCg

namenotavailablE · 26-03-2020 8:30pm

Here's his FIDE ratings data: https://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=14531348

Not a massively high rating, sure, but high enough to grant that he can in fact play chess

sodacat11 · 26-03-2020 11:46pm

What's that free net pay calculator thing? I haven't bothered to click on it

namenotavailablE · 27-03-2020 12:03am

My spreadsheet? It's for calculating your net pay given a gross value & your tax status. Pretty comprehensive and easy to use, if I say so myself. If you download it, let me know what you think

sodacat11 · 27-03-2020 12:14am

namenotavailabl wrote: »

My spreadsheet? It's for calculating your net pay given a gross value & your tax status. Pretty comprehensive and easy to use, if I say so myself. If you download it, let me know what you think

What is it doing on a chess site? Where are the moderators when we need them?

namenotavailablE · 27-03-2020 12:15am

I understand that it's permitted to include links in the signature line.

spidersweb · 27-03-2020 1:59am

namenotavailabl wrote: »

Here's his FIDE ratings data: https://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=14531348

Not a massively high rating, sure, but high enough to grant that he can in fact play chess

Wow! Ten years ago he was even 2020! Like I said

"over 1900? You would never know it, to judge by his chess videos, maybe he would slip in at the bottom I guess.
His videos are worth a look to appreciate how bad it can be done. "

mikhail · 27-03-2020 3:38pm

sodacat11 wrote: »

What is it doing on a chess site? Where are the moderators when we need them?

You can turn off signatures in the settings somewhere.

spidersweb · 27-03-2020 5:23pm

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/2020/03/infected-chessman-brought-frenzy-murmansk Curious article

macelligott · 01-04-2020 9:28am

https://www.icu.ie/events/1368

DancingSpaniel · 01-04-2020 9:43am

Here's an account from the ChessMates founder, Jurriaan Kien:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-adventures-in-the-time-of-corona
Seems quite arrogant about the affair. A global pandemic should not interfere with his chess event!

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 4:28pm

So in the end ALEX WAS NOT POSITIVE! Yup, no hysteria at all then!

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 4:31pm

DancingSpaniel wrote: »

Here's an account from the ChessMates founder, Jurriaan Kien:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-adventures-in-the-time-of-corona
Seems quite arrogant about the affair. A global pandemic should not interfere with his chess event!

A weird impression you seemed to have got. Did not get the same feel from the article. Plus, it turns out that there was no Coronoa Covid 19 and Alex was there because he coughed at the wrong moment I guess.

Very unlucky.

"their oldest player, Alex Goss, was taken to the hospital because he was coughing. But the rest of his team could fly home. But we were told at the hotel that our team had been quarantined."

"He's been in another hospital all by himself for the last two weeks. All he had was a cough. He was bored stiff.

Because his tests were negative he was allowed to leave the hospital on Sunday evening. The end of our quarantine was documented by two local television teams. Afterwards we met Alex and our hosts for a farewell party."

DancingSpaniel · 01-04-2020 5:06pm

After testing positive, he got better and when he tested virus-free they ended his quarantine. The concern the healthcare people had was him infecting other people, not whether his symptoms were mild or not.

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 7:22pm

DancingSpaniel wrote: »

After testing positive, he got better and when he tested virus-free they ended his quarantine. The concern the healthcare people had was him infecting other people, not whether his symptoms were mild or not.

No he never had it! The original test was never confirmed and this was mentioned in the original article. Hysteria and panic won out.

Joedryan · 01-04-2020 7:25pm

spidersweb wrote: »

No he never had it! The original test was never confirmed and this was mentioned in the original article. Hysteria and panic won out.

eh? he was tested positive for the coronavirus according to all sources, thats not hysteria.

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 7:30pm

Joedryan wrote: »

eh? he was tested positive for the coronavirus according to all sources, thats not hysteria.

No he wasn't!. All of the competitors underwent coronavirus tests, and the Irish man’s results came back as “preliminarily positive.”

We never got any confirmation he was positive.
If he had been positive then there would have been SOME other people infected. None were!

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 7:33pm

*Deleted*

*mod note* Do not copy and paste full articles from a different website - that is against copyright - a link will suffice along with a summary.

Joedryan · 01-04-2020 7:39pm

As has been pointed out above this is not exactly a great article, IMO obviously.

spidersweb · 01-04-2020 7:47pm

Joedryan wrote: »

As has been pointed out above this is not exactly a great article, IMO obviously.

Great or not is irrelevant, is it true and the answers seems to be absolutely yes. I happen to agree it is not a great article but is better than the speculation before it.

A big clue is in the headline of the original headline:

Irish Citizen in Russia’s Arctic Hospitalized With Suspected Coronavirus/

"Suspected" Coronavirus IS THE GIVE AWAY.

As is the fact that NOBODY was positive! Nobody. Tested three times a day they were.

Joedryan · 01-04-2020 7:50pm

spidersweb wrote: »

Great or not is irrelevant, is it true and the answers seems to be absolutely yes.

A big clue is in the headline of the original headline:

Irish Citizen in Russia’s Arctic Hospitalized With Suspected Coronavirus/

"Suspected" Coronavirus IS THE GIVE AWAY.

As is the fact that NOBODY was positive! Nobody. Tested three times a day.

A positive hit for coronavirus is not to be ignored, I think everybody can appreciate that. That whole article strikes me as very bizarre in its attitude.

Coronavirus

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