Peter Svidler

Russian GM, commentator

“Why don’t I play in online tournaments? Because it’s become more of a hassle, simply in terms of the hoops you’re supposed to jump through, coupled with the state of the internet in Russia.

If it were just the two-camera setup, the Proctor, and all the rest of it — it would be annoying, but you would understand why you were doing it. But when on top of all that, you get some other problems…

Like the last time I tried playing Titled Tuesday, I got through the first three rounds, and I got disconnected five times! Yes, then you get reconnected, but you’re down like 20 seconds…

It’s not great when you randomly drop half a minute and you can’t do anything about it. And obviously, you can shop around for better internet connections or better software to support your connection — there are ways around it.

But… my recent attempt at that was discouraging enough for me not to try.”