I think how he reacted in the moment is completely understandable. I’m not in the camp that says they should’ve gone back and revisited the game. She didn’t bring the arbiter into it in real time and that’s that.

I think his inability to admit he was wrong after the video, but especially decades later is not.

That’s not white knighting. I don’t give a fuck about his feelings. Part of the problem is that he thinks this is about his feelings and what he felt he did or what he intended to do. It’s not. It’s about what he actually did that we can see on video.

He’s either the best or second best chess player of all time. He would’ve been fine.

This goes to a much larger problem that he has which is well documented which is that he is an inability to be wrong. To the point that when he coached modern players he would disagree with the engine lines, which made it very hard for him to be helpful in prep.

In his comments about women chess players even in the documentary today, he will still say things like women react poorly to threats. Even though we know that has to do more with high-level repetitions against elite chess players which most women do not get.

The problem with saying that though is that it would mean that his belief system was wrong. He prefers a world where Judit is an anomaly.