Even if 15 seconds are removed, the claimant has had several minutes of analysis, which his opponent was sure to deny him. Allow me to suggest the loss of the game as a justified penalty when an invalid claim is made in the last minute. When I consider questions, I often think it might be better to have different regulations for professional chess and amateur chess. But at the same time, I realise it is impossible to have different rules. Many incidents discussed in this column happen in non-professional tournaments.
Incorrect claims are very rare in professional chess tournaments.
In my 25 years experience as an arbiter, I have had only one improper claim and I was prepared for this. I saw what happened in the game and I felt that Karpov wanted to claim a triple repetition of the position. And I was also aware that his claim was wrong. It was not difficult to follow as in round robin tournaments with 12 players the arbiter can reasonably follow all the games. At the moment he sees a repetition, he immediately begins his investigation so that he is able to react immediately in case of a claim.