Chess cheating cases over the years

Over the years there have been many high profile and intriguing case of cheating in chess, using differing levels of sophistication.

Wired-up chess player banned

In January 2007, an Indian chess player who stitched a mobile phone ear-piece into his baseball cap to get assistance from an accomplice with a computer was banned from the game for ten years. Umakant Sharma, 25, came under suspicion after he suddenly began thrashing players who were ranked many places above him – winning the All-Indian Chess Championship despite being ranked outside the world’s top 50,000 players only a year previously.

Text message moves

At the Dubai Open in 2008, M Sadatnajafi, an Iranian player ranked 2288 at the time, was disqualified from the tournament after he was caught allegedly receiving suggested moves by text message on his mobile phone while playing Grandmaster Li Chao. The game was being streamed live on the internet and it was alleged that his friends were following it at home, mirroring the game using a computer programme and sending moves by text message.

‘Phonito’ device

In Philadelphia 2006, a lower ranked player called Steve Rosenberg was leading before the final round. Suspicions of the organising committee led the tournament director to confront him. He was found to be using a covert wireless transmitter and receiver called a “Phonito” and was disqualified from the event.

PlayStation

In the 2009 Norths Chess Club Centenary Year Under 16 Tournament in Sydney, a 14-year old player was caught using what the tournament official called a “hand held machine” in the toilets. He was found to be using a program called Chessmaster on his PlayStation Portable to get an unfair advantage.

Chess world rocked by French cheating scandal

Three top French chess players have been found guilty of cheating in last year’s world championship, using an ingenious messaging system.

The French chess federation has suspended Sébastien Feller, a 20-year-old grandmaster, his team-mate Cyril Marzolo, 32, and Arnaud Hauchard, 39, the French team captain. It said they used mobile text messages, a remote chess computer and coded signals to beat the opposition.

The fraud, which took place during last September’s Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, has rocked the chess world, which prides itself on its code of honour.

Rival teams have been known to accuse each other of cheating, but in this case the whistle-blower was the French federation’s own vice president, Joanna Pomian.

Full article here.

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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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