Cheating in chess

[Kevin Thurlow]

"For the record, I believe this account may appear in the newspaper serialisation of the book and not in the book itself."

It might have been sensationalized for the newspaper. Relying on memory again, the book says that our hero was attacked and he defended himself, and the attacker ended up in the water. At this point, the drier of the two combatants legged it (as recommended). I don't think the Dutch police linked any specific body to the incident - after all there was some vagueness to the timeline.

[Alex Holowczak]

"For what it is worth, given the player verbally admitted he was cheating, I expect it would be non-trivial arguing that a subsequent cheating conviction would be a "first offence"."

That would help - assuming you have contemporaneous statements from witnesses to that. And he might turn up with Elon Musk's lawyer (and jury).

Yes, there were indeed other witnesses.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Yes, there were indeed other witnesses."

That certainly helps then!

[LawrenceCooper]

Anton Kovalyov (via Facebook)
1 min ·
I have been playing bullet and blitz chess time to time on chess.com for the past few days using my facebook account. Then in the middle of one of my games my account got closed without any warning. I have emailed chess.com support openly stating my name and politely asking why my account was closed. To my surprise I received a generic email that basically accuses me of cheating. Given my history, this is outrageous and feels like some type of personal attack from chess.com towards me. I decided to share this unpleasant experience because I feel it's the right thing to do in such circumstances.

[JustinHorton]

I decided to share this unpleasant experience because I feel it's the right thing to do in such circumstances.

Yup

[Roger Lancaster]

I decided to share this unpleasant experience because I feel it's the right thing to do in such circumstances.

Yup

I presume this is Canadian GM, Anton Kovalyov, whom chess.com are accusing of cheating - it's not a massively common name.

[Alex Holowczak]

I decided to share this unpleasant experience because I feel it's the right thing to do in such circumstances.

Yup

I presume this is Canadian GM, Anton Kovalyov, whom chess.com are accusing of cheating - it's not a massively common name.

He's perhaps better known as the player who got told off by Azmai in the 2017 World Cup for wearing shorts, and then packed his bags and went back to Canada as a result.

[Roger Lancaster]

I presume this is Canadian GM, Anton Kovalyov, whom chess.com are accusing of cheating - it's not a massively common name.

He's perhaps better known as the player who got told off by Azmai in the 2017 World Cup for wearing shorts, and then packed his bags and went back to Canada as a result.

Ah, yes, although in hindsight that at least guaranteed that he wasn't a cheat, Rausis-style, with a phone taped to his lower leg!

[Roger de Coverly]

Something that occurred to me was that if a strong player started cheating, they would be able to do it sparingly and if they stopped before they were detected, no-one would really be the wiser, as it would look like a drop in form.

By contrast the relative beginner who devises and practices a cheating method and is able to appear as a new player with no traceable results history is likely to find themselves locked in. The problem being that if they ever played a tournament or games legitimately, likely poor results and probable poor play would throw suspicion onto their earlier results.

[Matt Bridgeman]

In cycling of course it's usually drug cheating, but not too long ago Fabian Cancellera, a Swiss world leading cyclist was strongly alleged to have on occasion used an actual engine in his seat tube to help pick up a couple of his one day classic and world time trial wins. Mechanical doping they called it! (We're safe to say this as its on his Wiki page

It's a good point that there could be quite a lot more risk in jumping into a cheating pattern straight off the bat, when you would, I suppose, only have a brief and superficial overview of the sport or game, instead of that inside knowledge of the real culture and characters built up over a number of years. You'd be at high risk of standing out like a sore thumb at some point, as more success would bring with it more attention and scrutiny.

Chess for the beginner level cheater would be a particular nightmare I’d imagine, as if you ever socialised with a group of GM’s and IM’s they’d probably realise you’re a patzer in about 10 seconds.

[Ian Thompson]

In cycling of course it's usually drug cheating, but not too long ago Fabian Cancellera, a Swiss world leading cyclist was strongly alleged to have on occasion used an actual engine in his seat tube to help pick of a couple of his one day classic and world time trial wins.

... and a female cyclist was caught, although she claimed she didn't know her bike had a motor in it.

[Matt Bridgeman]

A very interesting documentary on the mind boggling lengths people will go to cheat in sport can be found on Netflix. It’s called Icarus, and is particularly current as it tells the tale of the Russian doping scandal.

[E Michael White]

Is wireless/bluetooth equipment used in transmitting information from sensory boards/clocks in the normal course of ENG events ?

Scanning wands seem to be metal detectors; why is it assumed that an information receiving device contains metal ?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is wireless/bluetooth equipment used in transmitting information from sensory boards/clocks in the normal course of ENG events ?

Older DGT equipment is wired, newer may be wireless or perhaps bluetooth.

Unless they use delay, events like the London Chess Classic FIDE Open potentially make one part of the mechanics of cheating very easy. Live coverage and the assessments on chess servers mean that a collaborator could sit in the comfort of the refreshment area and see how the game was going and don't even need an engine running to do so. That doesn't enable the suggestions to be relayed back to the player. Perhaps that's where the ban on Smart watches makes sense.

Arbiters are becoming aware of illicit communication issues. Elsewhere on this site, a leading arbiter noted that there was a practice building up of taking note of frequent absences from the board and recording move numbers at which these took place.

[Alex Holowczak]

Unless they use delay, events like the London Chess Classic FIDE Open potentially make one part of the mechanics of cheating very easy. Live coverage and the assessments on chess servers mean that a collaborator could sit in the comfort of the refreshment area and see how the game was going and don't even need an engine running to do so.

If we delayed the broadcast, the accomplice could just walk into the playing area, look at the position, and walk out again. So there's no real gain to be had for delaying the broadcast.