English Chess Forum

I just received this from a chess friend:

Charitable Online Chess Tournamentwk
tournamentsOn Sunday, July 3 at 20:00(CEST) will be held a charity online tournament for #Gabriel (time control 3+2).
Gabriel, son of the chess players GM Bella Khotenashvili and IM Malkhaz Sulashvili, from the last year, is fighting to survive. His diagnosis is Neuroblastoma. For the next treatment, the family needs a lot of money. approximately 450000euro.The minimum amout of the tournament entry is 30$ (you can donate more than mentioned amount).
Participants of the tournament will have the opportunity to play against the world's leading chess players.
Registration is possible:
1. By filling the form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... ShIvIBUnj8

2. Or writing an email [email protected] [email protected]
PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ForBell ... idfU1UyNu0

Club:

https://www.chess.com/club/all-together ... briel/join

Some top players, Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave, Navara, Eljanov etc will play

it looks like a massive scam, I wouldnt be clicking any of those links or posting this on a public forum

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 12:18 pm

it looks like a massive scam, I wouldnt be clicking any of those links or posting this on a public forum

Based on what?

It's being organised by a friend. So no, it's not a scam.

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 12:18 pm

it looks like a massive scam, I wouldnt be clicking any of those links or posting this on a public forum

It may look like a scam to you but it isn't.

Call me old fashioned but after recieving 20+ years of spam emails with a badly worded sad story and a huge cash amount needed you tend to develop a reflex response against them. Obviously it is you guys money to lose, not mine, but don't say I didn't warn you....

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 1:10 pm

Call me old fashioned but after recieving 20+ years of spam emails with a badly worded sad story and a huge cash amount needed you tend to develop a reflex response against them. Obviously it is you guys money to lose, not mine, but don't say I didn't warn you....

So you are suggesting that Grandmaster Davit Jojua - Head Coach of The Georgian Youth Team, has invented an illness of the child of other well known titled players, persuading world class players to participate in a tournament, burning all reputation and contacts in the hope of making a few quid.

Based solely on "It's badly worded and reminds me of scams"

Nice one.

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 1:10 pm

Call me old fashioned but after recieving 20+ years of spam emails with a badly worded sad story and a huge cash amount needed you tend to develop a reflex response against them. Obviously it is you guys money to lose, not mine, but don't say I didn't warn you....

In this case there has been a lot of publicity, including friends of hers who play in the same club and national team so it's not an appeal out of the blue but part of an ongoing campaign to help.

Given that I (and likely most people in the UK ) have never heard of either of these masters and the general format of this request looks exactly like an extremely common fraud that I have even recieved from legitimate chess players then yes I have every right to be suspicious and to not be would be exceedingly naive.

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:00 pm

Given that I (and likely most people in the UK ) have never heard of either of these masters and the general format of this request looks exactly like an extremely common fraud that I have even recieved from legitimate chess players then yes I have every right to be suspicious and to not be would be exceedingly naive.

Given the amount of publicity in recent months over the plight of the world number 16 I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that you haven't heard of one of the world's top players or that you hadn't seen any of the stories about her son.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:17 pm

Given the amount of publicity in recent months over the plight of the world number 16 I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that you haven't heard of one of the world's top players or that you hadn't seen any of the stories about her son.

I have to confess that I hadn't heard about this situation. I have now sought to atone for my ignorance by entering the tournament and making a donation, although I may not be able to play.

Sadly, Gabriel, the son, has passed away. I saw a Facebook post, just now, from Lela Javakhishvili.