French Chess Federation investigates cheating players

[Jonathan Bryant]

You mean this:-
"the Board mandated the Federal Bureau to bring the case to a penal court (sic)"

ChessBase translates it as

the Executive Committee has mandated the Federal Bureau to bring this case to trial in a court of law.

the original French being

le Comité Directeur a mandaté le Bureau Fédéral afin de porter cette affaire devant les juridictions pénales.

Although whether the "Federal Bureau" is part of the FFE or the French version of the CPS isn't clear.

A French dictionary translates juridiction as jurisdiction and pénales seems to mean penal. The two words together are probably an idiom though.

Difficult to see what the civil or criminal offence is. Napoleon played chess - perhaps he left something behind in French law. Consultation games aren't against civil or criminal law even though they are usually against the rules in chess competitions.

Thanks Roger. If this case really had gone criminal it would be quite an escalation wouldn't it? It doesn't really fit with what else we've heard so far about the 'accused' waiting to give their side of the story.

We shall see.

[Jonathan Bryant]

It is well known that a group of masters - 4 of whom went on to become GMs - were involved in a syndicate rigging UK events 30 years ago.
No action ever taken.

I've seen you say stuff like that before. Would you care to expand? Specifically, are you talking about

(a) the throwing of games/deliberately losing
(b) going easy on each other/agreeing draws between the group to ensure that prize money is shared between the conspirators.

Not that I think (b) is OK, just that it's not the same thing as (a).




In general, though, I kind of agree with you about chess world nettles not being grasped as often as they might be.

[Jonathan Bryant]

1) Do all national chess federations (and specifically the ECF) have a standard procedure to follow if such accusations are made about their players?

Good question. My best guess is the answer is no - on the grounds that it hasn't happened often enough yet. Unfortunately my feeling is that this may well have to change soon.

A poster on Chess Vibes makes the point that the ICC has made a good job of dealing with the recent allegations against Pakistani cricketers, and that's because they already have a system in place - dedicated unit, established procedures, history of cooperation with police etc.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but I rather fear that soon chess well have to do something similar about accusations of computer use. If not the whole credibility of the game might go.

[Matthew Turner]

To respond a couple of Chris Kreuzer's points,

Biel might well be upping their surveillance, but to give you some idea I played in the Open perhaps 20 years ago. Back then you had to go through a metal detector to get to the top A-P-A section, so they certainly take the risk of cheating seriously

This comment from the Biel organisers is very interesting if translated correctly
5.It is only in September, about a month after the Biel Open that we received an e-mail, from a contact, of three anonymous testimonies of players accusing directly the aforementioned players of “organized cheating”. Those accusations are indeed very detailed. A sample game is displayed which could have been manipulated. But the victim GM didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at the time.

So the accusations were very detailed and a game could have been manipulated. Sounds to me like Biel organisers ducked the issue. Again, I think the French Chess Federation deserves a huge amount of credit for not brushing things under the carpet.

[James Plaskett]

They´re all at it now -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... tch-fixing

[James Plaskett]

I am talking about (a), Mr Bryant.
The mother of one of them had a letter published in CHESS saying they were up to it... and they just carried on.

[Gavin Strachan]

I don't know the amount of money involved in the event rigging James is going on about, but I have heard of players deliberately dropping grading points so next season they get into easier sections of tournaments to win money. The money involved must be so pitiful though that they must be desperate! Also players sometimes drop points so that play in specific teams.

[LozCooper]

They´re all at it now -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... tch-fixing

Match fixing in sumo wrestling, they'll be saying next that WWE and TNA isn't genuine

[Gavin Strachan]

They´re all at it now -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... tch-fixing

Match fixing in sumo wrestling, they'll be saying next that WWE and TNA isn't genuine

I'm really upset you said that Loz, I'm still getting over Santa and the tooth fairy may well not exist.

[Mick Norris]

I am talking about (a), Mr Bryant.
The mother of one of them had a letter published in CHESS saying they were up to it... and they just carried on.

For those of us who didn't read CHESS, who are you talking about?

[Jonathan Bryant]

I am talking about (a), Mr Bryant.
The mother of one of them had a letter published in CHESS saying they were up to it... and they just carried on.

That really is quite naughty. Does she name names? I think I shall investigate further.

As for Sumo, you may be aware that there's a chapter in Freakonomics about Sumo cheats and how a few got caught. Might be worth a read to see if there's a lesson there about how to catch chess cheats.

[Jonathan Bryant]

They´re all at it now -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... tch-fixing

Match fixing in sumo wrestling, they'll be saying next that WWE and TNA isn't genuine

My knowledge of Sumo isn't extensive, but my understanding from the book I mentioned in the previous post is that cheating/fixing matches in the sport is a HUGE scandal. Not at all the same thing as obviously pre-arranged WWF and more akin to, say, the impact on Pakistanis of cheating allegations against some of their cricketers.

[Michael Jones]

ChessBase translates it as

the Executive Committee has mandated the Federal Bureau to bring this case to trial in a court of law.

the original French being

le Comité Directeur a mandaté le Bureau Fédéral afin de porter cette affaire devant les juridictions pénales.

Although whether the "Federal Bureau" is part of the FFE or the French version of the CPS isn't clear.

A French dictionary translates juridiction as jurisdiction and pénales seems to mean penal. The two words together are probably an idiom though.

Difficult to see what the civil or criminal offence is. Napoleon played chess - perhaps he left something behind in French law. Consultation games aren't against civil or criminal law even though they are usually against the rules in chess competitions.

Yes, I'd been going from the Chessbase translation. I can't find any mention of the "Bureau Fédéral" on French Wikipedia, which would probably point towards it being part of the FFE rather than a state organisation. Looks like I should check before posting something on the basis of a dodgy translation.

[Roger de Coverly]

That really is quite naughty. Does she name names? I think I shall investigate further.

I recall the letter in question. I noticed though that her son had been a frequent prize-winner at then recent events and presumed it was an ironic comment on his success and those of his contemporaries.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Without naming the individual concerned (or her GM son) the letter is in the September 1983 issue of CHESS (No 905-06)