Player disqualified from German Championships

[Stewart Reuben]

Olympiad, Germany, US, England are examples all established. Allegations have also been made twice more in England to my knowledge, neither remotely substantiated. Also we know of one in Italy.
Naturally organisers are likely to try to avoid publicity.

[Alex McFarlane]

Stewart,

I have had three accusations of cheating in this way made to me. I have had several other expressions of concern.

I believe that two juniors have been caught using chess engines. I actually caught a group in the process of loading a position into a mobile phone. In that case they were hoping to get it to analyse a schoolmate's position so that they could see if he was winning. I don't think they were planning to pass on moves but I banned them from the playing hall in any case.

I recently had to pull up an IM for texting in the playing hall. He was initially most agreived since he had finished his game. I had to explain that whilst i didn't think he was doing anything to pass on moves, there was always that doubt in the mind of opponent's of his friends.

If I have encountered this then I think there must be a substantial number of worries in this area. I do not believe it is a major problem in this country but it does require monitoring.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I actually caught a group in the process of loading a position into a mobile phone. In that case they were hoping to get it to analyse a schoolmate's position so that they could see if he was winning. I don't think they were planning to pass on moves but I banned them from the playing hall in any case.

I recently had to pull up an IM for texting in the playing hall. He was initially most agreived since he had finished his game. I had to explain that whilst i didn't think he was doing anything to pass on moves, there was always that doubt in the mind of opponent's of his friends.

There does need to be a culture change here, about avoiding the use of mobile phones and suchlike in the playing area after someone has finished their games. Some think that as long as their game has finished, they are free to do what they like, but this clearly can't be the case. You have to leave the playing area to make phone calls, do texting, and so on.

The other point is analysing games by others that are in progress. It can be very tempting, when your games have finished, and following the games of team-mates or just games in general that are interesting (e.g. endgames where the position can be easily remembered), to go and analyse in the analysis room with friends as part of improving your own game. Or to use an analysis engine to see what is "really going on". The vast majority doing this would be horrified if it was suggested, but they are leaving themselves open to accusations of cheating or colluding in cheating. It is tempting - I've done this in the past - analysing in the analysis room a recent position from a game being played between others while they are still playing and [obviously] after my game was finished). I wouldn't do it any more.

As tempting as it is to while away the time while waiting for the games of others to finish, you have to not do it. If you are at the venue (i.e. not at home watching online, or back in a hotel room following on a laptop), wait until a game (any game) is over before analysing. Following live 4NCL games from the lobby of the same hotel from a laptop after your own game has finished (or as a non-playing spectator) is more of a grey area.

[Roger de Coverly]

As tempting as it is to while away the time while waiting for the games of others to finish, you have to not do it. If you are at the venue (i.e. not at home watching online, or back in a hotel room following on a laptop), wait until a game (any game) is over before analysing. Following live 4NCL games from the lobby of the same hotel from a laptop after your own game has finished (or as a non-playing spectator) is more of a grey area.

It shouldn't be in any way objectionable to analyse games still in progress, commentary rooms at major events being an example. What is and always has been wrong is to communicate analysis to the players. The generally accepted interpretation is that players become spectators after finishing their own games and provided they do so out of earshot of players, there is no prohibition on discussion of games.

The layout of some venues bothers me though. Where there's a central atrium like Sunningdale, there always seem to be "support teams" with computers in use between the playing room and refreshment or other areas you may need to visit.

[Stewart Reuben]

FIDE are setting up a 'task force' to discuss issues of cheating. You can probaby still volunteer to join it.

Every time you look at somebody else's position, presumably you are analysing it - to one extent or another. Roger is correct. It is communicating to the players which is unacceptable.

Surely, the only way to stop electronic communication wirelessly from the playing venue to outside, is to enclose the event in a wire mesh. This no doubt will, or has, come for some major events. That will not prevent a player being able to communicate with a computer on his person. Before the end of the century, people will have computers embeded into their bodies.

For both the Grand Prix and the Candidates I detected no air of paranoia at all. Grischuk was allowed to stand on The Strand, with many passers-by, and smoke his cigarettes. None of his opponents wanted him monitored.