Tech mate? Top grandmaster claims chess is riddled with cheats using smartphones

[John Upham]

See here

[IM Jack Rudd]

"Top grandmaster" is an interesting description of someone with a world ranking of 944, but whatever.

[Roger de Coverly]

You have to catch people walking round with live smartphones rather than make vague accusations about players making unexpected improvement. Otherwise as Danny himself describes regarding one of his Hastings games, improbable computer style moves are pre-game rather than during game suggestions.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-komodo ... s-engine-2

[Date "2015.01.03" [Round "6.12"] [White "Gormally, Daniel W"] [WhiteElo "2499"] [Black "Haussernot, Cecile"] [BlackElo "2186"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nd7 4. d4 Ngf6 5. e5 Qa5+ 6. Nc3 Ne4 7. Rb1

The tactical point is that 7. .. Nxc3 can be met by 8. bxc3 thereby defending the b5 Bishop. Still it's not an easy idea to see unless either you spotted someone else play it using a database, or researched it yourself with a tame engine.

[JonManley]

I see that Danny's now chosen a new career.

[Niall Doran]

Cheating using smartphones does exist in chess, but it's probably not too common. I'm aware of an example of someone who nipped to the loo very regularly on their own time (which is rare enough), had made huge strides in the space of a couple of years, but only in standard play. Their rapid and blitz ratings stayed the same. Nothing was ever proven, but the person left chess after a couple of years.
To be honest, I don't think an amateur who cheats can get away with it for long, people eventually get suspicious, the abriters hear about it and keep a close eye on them every time they go to the loo.

At GM level, I suppose it's possible that in über-complex positions, the GM can have his partner-in-crime communicate the correct move to him in whatever way it's done. The only problem is that the economics of chess, i.e. the prizes are just about enough for a GM to scrape a living, don't make that feasible. Basically the GM will find himself having to win enough to pay for two people to make a living, him/herself and the person transmitting the moves.

[Brian Towers]

At GM level, I suppose it's possible that in über-complex positions, the GM can have his partner-in-crime communicate the correct move to him in whatever way it's done.

Different flavoured yoghurts is, I believe, the traditional method

[Jonathan Bryant]

You have to catch people walking round with live smartphones rather than make vague accusations about players making unexpected improvement.

The article is based on statements The Gorm made on twitter. Other recent tweets of his include:-

the announcement of his plan to have a sex change and enter the next Women’s World Chess Championship;
a reference to a comment he made on the Daily Mail’s website;
a complaint that he is very bored.


Before giving this story too much attention it is perhaps worth considering the possibility that he didn’t give the 'chess is full of cheats' tweet an awful lot of thought before he hit the send button.