Chess fraud in New Zealand

[LozCooper]

Female grandmaster wins Hamilton Rookies Shield!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7051

"03.03.2011 – Here's an unusual bit of news: two players, apparently father and daughter, registered for a New Zealand tournament which is restricted to players rated under 1700. They gave false names. One, it is suspected, was a WGM and the other 2200+. The damage they did was moderate: they won a combined prize money of $55. But still, the incident has led to animated discussion."

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

What an astonishing story. Lara Stock could have become a very strong player, it's a pity that she seems to have given up serious chess at such a young age.

[Michael Jones]

Seems a bit odd, since cheating usually only occurs at levels where there's a reasonable reward if you get away with it - although judging by the comments, it's far from the first time they've done it (or at least tried to). It would be interesting to know if the prize funds for the other tournaments mentioned were any greater than the figure quoted for Hamilton.

[Roger de Coverly]

The BCM Editor seems to be getting quite excited about this issue at http://www.stevegiddins.blogspot.com/

He has at least managed a couple of posts without being derogatory to this forum

On a parallel topic, can we recall any similar imposters in British chess? Without any knowledge of the facts, it's plausible that one day events in big cities attract players who are forgetful of their past chess achievements.

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

The BCM Editor seems to be getting quite excited about this issue at http://www.stevegiddins.blogspot.com/

He has at least managed a couple of posts without being derogatory to this forum

On a parallel topic, can we recall any similar imposters in British chess? Without any knowledge of the facts, it's plausible that one day events in big cities attract players who are forgetful of their past chess achievements.

We've had the odd Polish migrant worker pop into valleys clubs to play league chess when they're clearly better than they claim but thankfully none have slipped through the tournament security net!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I played in a time-handicapped blitz tournament at Pontins a few years ago in which one of my opponents had an estimated grade of 40. This meant I had to give him 9 minutes vs 1. After five minutes I was winning over the board but had less than ten seconds left on the clock and was clearly going down when his mobile phone went off and I gleefully claimed a win. After he had calmed down I complimented him on his playing strength and he admitted that the organiser, Tony Corfe, had asked him when he had entered whether he had ever had a grade and had evidently misheard his "I was graded 140 a few years ago" as "I was graded 40 a few years ago".

[Alan Walton]

I had an opponent at Calderdale congress (when prizes were very high around 20 years+ ago) who said he was graded around 80 (I was 97J at that time), we were both on 2/2 and I promptly lost in quick time, we later found out during round 4 the person had entered under his brother's name and he was actually graded around 170, he was booted out of the tournament, and since that day I have never seen him since

[Adam Raoof]

The BCM Editor seems to be getting quite excited about this issue at http://www.stevegiddins.blogspot.com/

He has at least managed a couple of posts without being derogatory to this forum

On a parallel topic, can we recall any similar imposters in British chess? Without any knowledge of the facts, it's plausible that one day events in big cities attract players who are forgetful of their past chess achievements.

Oh yes.

There was one player that I had never met before, who entered and won a major prize in an Under 150 rapidplay tournament held at Chess & Bridge in Euston Road. He entered under a variation of his full name, so he didn’t get picked up from a check of the current grading list. It was only when I played him soon after in a league game and he crushed me that someone pointed out to me that he was an ex-British Junior champion, a regular British Championship contender, and a well-known Batsford author on several openings. When I challenged him about entering a tournament for which he was seriously overqualified, he said 'I haven't played for years - I think I'm a bit rusty.'

[Alex Holowczak]

Warwick wanted to query the identity of a player at the BUCA tournament. Apparently, the name he wrote on his scoresheet didn't match up with the name on the team list. Despite him being ungraded, and a team event (so it didn't really matter anyway...), it seemed the complainant was unfamiliar with the custom of people with Chinese-sounding names having an equivalent English-sounding name for ease of use over here. I.e. rather than have the three short names, they might combine the two which aren't their first name for their English first name, or failing that choose their own first name.

[Jonathan Rogers]

totally off-topic - who won BUCA this year, Alex? The website doesn't appear to have been since updated, and to my surprise there seems to have been no mention of it on this forum

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

http://www.buca.org.uk/news/oxford-win- ... ampionship

What I want to know is whether Oxford's board 2 wore his gloves during his games?

[Michael Jones]

Warwick wanted to query the identity of a player at the BUCA tournament. Apparently, the name he wrote on his scoresheet didn't match up with the name on the team list. Despite him being ungraded, and a team event (so it didn't really matter anyway...), it seemed the complainant was unfamiliar with the custom of people with Chinese-sounding names having an equivalent English-sounding name for ease of use over here. I.e. rather than have the three short names, they might combine the two which aren't their first name for their English first name, or failing that choose their own first name.

Given the number of Chinese students there are at Warwick, anyone from there ought to be the first to be aware of their naming customs (taking an English first name - or just an English word that no English person would ever use as a name - is the standard practice: I've known Ruth, Laura, Jessica, Edwin, Sky, Apple and Rainbow, all at Warwick and all Chinese)! It's not only the Chinese who cause such confusion, either: when I was club president I received a query from the league grading secretary about a supposed new university player by the name of "J. Ospanov": could I provide details of this player, or was it the same as the "Z. Ospanov" who'd previously played for the university? I had to explain that Zhassulan Ospanov was commonly known as John on the grounds that the latter was easier to pronounce, and his captain had evidently failed to realise when filling in the scorecard that it wasn't his real first name.

The BCM Editor seems to be getting quite excited about this issue at http://www.stevegiddins.blogspot.com/

He has at least managed a couple of posts without being derogatory to this forum

Since Steve Giddins is such a pedant himself, I can't resist the chance to point out some mistakes of his:

a female WGM

Since by definition any WGM is female, this is a tautology.

our fraudulent fraulein

Firstly, all nouns are capitalised in German, so it should be "our fraudulent Fraulein"; secondly, the word "Fraulein" is almost never used in German nowadays - a woman is addressed as "Frau", be she married or not.

[Alex Holowczak]

totally off-topic - who won BUCA this year, Alex? The website doesn't appear to have been since updated, and to my surprise there seems to have been no mention of it on this forum

Jonathan, there's a brief report on the BUCA website - a full report is being written by someone else - with full results downloadable. What's more, it's in the Congress Diary section on here; I didn't transfer it to the results afterwards.

Anyway, to answer your question, Oxford won.

http://www.buca.org.uk/news/oxford-win- ... ampionship

What I want to know is whether Oxford's board 2 wore his gloves during his games?

Jon, I didn't notice. I was too busy trying to spell his name in my spreadsheet.

Since Steve Giddins is such a pedant himself, I can't resist the chance to point out some mistakes of his:

a female WGM

Since by definition any WGM is female, this is a tautology.

Actually Michael, there's no mention in the definition (well, the norm requirements) of a WGM that says you have to be female.

[LozCooper]

Since Steve Giddins is such a pedant himself, I can't resist the chance to point out some mistakes of his:

a female WGM

Since by definition any WGM is female, this is a tautology.

Actually Michael, there's no mention in the definition (well, the norm requirements) of a WGM that says you have to be female.

Maybe he had in mind the Women's IM tournament that starts today in France that has two male players in it
http://www.guingampechecs2011.com/ext/h ... 78130.html

[Michael Jones]

http://www.buca.org.uk/news/oxford-win- ... ampionship

What I want to know is whether Oxford's board 2 wore his gloves during his games?

Thanks for that Jon (and Alex); since no-one updates the Warwick website nowadays that's the first time in months I've had any clue how they're doing. I'm surprised they got Ankush to play, he's rarely been too enthusiastic.

Incidentally, for a bit of trivia - is Warwick vs UCL (the Vases) the first instance in the BUCA tournament of brothers playing on opposite sides? I remember a few years ago the Eckersley-Waiteses did so in the Varsity match (in 2007 there were two on the same side - the Chakravortys for Sheffield).