Chess Player Strip Searched

[Roger de Coverly]

This suspicious bump was noticed by other participants as well, and was reported to the chief arbiter. He deemed it untimely to interrupt the game in that moment.

I think this an unsatisfactory approach by the arbiter.

The more common issue is likely to be that an opponent is suspected of analysing with a device away from the board. I would have thought that arbiters should have or be given the power to intervene and interrupt the game if they believed the grounds were reasonable. The Ivanov match up to Houdini almost every game, whilst not of itself conclusive, is grounds for suspicion.

[Chris Rice]

The Association of Chess Professionals have written an Open Letter to FIDE:

To the Presidents of the Qualification Commission, Mr. Ignatius Leong
Ethics Commission, Mr. Roberto Rivello
Anti-Cheating Commission, Mr. Israel Gelfer

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the ACP, I wish to bring to your attention some recent facts whereby a Bulgarian player, FM Boris Ivanov, was twice expelled from a tournament for not complying with arbiter requests. The ACP thinks it is only fair that all his games in these tournaments should be either canceled rating-wise or, better, considered as forfeited and therefore presents you with an official request to this effect.

Also, we are wondering whether immediate and urgent actions can be taken against similar cases while waiting for the new anti-cheating regulations to be developed and put into force after Tromso 2014, such as a suspension, in order to avoid further disorders in FIDE rated tournaments.

I trust you will consider this matter very attentively as it is very sensitive for all chess professionals and amateurs alike.

Kind regards,

Yuri Garrett
ACP Board Director
Member of the ACP/FIDE Anti-Cheating Committee

[Ray Sayers]

I am surprised he has a FM title for reaching 2300.

Maybe he should have a big red 'C' as a title instead.

[MartinCarpenter]

Fascinating really because you can almost imagine move input into a foot mounted device (although I'm really not sure) but really rather hard for a back mounted thing like it seems to have been this time.

A helper I suppose.

[Paolo Casaschi]

If you got confused about the whole history, a wikipedia entry is now dedicated to our hero:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borislav_Ivanov

[Chris Rice]

Well isn't that interesting. I noticed the Wiki page was updated yesterday and it includes a rapid tournament in Vidin, Bulgaria at the end of November 2013 I was unaware of. The interesting part is that the results would appear to indicate he was unlikely to be cheating as he lost games to a 2372 and a 2061.

http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calc ... -11-01&t=1

[Christopher Kreuzer]

If you got confused about the whole history, a wikipedia entry is now dedicated to our hero:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borislav_Ivanov

The Wikipedia article was created on 2 August 2013. For those interested in the gorier details of how Wikipedia decides on whether there should be an article at all, something called a deletion discussion took place in October 2013:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... lav_Ivanov

There are indications there that there might be some internal Bulgarian rivalry involved here as well. I can't see any sign that any other language Wikipedia (especially Bulgarian) have an article on him. In general, Wikipedia (the English language version) tends to have articles on grandmasters and those who have received extensive coverage in various media and sources. Ivanov appears to fall into the latter category.

[Graham Borrowdale]

I doubt FIDE can do much in response to the ACP request. If I suddenly turned up at work in a red Ferrari and moved to a £2m mansion, the police would not be able to lock me up for fraud, without first finding proof and satisfying a court of law, less still on the basis of an open letter from my neighbour.

I am as convinced as anybody that this guy is cheating, but I do think it would be necessary for him to be caught in the act. The issue for FIDE would be whether his refusing to remove his shoes/shirt or whatever would constitute proof of cheating, or would just show that he refused to cooperate with requests which his defence might show to be unreasonable. Presumably he would be allowed to defend himself?

[Paolo Casaschi]

I doubt FIDE can do much in response to the ACP request. If I suddenly turned up at work in a red Ferrari and moved to a £2m mansion, the police would not be able to lock me up for fraud, without first finding proof and satisfying a court of law, less still on the basis of an open letter from my neighbour.

See for example the Bulgarian administrative court decision reported by Wikipedia that invalidated the ban from the Bulgarian chess federation. I was actually surprised to read that in the wikipedia article since I do not remember the news mentioned in any of the articles from chessbase or any of the other chess news sites (but I might just have missed it).

[Ian Thompson]

I doubt FIDE can do much in response to the ACP request. If I suddenly turned up at work in a red Ferrari and moved to a £2m mansion, the police would not be able to lock me up for fraud, without first finding proof and satisfying a court of law, less still on the basis of an open letter from my neighbour.

No, but suspicion of fraud might be grounds for your employer suspending you from work while an investigation was carried out.

I am as convinced as anybody that this guy is cheating, but I do think it would be necessary for him to be caught in the act. The issue for FIDE would be whether his refusing to remove his shoes/shirt or whatever would constitute proof of cheating, or would just show that he refused to cooperate with requests which his defence might show to be unreasonable.

I think the arbiters could reasonably have said they suspected he was breaking Law 12.3 b when it appeared he had something strapped to his body and he refused to disclose what it was. They could then have done whatever they saw fit under Law 13.4, and reported the matter to FIDE.

[Roger de Coverly]

I think the arbiters could reasonably have said they suspected he was breaking Law 12.3 b when it appeared he had something strapped to his body and he refused to disclose what it was.

Without the permission of the arbiter a player is forbidden to have a mobile phone or other electronic means of communication in the playing venue, unless they are completely switched off. If any such device produces a sound, the player shall lose the game. The opponent shall win. However, if the opponent cannot win the game by any series of legal moves, his score shall be a draw.

Could they not also intervene on grounds of an accusation of breaching 12.3 a as well?

During play the players are forbidden to make use of any notes, sources of information or advice, or analyse on another chessboard

They could then have done whatever they saw fit under Law 13.4, and reported the matter to FIDE.

The maximum penalty available to arbiters is expulsion from the tournament. Was one of the German players additionally penalised by having all his games rated as losses?

13.4


The arbiter can apply one or more of the following penalties:

warning
increasing the remaining time of the opponent
reducing the remaining time of the offending player
declaring the game to be lost
reducing the points scored in the game by the offending party
increasing the points scored in the game by the opponent to the maximum available for that game
expulsion from the event.

One of the most robust treatments was by a Bulgarian arbiter who caught a Russian lad using his phone at a Golden Sands tournament. Not only was the player expelled from the tournament, his name was also widely published and he was formally reported to the Russian federation.

[Chris Rice]

I am surprised he has a FM title for reaching 2300.

Maybe he should have a big red 'C' as a title instead.

It appears another solution has been found and that Borislav Ivanov has been removed as a member of the Bulgarian Chess Federation. If this is the case then he cannot be included in any future standard/rapid/blitz grading lists. In practice, in some cases this may actually help him in the sense that Elo rated players won't be penalised for losing to him. However, generally this will probably give any organisers all the ammunition they need to ban him from their tournaments.

This is information I have heard via Israeli GM Artur Kogan which is still to be verified. I haven't heard how the Bulgarian Chess Federation are justifying this decision. If you remember the ban last time originally came from bringing the game into disrepute rather than any proof of cheating.

[Roger de Coverly]

It appears another solution has been found and that Borislav Ivanov has been removed as a member of the Bulgarian Chess Federation. If this is the case then he cannot be included in any future standard/rapid/blitz grading lists.

Although this was stated as fact by the BCF and ECF for many years, it isn't actually a FIDE rule. It cannot be, as some member federations of FIDE don't have a concept of individual membership. However individual federations, including the ECF, can and do suspend players from appearing in the published lists.

In practice, in some cases this may actually help him in the sense that Elo rated players won't be penalised for losing to him.

I don't think that's actually the case, or at least it hasn't been in recent years. The ECF remove players from the International Rating List, in their case it's for the crime of not being the right type of ECF member or even for daring to play international chess whilst not an ECF member.

Here's an example

http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calc ... -06-01&t=0
(second game)
http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=400190

[Chris Rice]

Ok noted. A quick further update is that apparently the decision to remove him was taken on 8th December.

[Roger de Coverly]

FIDE have made a statement

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... -case.html

They just seem to be passing the issue on to their Ethics Commission. I believe that Commission imposed a ban on Feller, although whether this was all tournaments or just those organised by or for FIDE is less clear.