Cheating in chess

[Mick Norris]

The Manchester Summer Congress doesn't seem to have made it to the ECF rating system in its entirety.
https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/v2/n ... ction_no=1
He didn't play in it though.

He should be on the ecfrating list now because of Northumbria, but that only has the invitational.
https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/v2/n ... ction_no=1

So, if he's not on the ECF rating list, he's not played in a Bolton event then presumably; or was he there in a non-playing capacity?

The Manchester Summer Congress 2023 (at Bolton) was rated, so was Bolton Easter and the Bolton Rapidplay

It's like the premier league transfer window in this part of the world, with rating officers getting submissions in in time for the key 1st September list.

So Mick's post here is already dated, see:https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/v2/n ... de=370039C. I have no information on whether the Manchester event will be submitted in time. His rating will appear tomorrow.

Hi Brian

My point is that he hasn't played a previous event at Bolton as far as I can see

Chess Results tells us he didn't play at Bolton Arena this month in the Manchester Summer Congress

Hence, at best he has attended in a non playing capacity

[LawrenceCooper]

As well as his history (Rapid ratings proven and issues wrt his GM title)

An interesting comment. Are you at liberty to say any more?

On reddit there's an allegation that Shkuro artifically inflated his blitz rating (and also rapid rating?):
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments ... ly_is_the/
Another related story here:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/dark-time ... nian-chess

FIDE also investigated: https://doc.fide.com/docs/DOC/2021%20GA ... utions.pdf

[Reg Clucas]

Hence, at best he has attended in a non playing capacity

There was a Mykhailo Shkuro playing in the Open, so possibly a relation.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Thanks Lawrence.

Regarding Shkuro's grandmaster title: Here is the application to FIDE from 2009:
https://ratings.fide.com/crt/main4313.jpg

Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought you had to have 3 norms, not 2?

One of his norms was achieved in an infamous "Cup of Don Final" tournament and these have been implicated in bogus title requests in the past. Here is Shkuro's performance in this tournament:
https://ratings.fide.com/individual_cal ... -01-01&t=0
It was a double round robin and there were three grandmasters playing, so six of Shkuro's games were against grandmasters. 10/14 seems like an excellent performance and I'm not surprised that was worthy of a GM norm.

Here is the tournament where he achieved his other norm:
https://ratings.fide.com/tournament_rep ... nt16=18148
Shkuro's performance:
https://ratings.fide.com/individual_cal ... -04-01&t=0

[NickFaulks]

On reddit there's an allegation that Shkuro artifically inflated his blitz rating (and also rapid rating?):
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments ... ly_is_the/

This is nothing but unsupported allegation. I was asked by FIDE to investigate and found no malfeasance.

Another related story here:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/dark-time ... nian-chess

GM Golubev was a wonderful attacking player, but weak on logical argument.

Back in the days when he contributed to Alex Baburin's excellent daily broadsheet, he once accused a fellow GM of throwing a game, the sole evidence being that he had lost with White in only 19 moves - something, he wrote, which no honest GM would ever do. Naturally I searched the database for a game which he had lost with White in 19 moves and, on finding one, asked whether he had thrown it. He was incandescent with rage that I would suggest such a thing!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

This is nothing but unsupported allegation. I was asked by FIDE to investigate and found no malfeasance.

The report that Lawrence gave a link to says:

The FIDE Council HEREBY RESOLVES as follows:
1. To cancel or rescind all the ratings for the Rapid and Blitz Chess tournaments in which Mr. Ihor Kobylianskyi (FIDE ID 14106329) participated between October 2018 and January 2020, which said tournaments were previously rated.
2. To cancel or rescind all the ratings for the Blitz Chess tournaments in which Mr. Iuri Shkuro (FIDE ID 14108836) participated between November 2014 and March 2017 which said tournaments were previously rated.

[Ian Thompson]

Regarding Shkuro's grandmaster title: Here is the application to FIDE from 2009:
https://ratings.fide.com/crt/main4313.jpg

Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought you had to have 3 norms, not 2?

I don't think there's any requirement to achieve a minimum number of norms greater than 1. The requirement is to achieve norms over a minimum of 27 games.

The need for 3 norms just arises from typical tournament lengths not often being sufficient to achieve the minimum number of games in fewer than 3 tournaments.

[NickFaulks]

FIDE also investigated: https://doc.fide.com/docs/DOC/2021%20GA ... utions.pdf

So far as I could tell, Shkuro's main crime was being Ukrainian in 2019, when this was not a fashionable thing to be within FIDE.

[Alex McFarlane]

Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought you had to have 3 norms, not 2?

It is normally assumed to be 3 norms as that is the usual way to achieve it but the regulations say 27 games, so two long tournaments would do.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought you had to have 3 norms, not 2?

It is normally assumed to be 3 norms as that is the usual way to achieve it but the regulations say 27 games, so two long tournaments would do.

Thanks Ian and Alex. I've been playing and following chess for over 40 years and I didn't know that!

[NickFaulks]

I don't think there's any requirement to achieve a minimum number of norms greater than 1. The requirement is to achieve norms over a minimum of 27 games.

Actually there is.

"1.7 Summary of Requirements for the Number of Opponents

Determining whether a result is adequate for a norm is dependent on the average rating of the opponents. Tables in the Annex show the range for tournaments up to 19 rounds. Norms achieved in a tournament with more than 13 rounds count only as 13 games."

[NickFaulks]

Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought you had to have 3 norms, not 2?

It is normally assumed to be 3 norms as that is the usual way to achieve it but the regulations say 27 games, so two long tournaments would do.

Not any more, see above.

[Roger de Coverly]

Earlier in the thread, the accuser comments

At some point I thought about a combination (not necessary, because my position was no worse), but very tempting, it seemed that White’s king would definitely get checkmate or White would lose the material

The opponent had however correctly judged or analysed the position and realised there was no mate. I thought GMs were supposed to be able to spot that kind of thing. Reviewing the game with the lichess Stockfish suggests that both the sacrifice and reply didn't deviate from equality. As pointed out by the opponent, the necessary move was not difficult to find by a process of elimination.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The easy availability of chess computers is adding to both suspicion and, in some cases, actual cheating. A year or two ago, I suggested that use of chess computers, even for private analysis, should be precluded.

Leaving aside the enforceability of this for now, there's another unwanted issue with this one: it would make it impossible to be an active player and an active game-inputter. As someone who is both of these (and, indeed, was doing both jobs at this year's British Championships), I'm going to say this suggestion is a cure that's worse than the disease.

[Roger de Coverly]

Leaving aside the enforceability of this for now, there's another unwanted issue with this one: it would make it impossible to be an active player and an active game-inputter.

I was trying to recall when Chessbase first started advertising. Was it 1986? Perhaps it took another ten years before the linkage between chess engines and databases was sufficently reliable to enter the mainstream. So that's 1996.

Over the board, you have to remember or calculate correct moves. That's always been the case. For the period of perhaps twenty years between leaving university and having the personal computer to build a database, I felt at a disadvantage when facing players who played in London League, major Congresses or strong county teams, because they would have access to ideas I woudn't know about. That particularly appied to articles on theory advocating moves supposedly giving advantages. where there was a lesser known refutation.