Cheating in chess

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Roger,

Cheating was going on long before computers 'got good.' People chatting and getting advice about what to play. Outside having a cigarette was the place to be. I once saw a non-smoker coming out to ask a player what is theory in a line in the Two Knights. A few minutes his later his opponent appeared and the opening expert was giving him advice as well!

I'm sure we can all relate tales of woe regarding humans getting human advice during games. I recall Kasparov claiming Deep Blue received human advice in 1997

Not blaming Hans for the current everyone who beats a higher rated opponent is cheating trend. This goes goes back to Borislav Ivanov in 2012 and has snowballed out of control.

BTW I manged to get your wrap up v Morris in the Over 65's into the puzzle section of the latest CHESS.
I'm afraid I also submitted the game v Terry Chapman to chessgames https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2748143 but you can blame Leonard for that one.

[Joey Stewart]

This reminds me of a scene in the queen's gambit showing how the Russians used to collude to prevent foreign players winning tournaments by helping each other out during adjournments - that was certainly the biggest form of cheating in the pre chess engine days, and worse still now players don't even have to find a bunch of strong mates to analyse their positions.
Fortunately only the most idiotic of leagues would still allow adjournments so we are at least spared from that means of outside interference in games...

[Nick Ivell]

That wasn't cheating though. It was perfectly legal to get friends and colleagues to help with an adjournment. I was the victim many a time.

[mickriding]

Well his issue wrt FIDE you can check these out

https://www.fide.com/news/344, https://doc.fide.com/docs/DOC/4FC2021/r ... ration.pdf https://chess.stackexchange.com/questio ... arently-by
https://en.chessbase.com/post/dark-time ... nian-chess

I've seen something somewhere wrt his GM title, might be buried in links above

but I'm sure none of it is true, as much as I am equally sure he'd rather be back home fighting Russians than be in Manchester and subjected to (obviously) ludicrous slants against6 his good name

[Kevin Thurlow]

"This reminds me of a scene in the queen's gambit showing how the Russians used to collude to prevent foreign players winning tournaments by helping each other out during adjournments"

Botwinnik vs Fischer e.g.

However, Jan Timman wrote that he played Smyslov in a tournament and caught him out in the opening. Then he noticed Smyslov and the other Russian (an expert in the system...) had disappeared from the playing hall. They came back at the same time half an hour later and Smyslov suddenly knew the theory. I think it was in "Chess Titans" but I may be wrong.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I've seen that story, but the actual game is hard to pin down and Smyslov never really came across as that type anyway.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Smyslov never really came across as that type anyway."

I was sceptical too - I'm just reporting Timman's views!

[Joey Stewart]

Even if smyslov might not have been such a bad chap (and by all accounts he was one of the nicer world champions) it's possible that his countryman felt 'obliged' to supply him with the theory regardless.
Or maybe he just figured it out during his walk and it was a coincidence, people did take pretty long thinks in those days and smyslov was kind of a good player....

[John Clarke]

Assiac on Smyslov:

Befitting his monumental stature and imposing appearance, he is what may be called a stately walker. He walks in slow and measured step .... never stirs very far from his board, hardly ever more than some twelve or fifteen measured paces .... ". (The Delights of Chess, p70)

Doesn't seem to accord with Timman's experience of him, but his "ambulatory habits" might have changed since the above was written in the late 1950s.

[Roger de Coverly]

A paralympic rower has been defaulted for having a phone in his possession during the event.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/paral ... mpics.html
Other than it being against their rules, what advantage could be gained?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

A paralympic rower has been defaulted for having a phone in his possession during the event.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/paral ... mpics.html
Other than it being against their rules, what advantage could be gained?

I read that he might have been getting coached on his split times and perhaps warned if he wasn't steering straight.

[Ian Thompson]

A paralympic rower has been defaulted for having a phone in his possession during the event.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/paral ... mpics.html
Other than it being against their rules, what advantage could be gained?

Coaching - motivating the rower, telling them what other competitors are doing, when to row harder or ease off, etc..

If the phone was able to transmit biometric data to the coach then coaching would be even more useful to the rower.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Opinions on this Fair Play ruling?

The sim card conundrum at the Chess Olympiad 2024

Will post in the event-specific thread as well.

[LawrenceCooper]

Not sure if it belong in this thread but stumbling on the Hans Niemann Twitch channel I heard him say that he had been invited to the Gashimov Memorial, accepted his invitation but when it came to booking flights he was told that his invitation had been revoked because of objections from multiple players. The list of players: https://chess-results.com/tnr1015277.aspx?lan=1&art=0

Also reported here: https://www.chessdom.com/hans-niemann-w ... rial-2024/

[NickFaulks]

Not sure if it belong in this thread

You could start a "Bullying in Chess" thread.