Sanctions for those proven to have cheated?

[Alex Holowczak]

c) How to correct meeting minutes, which have been written and subsequently shown to be incorrect ?

Do you mean AGM/Finance Council minutes? If so, Council has to approve them itself at the next meeting. So who would be at fault; the minutes secretary for writing it, or Council for approving it?

[Mick Norris]

Council

It is never the fault of the person who writes the minutes

[Jonathan Bryant]

Isn't there some other old story about a player being suspicious of his opponent's absence from the board, only to find him in the analysis room discussing the game with one of the arbiters?

A friend of mine was once playing in a tournament (I was at the same event) and playing a junior. Young lad kept disappearing from the board, would return when it was his turn, make a move after a minute or so then disappear again.

One time he didn't come back so my friend went looking for him. He was in the analysis room, the position of the game (including the move my friend had just made) on a board in front of him. He was analysing the game with a bunch of juniors. Leading the analysis was one of the arbiters of the tournament.

[Alex Holowczak]

Council

It is never the fault of the person who writes the minutes

I like the cut of your jib.

[Kevin Thurlow]

E Michael White correctly says,

"IMO there needs to be a structure in place to take action against players who dont keep to the rules.
Likewise a structure needs to be in place to take action against any arbiters, tournament organisers and ECF board members, who don’t keep to the rules."


A player complained to me recently that he had played at a tournament where a Senior ECF Arbiter had tried to intimidate him during the tournament and had then threatened him with expulsion when he objected to the intimidation. However the tournament organiser apparently did not want to ban the player. Maybe this is the incident to which Scott alludes. The arbiter in question rather shocked me at one tournament by launching a verbal attack on a player who asked quite a reasonable question at the start of the round.

I recall an incident where a junior cheated (by getting advice from other juniors), but as the arbiter was the father of one of the juniors he threw out the complaint and awarded lots of extra time to the cheat. A lengthy complaints procedure revealed that he was quite entitled to do this (and other things).

I think the player in Sean's event should have received some sort of ban - it was systematic cheating. You might be a bit more sympathetic if in a one-off incident, a spectator says, "Rg6 wins" and the player then eagerly plays it. Perhaps loss of game and removal from the tournament would suffice.

But you are not allowed to punish juniors in today's society. I showed a red card to a hockey player from Kingston Grammar School as he threw his stick at me, and his captain claimed my decision was "harsh". Their trainer screamed abuse at me!

[John Upham]

Do we know if the ECF procedures for dealing with cheating are now available?

I assume that they are a work in progress?

See http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7567

[andrew martin]

If you want a good laugh read this article :

http://www.chessville.com/BillWall/BadL ... handed.htm

The whole concept of cheating in chess, although serious in some ways, is quite ludicrous in others.

[Roger de Coverly]

The whole concept of cheating in chess, although serious in some ways, is quite ludicrous in others.

That's a long list of well known stories. What is worse though, someone pretending to be a strong player whilst playing totally under the influence of an engine, or someone, already a strong player who uses an engine directly or indirectly during a game to get a bit of extra advantage? The second is a lot more difficult to detect, because it's legitimate to use an engine to find strong moves before the game.

[Roger de Coverly]

I have twice,when an official of my association ,raised the issue of people deliberatly manipulating their grade so they can clean up in the minor sections, the reply I got amounted to 'go away we dont want to know'.

I would suggest that you name and shame. You can do this indirectly by commenting on a player's bad luck or inconsistency.
At the very least, you might get a higher standard of manipulation. So putting a queen en prise is in bad taste, but playing the most boring opening imaginable and offering a draw on the basis of the direness of the position is at least courteous to the lower graded opponent.

[Paul Cooksey]

...playing the most boring opening imaginable and offering a draw on the basis of the direness of the position is at least courteous to the lower graded opponent.

In my defence, I do this due to lack of talent and/ or inspiration rather than to manipulate my grade.

[Gavin Strachan]

ECF have a special disciplinary squad for serious offences

[Alex Holowczak]

Gavin, why does the guy in the bottom right-hand corner have another face super-imposed over it, and whose face is it?

[Gavin Strachan]

not sure....i liked the hats. ecf special issue.