Chess Cheating hits new high – Fraud, France, and More!

Posted on May 5, 2011 by William in General Chess Articles

Chess Cheating Hits New High

The problem of cheating in chess has hit epidemic proportions with many reasons why. I’ll explain to you my opinion on the current situation on chess cheating, a bit on the history of cheating in chess, and what we can possibly do to stop it.

Chess cheating continues from history till modern day

Chess, the honorable game of kings, has had a markedly dark and diverse history of cheating. As a matter of fact, cheating in chess is just about as old as the game itself. However, in recent days the problem has gotten so bad that there is suspected cheating even amongst world class grandmasters. With computers becoming ever more powerful and earpieces and other forms to cheat becoming smaller and harder to detect, it’s no surprise that cheating in chess has become more prevalent and harder to detect.

So how do players cheat?

The most popular methods and utilities used for cheating in chess appear to be:

So why do players cheat in Chess?

Really, the problem boils down to money. Historically, there was not much money to be made by winning chess tournaments. However, since Bobby Fischer demanded legitimate prize funds in the mid 20th century to support professional players, tournament wins now actually equate to significant prizes. And not just at the top level … the annual World Open in Philadelphia boasts a guaranteed total prize fund of $225,000 USD, with 1st place prizes per section ranging from 12k (U-1300) to 25k (Open section).

At what level does chess cheating occur?

Unfortunately cheating in chess happens at all levels, and counter-security measures and punishments need to be taken more seriously. As evidenced by the recent scandal involving 3 players from the French Olympiad team in Ukraine, 2010 – cheating may occur at the top level. One of the defendants in this case, Sebastien Feller, won the 2010 Paris Championship with an impressive 8/9 points and a whopping 2859 performance rating. How can you be sure that he was not receiving assistance in this tournament as well?

What can we do about it?

Measures to counteract cheating in chess need to be given higher priority, including preventive and after-the-fact punishments and most importantly, we need to get rid of the cellphones during the tournaments.

No more cell phones

My personal opinion is that it’s absolutely ridiculous that professional players are still allowed to have their cellphones with them during competitive tournaments. I couldn’t imagine someone in a poker tournament using their cellphone without them being immediately kicked out of the tournament (or possibly even face legal action?) So why are we still allowing this? It seems that 90%+ of the incidents we’ve seen recently involve the use of a cellphone.

Better trained Chess Arbiters

I also think there should be at least two or three arbiters around that are actively looking for people signaling each other and that they should be better trained. I find it shocking that the French grandmasters who cheated at chess tournaments almost got away with it. Would it have been that easy for trained eyes to see what was going on?

Jamming radio-frequencies in the building

This might be a little extreme but it appears that the use of radio-frequency/cell phone jamming devices may be necessary at top-level tournaments UPDATE: Apparantly this is illegal in the USA and tournaments with large cash prizes (such as the World Open in Philadelphia) to prevent the use of cell phones and covert earpieces. Also, tournament directors need to be more attentive to leading players in later rounds at large prize tournaments, as these players could be receiving assistance.

Crime & Punishment for chess cheating

Apparently the severity of the current punishments for cheating in chess is simply not enough. The aforementioned French Olympiad players received something along the lines of a 3 year suspension to be followed by 2 years of community service the French Chess Federation. 5 years is a good amount of time to figure out new ways to thwart the system and cheat your way to the top again. I propose a minimum 10 year ban on anyone caught cheating from their chess federation and FIDE. Considering the large sums of money involved, simple deterrents might not be enough. I also suggest a criminal penalty. If a player successfully cheats and wins a prize, he has successfully committed a fraudulent act. For example, for scam-artists caught cheating in tournaments with a single prize of over $5,000 dollars, is there some way to work with local governments to criminally charge fraud to truly deter cheating?

Closing Thoughts

When it comes down to tournaments where lots of money is involved there needs to be more rules. Many similar sports have much stricter rules to prevent cheating. The general lax “let’s be honest” attitude of allowing players use their cellphones, not monitoring bathrooms and a general feel that looking for hand signals is “too much” needs to end. When there is this much money on the line, people will do anything to cheat and when being caught involves no criminal action, the incentive is just too easy. Cheating in chess also ruins the game for everyone and defrauds the rightful winners of chess tournaments of their proper wins.

Thanks for reading.

By Will Stewart (USCF 2256, FIDE 2234)