http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8362701/the-evolution-cheating-chess

"He's just a little boy that made a mistake" says his mother. At 16 years old, he knew exactly what he was doing.

At any rate, this all stems from the monroi device, which opened the door for this kind of cheating to take place. I've always used pencil and paper, and felt the devices couldn't be trusted. Anyone with a knowledge of electronics and computer technology could always find a way to use them for a method of cheating.

Thanks for the article. It made for an interesting read.

By the way, I had to laugh at the eNotate rep concerning the following:  "Muradian remains convinced it's hack-proof."

Let me state for the record: There's no such thing as a hack-proof app. It's impossible for a program to be "hack-proof".

Heard of the eNotate devices.

Perhaps explains why demand is high for them? :-)

Agree is daft of USCF to sanction electronic devices. Totally unnecessary & a pencil does indeed suffice.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chess-notation-devices

So I've been looking at Clark Smiley's tournament history, and it appears he started cheating well before he was finally caught. In the span of 7 months, he went from 1200 to what would have been about 2000 by the time he was finally caught cheating. That's unheard of even for child GM prodigies, who usually take about two or three years to make that same leap.

The first red flag comes in at the Ashburn Chess Camp Blitz. In the blitz section, he actually went down from 1129 to 1072 in rating. In the long game section, he gained a whopping 170 rating points by beating two 1700s and a 1500, moving him from 1260 to 1430 instantly. Here's the progress breakdown:

Ashburn Chess Camp (Long games): 4 wins and 1 loss. --->1430

August 1st Saturday Quad: Clean sweep of 4 wins. ---> 1525

2nd Annual Ashburn Scholastics: Clean sweep of 5 wins. ---> 1640

Ashburn Swiss 01: 3 wins and one loss to a 1900. ---> 1647

43rd Annual Atlantic Open U1300: Clean sweep of 5 wins. --->1661

Ashburn First Saturday Quads: Clean sweep of 3 wins. ---> 1713

2012 Greater Mid-Atlantic Champion: Clean sweep of 5 wins. ---> 1717

TSS20120218: Clean sweep of 4 wins. ---> 1767

44th Annual Virginia Open. Clean sweep of 5 wins. ---> 1849

March 1st Saturday Quad: 2 wins and a loss to a 2200. ---> 1875

Va Scholastic and Collegiate Champs: Clean sweep of what was going to be 5 wins, busted and forfeited all games in the tournament while caught cheating on a 2100.

Total result from games (if not caught in the last one):

45 wins and 3 losses.

Not included were 3 arranged "training" draws with another 1600 (shame on the TD for even logging those games in the database).

I gotta go along with IM pfren on this one, although I'm not sure I would characterize USCF as stupid even if they're wrong about allowing any electronics at all in chess tnmts.

I also agree with FirebrandX, 16 yrs is plenty of time to figure out the difference between right and wrong.

He should be made an example, because he is damaging chess world-wide, and it is not fair toward those who play following the rules. I also hope his school takes more strong measures against him, to teach once for all that our society cannot accept these behaviors.

Now all chess players will be labeled as cheaters, which will raise the paranoia also online.

Wasn't any record kept of the past games by his opponents so, they could analyze those. His mother sounds like one of those all too common delusional idiots who think their brats can do no wrong.

Even though I'm retired from USCF play, if I ever were to play again, I wouldn't allow my opponent to use electronic recording devices on me, even if it meant I had to forfeit. In fact, the USCF needs to amend the rules to give the player the option of declining to allow his/her opponent the use of electronic recording devices.

Not having attended any chess tournaments, wouldn't people have seen he was accessing another program, by looking over his shoulder? Or, is the argument that he was getting the moves sent to him through the approved software?

Likely he had it set to a simple board diagram that looked similar to the eNotate diagram (both already use the same piece design). Then from there, you can set the engine to make the move in the diagram without any analysis showing up, and you just play whatever move it shows. Somebody walking by would never know the move in the diagram was played by the engine instead of the human. Fritz GUIs are very customizable this way.

I see. Well, it's easy to fix, ban electronic support.

Monroi should only be allowed since it does not have the processing power to load fritz.

Well I hope he gets his lifetime ban.

I played a guy at the club who brought one of those devices.  After 5 moves he became so frustrated with it that he shut if off and got out the paper scorebook. 

Really, now.  How long does it take to record a move by writing it down, 2-3 seconds? 

And holding the trophy and money he just won via cheating.

The best way to prevent cheating is just to make all tournaments in the nude. You also have to submit to a body cavity search before entering the tournament hall.

man,really sad....so young and stupid !