Chess Cheating Hits New High!

Tournament directors will hire a suction tube specialist, who has been strip-searched and interrogated before every tournament, to validate that he/she is a real suction tube specialist, not affiliated with any players in the field.  All entries will be pre-drugged with truth serum via injection to see if they are planning to cheat.  No eating or drinking during the games, as the food and drink may contain vital programming that helps activate all internal machinery, such as hard drives installed between the kidneys that help screen the games through a camera that is installed in a button of the shirt.  

Can I continue to make silly rules to help us with this problem?  Sad we even are having to discuss this in the first place...

Well then make a rule like a maximum of 1 toilet break per hour or something.

Is it true Kramnik went to the toilet 50 times ( or more ) in one of his match games with Topalov ?!  Surely thats an exaggeration ? 

Someone should organize a cheaters tournament. The basic theme:  cheatings ok, as long as you don't get caught.  That would be interesting.

 That reminds me of a skit on Saturday Night Live back in the 80's called the "All Drug Olympics."

OnlineChessLessons asked: Is there some way to work with local governments to criminally charge Fraud to truly deter cheating?  

Uh, no. What local governments did you have in mind, anyway? States, counties and/or cities? I don't think there are too many local governments in the USA that don't have way more pressing problems: read up on the current plight of Detroit MI, New Orleans LA, Cleveland OH and Camden NJ if you don't believe me. And these 4 appear to be the rule, not the exception. 

Many states and counties in the US are also experiencing terrible budget cuts with resulting cuts in police and fire protection as well as social services. Somehow I doubt if many non-chessplayers could really give a rats ass here, IMHO. Sorry to intrude with a wee bit of grim reality...however it is possible existing laws could be used to prosecute cheaters if any DA could be talked into taking time out from prosecuting robbers, rapists and murderers.

 thanks for the laughs, BirdBrain and UVF02368, and most original contributions

I can understand why cheating happens when money is involved but I cannot see why people cheat online.What satisfaction do they get.They must be sad individuals.

Well its the whole family thats sad

            They should limit the time you can spend in the bathroom, putting a bathroom police officer :), another measure is to just limit viewin on screens and not in the playing hall so not to allow strong player helping a weaker one.

              Also putting tougher punishments to cheating would help reduce it (not beating with a whip) and last but not least they can in case of cheating suspicion submit the suspect to a lie detector test :)...

The 50 times was a huge exaggeration, but that's Danailov for you. Considering that Kramnik is presumably on medication for arthritis I've never understood why his visits to the toilet were ever under question, maybe it had something to do with the fact that the match score was 3-1......

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3407

 I think the Black Sox scandal happened long before those sorts of social engineering experiments.  If there's money on the line, and the ability to cheat, some people will.

I do, however, think that social pressure and a general unequivocal disapproval of cheating, and of unsportsmanlike conduct in general, would do at least a little bit to make cheating less common.  The next time you hear about someone who hummed or wore odd clothes or stood up and sat down a lot or anything else just to make an opponent nervous, at least find it in your heart to scowl a little instead of congratulating him. 

FWIW, though, I do agree with the sentiment in the OP that cheating which results in award of significant cash prizes should be treated as fraud, and it would be appropriate to pursue action for civil and/or criminal penalties where applicable law allows.

In other words, Chess cheaters who win cash really are thieves.  They should be prosecuted to the extent the law allows.

well the kramnik/toiletgate reference was simply an example (and it was Alleged, definitely not proven).  i wrote this post with the idea of improving the global situation w/ respect to cheating in chess, as i feel its simply getting out of control. i think the most practical measures would be 

1.  Banning all electronics in the playing site (as apparently blocking cell phone/radio/electronic signals is illegal).

2.  Figuring out a way to legally apply/enforce criminal fraud statutes when large cash prizes are involved.

Does anyone have any other feasible suggestions? 

Thanks!

Will Stewart - NM - http://www.onlinechesslessons.net

 I'm not sure number 1 is feasible.  It's easy to conceal electronics in such a way that anything short of a strip search won't find it.  The cure would be worse than the disease.  If the prize is large enough, people will do it.

As for number 2, there's nothing to "figure out".  It's fraud.  Civil actions are available already, although there might be a perception that it isn't worth it to pursue.  If there's enough money involved, a local prosecutor will be willing to pursue criminal penalties as well.  Of course, they might not be willing to do it for a fifty dollar tournament, but if you have real evidence that someone obtained $20,000 through fraudulent means, that's a crime.  Most prosecutors would be willing to prosecute.  Also, this would only apply to real cheating which was beyond the scope of a tournament director enforcing rules.  They won't prosecute someone for using the wrong hand to push the clock.

In the 1975 World  Open, Alan Trefler tied for first with an 8-1 record.  Trefler's rating going into the tournament was 2075. 

Man, it's a good thing Trefler had his dream tournament in 1975, when computers were horrendous at chess.  If that happened today, guaranteed he'd have been accused of cheating.  I wonder if a strip search before the last round would have affected his play against Rohde.       

"Cheating hits a new high"

Proceeds to quote examples from 10 years ago and even then produces only a handful of examples.

So if you had actually read the post I think you would have figured out that I was referencing the CURRENT scandal going on involving members of the French Olympiad team.  The examples were provided to illustrate the broad spectrum and methods of offenses (that can and do take place, TODAY).

Wow, these are some great ideas; I'm going to try them in my next OTB game.