Foul play at a recent OTB tournament : Does being a kid give you a free pass?

phillliesarethebest: I see you posted a couple more comments...

Is a crime a mistake?  If I rob somebody, can I say it was a mistake and get away with it?  No.

You are generalizing the problem too much.  Mistakes happen... yes... Since I don't know what these musicians and actors did, I have no idea if what they did was an accident, a crime, or whatever... I see in the news all the time when they do something and have charges pressed against them or go to jail.  Even if it is a fine, that is still technically a punishment.

I know you are still young, and you are still at the age where you are inside the box looking out, as opposed to being outside the box looking at all the other boxes around you (metaphor!!!) ... that comes with age, experience and wisdom.  Even 10 years from now, you will find your point of view on this topic has changed... having children will change your point of view tremendously. 

I am not knocking your point of view, but I think the problem is more complex than just a child changing the score on a wall chart.  That is why so many people have differing opinioins in the first place.

I'd suspend him for six months. I'm 14 and I've played frequently in scholastic tournaments since I was about eight and adult tournaments since I was about eleven or twelve. I've never seen anybody do anything like this, even in the elementary school sections. There's an honor code in parts of chess and it's extremely important that everybody upholds it. He needs to know that this is an extremely serious thing to do and that there's a good chance he will get caught and strongly punished. Doing this in a scholastic tournament would be bad enough, but with money at stake I don't think a slap on the hand is sufficient.

What's the usual (by the books) punishment for cheating? Whatever it is, do that. WHy does this haveto be hard?

Off with his head!!

So padgeek means the child has to do some community work as punishment? Like that's a good point! Having someone to do something which he had once done wrong, but now with a correct purpose, should do the trick. Maybe add a ban from tournaments from a few months, and the boy would, hopefully, turn over a new leaf.

By the way, I've seen some ridiculous posts about executing the child with a guillotine or shooting him or making him a slave...We're talking about a child here, and we're not in the medieval times or the French revolution to talk about a guillotine (unless you are referring to the normal one - the one used for art and design to cut pieces of paper and stuff) :P

I do like the idea of "community service", such as helping out in tournaments... provided that the service is not as much fun as it is a chore... I for one enjoy helping out in tournaments, so, I wonder how that punishment would suit me? :)  In any case, "community service" is a healthy way of handling the punishment.  Good suggestion!

Boot him from the tournament and scold him with the warning that if it happens again he is banned from tournaments for his lifetime.

That's probably enough to make sure he regrets it and won't do it again.

Community service is a ridiculous suggestion for a child. I mean, get real.

Why is that ridiculous? I think suspension until he's done 8 hours of work helping run tournaments (setting up tables, chairs, and boards for example) would be a fine punishment. It gets two things done since he needs to be taught that cheating is not permissible and many tournaments are understaffed. Very likely the punishment will come in the form of having to watch a tournament but not being able to participate!

Truer words have never been written.

What happens in elementary schools these days to kids caught cheating ?

No, no, no.  They're rewarded with a cookie for their uniqueness and ingenuity.

In my day a kid caught cheating would get a zero for the test or homework assignment he was cheating on AND a note sent home to parents that had to be brought back signed. My parents didnt believe in sparing the rod and in the 60s I dont know any parents who did.

Thank you all for your perspectives. 

The overwhelming majority suggest temporary bans/suspensions as the way to go.  Runner-up was the notion that he should be ostracized (spreading the word) and not allowed in to future tournaments by this organizer.

I'm thinking a combination of the two should be sufficient to deter future attempts.

Those of you who suggested that they play it by the USCF rulebook may need to know that all the 5th edition of the Federation rules says for matters of this nature is that one must follow the generic "Director's discretion" guidelines which IMHO couldn't be more vague.  That was why I posted this question.

Cheaters must be punished as chess players whether they are old or young, men or women, black or white, etc.

i think we should use some good old commonsense here folks......the master copy was most likely on TD's laptop, no damage was done, just sit the kid down alone and talk to him......

Months? Are you kidding? 8 hours is probably 2 tournaments' worth of work.

Yes, and this is a child, not a criminal.

People are so good at spouting ideas in theory that in the real world aren't functional.

Star Trek isn't real. Neither is Santa Claus. Sorry.

so what would be more practical then Anthony ?