Question about chess OTB cheating

Well, players in that area would remember, so it would be pretty inconvenient. You'd have to stick to small events outside of your area.

I think this has happened before. Or at least something similar. (A cheater playing under a false name.)

Why do you ask?

"Fixed results have been the traditional problem in open sections, but recently electronic cheating has come to the forefront. Back in the early 90s, a man entered the World Open under the obvious pseudonym John von Neumann. He had some startling results (including a draw with GM Helgi Olafsson), but was exposed rather easily. When his technology failed, he wasn't able to make any moves at all and forfeited on time!"

Source: https://www.uschess.org/content/view/6728/341

That's startling!

Early stages of cheating might help players perform better later on.  It's not like other sports where you have a playground with a baseball or soccer field.  Chess players don't have many avenues to learn the game.

Should it also be counted as cheating if someone like Sevian can be homeschooled and given all the luxuries of the "answers"?  Or how about Wesley So who can boost his playing in 2 years and then play in the Gashimov.  You do what you can to get to the top, and then you duke it out with the rest when you get there. 

And fail.

What is the Gashimov?

I do have some perspective.  Why do rich win elections?  Why do stronger athletes move forward?  How do they move forward?

It's not a hard concept.  Give high school 1 a gym to exercise in and high school 2 a lab to do biology and chemistry experiments.  Which school will excel at sports, which at science?

If Sam Sevian was a prodigy he wouldn't need trainers like Kasparov.  He is doing it to get a leg up on the competition.  Why have seconds?  Same idea.

These are fed lines which would be just as much as cheating as someone following an engine but these sources never had silicon in them (or they used engines to help prep).  How come all of a sudden we are worried about cheating as if it never happened before?

Eventually you get to less and less players at the top and people will watch your games.  If you cheat at a local club, no one is going to care.  If you cheat at the world championship, then you got problems.

SilentKnighte5 wrote:

Why do you ask?

Are you trying to cheat?

@ tigerprowl9 - You seem to be implying that anything short of everyone having identical training opportunities and resources is cheating. What a ridiculous idea.

What is the Gashimov?

the Gashimov Memorial Tournament. This year Magnus Carlsen won and Wesley So tied for 3rd - 4th.

ok. well for one in every tournament I ever went to they required a USCF number,etc to compete.

that means the said banned cheater would have to get another USCF number.  to use the same name and address would be too easy- he/she would have to register, with a false name and probably with an alternate address.

... and so; as you can see this just gets to be too hard.  there's really no point to cheating; because its addicting; and sooner or later you going to be caught.  after then, its becomes harder to give chess another big try; all lies-- false names,etc.

I don't think we've completely (nor can) win the war against cheating.  but with some scrutiny;  you can make it pretty hard. espacially OTB.

BTW, uscf has always be a little coy about how it could be done and It should!  so I can't imagine squeezin' us for much useful information about otb cheating.

I don't think USCF is verifying anyone's credentials. Just get a fake ID with a PO Box.   Doesn't seem that hard.

Problem is many of the players will recognize the cheater.

Case in point - I had faced this guy named Antonio Angel twice.  In the second occurrence, I was down to 26 seconds, and he was hitting his clock with his right hand and making his move a second later with his left hand.  This was down in Orlando at the World Amateur Championship ran by Cajun Chess in Orlando in 2003.  I had to get another person to scout a director as the guys that ran Cajun Chess at that time were HORRIBLE (and not much better in 2006 when they ran a tournament in Charlotte with over 100 players, only 1 director, and he was playing).

Then, in 2005 at the World Open, I'm the top seed in the Under 2000.  I had 1 1/2 out of 2 going into round 3, and I'm on the end board of the row playing the Black side of a French MacCutcheon, which I eventually won, and Antonio Angel was playing White on the board next to me.  His opponent, who was sitting next to me, went to the rest room or somewhere outside the tournament hall.  I witnessed Antonio Angel play the move h2-h4 while his opponent was away.  He then proceeds to move h4-h2, hit Black's clock so that White's is running again, and proceeds to make a different move.  It may not have been MY opponent, but he was in MY section, and so I reported the cheating, and it was a Chronos clock with a counter, and I pointed out Black's scoresheet and how if you add White's last move, it would be 1 less move than the counter for each player, and I described what happened.  This was either his 19th or 20th move in a 40 move time control.

If that schmuck ever faces me again (I faced him twice, the other time back around the turn of the century in Philadelphia, I want to say the World Open but possibly the National Chess Congress), I swore from that day on in 2005 that I would demand either a re-pair or that a director observe our board for the duration of the game.

And if that "cheater" tried to go under a different name, I would recognize his face, and I'm not from the same area as him.  So going away from home doesn't assure that you won't be caught with a fake name!