Sad case of high school chess cheating

Oh, I'd heard that story before... didn't know the lady had become USCF president though.

Also... I'd be like... why were you going though my stuff while I was gone?  Do you want to sleep on the street?

Dang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CP the underlining is spyware/advertising suggestion from PUP on your PC. :)

Never heard of PUP.

'' Possibly Unwanted Program ''.

Better go to add/remove programs & get rid of new-ones whose name you do not recognise/want.

Need a feature that does a format for you while you're gone at work or sleeping or whatever.  Maybe some programmable hardware in the machine that would do the wipe and re-install for you...

I guess to do it well it's more trouble than it's worth.  But if I were Bill Gates I'd totally have a custom PC built for me that does this.

My computer was just scanned, and worked a few days ago. Now this.

Hello and good evening/morning everyone!  Just as what you guys might consider an imporant "update" on the legality of cheating in a chess tournament:

At first blush last night I didn't seem to think that it could be illegal, but the question did kinda linger with me all day today.  I happened to go out to lunch with my criminal lawyer today in Miami and ran the fact pattern past him and he said that "probably" the kid could be prosecuted for fraud and "common law cheating" under Florida statutes.  I was intrigued so I went back to my attorney's office with him and he did some research (Florida only) on the issue and came back even more convinced this situation probably could be prosecuted as a crime in this state anyway.  My lawyer gave me a page full of notes on Florida statutes and cases on which he based his opinion.  I'll post those here if anyone's interested, but I just got home and its 2am so I probably should get off here.

I also had my lawyer call another criminal lawyer friend of his to get a second opinion and that dude off the cuff said "probably" as well.

That  IS interesting. I'm getting off here too, so no hurry on my account.

Gettcha a class action lawsuit for all the people who missed out on prize money.  Let his mom cover his ass on that one lol.

yea..

I practised law for 40 years and would be amazed if a jury or juvenile court did not recognise dishonesty in this young man's actions.

But I also doubt that a prosecuting authority would think it right or necessary to prosecute.  Chess has its own authorities and a ban from competitive play and the loss of the "stolen" rating points and titles, together with the public shaming he has suffered, is sufficient punishment and redress to those injured.

I think it's actually pretty great that this guy got caught after a whopping seven months of cheating. Shows there's a lot of good faith in honest play in the chess community. Shame there's the bad apple cases that burst that bubble.

Nevertheless Smiley is still a young kid, no need for a lifetime ban, he'll already have a lifetime stigma if he continues his chess career.

Since he's 16, he should probably just be banned til he's 21. At least then he'll be too old to hide behind his mommy.

In the UK very unlikely a minor would be prosecuted for this.

Even a 16yr old would probably be admonished.

A one-year ban from USCF would perhaps be appropriate? (Especially as they themselves aided the event through embracing & sanctioning the technological-device he used for the cheating!)

I feel that a five year ban would be ample... that would mean that he could return to chess as a young (and hopefully more mature) adult.

Lifetime ban too harsh.

Ban him at least until he returns all the prize money he's won. 

A 2 year ban is likely a lifetime ban anyway. He wasn't interested in playing chess, and I doubt he will afterwards. May as well stick a lifetime ban on it and hope it serves as a deterrent.