![]() ![]() Many studious players choose to compete only at major opens by refusing to play rated games between major events, they are able to improve ahead of their rating and hopefully score big at the World Open, Millionaire Open, or the like. Finally, the most common case I have witnessed is simply players refusing to play. It is hard to act on this as you can't deny a player the right to accept a draw or to play insipidly. A more subtle case that I have also witnessed is a strong player accepting draws in favorable positions against lower rated players. I am personally aware of a young player being told by his parents to lose games so that he could play in the U800 section at the NY scholastic championships. This is clearly cheating and is usually catchable. In some cases, sandbagging involves intentionally losing games. Usually, this is done to have a better shot at money or trophies in tournaments. Sandbagging refers to intentionally deflating one's rating. Sandbagging is probably one of the most annoying and prevalent forms of cheating. My opponent repeated this line, and I was concerned that he would copy the better prepared neighboring player's moves, but he was oblivious to the shared opening and immediately went wrong and was lost on move 10! The players next to me played a theoretical line in the French Tarrasch with the White player clearly being theoretically prepared. I had a similar case in one of my games at the World Open this year. The Soviet players were able to win all 3 games when the other two players took their cue from Geller who found the moves 11. In fact, they were playing each other and Marshall was guaranteed one win and one loss or 2 draws from the games! The same trick was recently used by English magician, Derren Brown, as part of his act.Ī similarly famous case that wasn't actually cheating occurred in the Goteburg Interzonal between Soviet and Argentinian players when the Argentinian players collectively tried a novel Sicilian variation they had prepared. To do so, Marshall placed his opponent's in separate rooms and simply passed their moves back and forth. Marshall challenged them saying that he could play them both simultaneously and claim at least a 50% score against them. This trick was once performed by American legend Frank Marshall against two US talents (I believe Isaac Kashdan and Reuben Fine.) in transit aboard a steamer to the chess olympiad. ![]() ![]() ![]() One of the most lighthearted means of cheating at chess is the act of relaying the moves between two opponents. I fear there is every possibility of chess security resembling the TSA - more about the "theater of security" than actual security. It's only possible to prevent cheating by understanding it and instituting measures that target actual means of cheating. That said, it's both amusing and valuable to discuss ways that cheaters cheat. That incident troubled me far more than any actual incidents of online cheating of which I have been victim. I was very proud of my defense, but the entire experience was tainted by his ensuing profane accusations of cheating. He sacrificed his bishop on h7, and I took the piece and managed to hold the position. (Sidebar - Does anyone else remember that?!) I was about 1700 at the time. When I was ~17, I upset a 2200 player on the old USCF server. Personally, in hundreds of tournament games, I have never once felt the least suspcicion that my opponent was cheating. I know multiple players who have irrationally avoided playing competitive chess because they fear playing cheaters. In fact, I would argue that there is a greater danger to chess in the perception of cheating than in the actual act. When one considers how many millions of chess games have been played, the number of proven and even accused cases of cheating is marginal. I think the incidence of cheating is greatly exaggerated. These include the cases of GM Sebastian Feller, GM Gaioz Nigalidze, and FM Christoph Nastsidis.Īlthough there is no doubt that cheating does occur, and that it is an important issue. Unfortunately, there have also been plenty of recent cases that carried more weight. ![]()
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