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Bad Luck, Cheating and Underhanded Chess Bill Wall's Wonderful World of Chess
In January 1880, at the 5th American Chess Congress in New York, Preston Ware (1821-1890) testified to the tournament committee that his last-round opponent, James Grundy (1855-1919) of England, offered him $20 if he agreed to play for a draw in their game that had been adjourned. A draw would give Grundy at least 2nd place prize money. Ware agreed, but complained that Grundy then reneged on the deal and went on to win the game in 64 moves, and tied for 1st place (with George Mackenzie). 1st place was $500 and 2nd place was $300. Grundy lost the playoff match with Mackenzie to take 2nd. When Grundy admitted his guilt, he was forbidden from ever again taking part in an American tournament. Grundy played in other tournaments, but under false names. Ware was suspended for one year from playing chess.
In 1935, Ilya Rabinovich
(1891-1942) was ordered to lose against Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995), to
ensure that Botvinnik took 1st place at a Moscow tournament.
Botvinnik refused to go along with the plan, saying, “…then I will myself
put a piece en prise and resign.” The plan was aborted, the game was drawn,
and Botvinnik shared 1st place with Salo Flohr (1908-1983) of
Czechoslovakia. Rabinovich tied for 11th-14th. Earlier, Flohr had proposed to Botvinnik that they both draw their final game and share 1st place. It was Botvinnik’s first success in international chess. In 1937, Botvinnik was playing a match with Grigory Levenfish (1889-1961). In his adjourned 13th game, Botvinnik called the arbiter, Nikolai Grigoriev (1895-1938), saying that Botvinnik was going to resign his adjourned game. Grigoriev, one of the strongest endgame composers in the world, told Botvinnik not to resign and that he, Grigoriev, found some defensive moves that could lead to a draw or even a win. Grigoriev then started telling Botvinnik his analysis of the adjourned position. Botvinnik tried to cut Grigoriev off, saying an arbitrator, of all people, should not be giving analysis to a player during adjournment. Grigoriev replied that is was OK, since Levenfish was getting help from several other masters. In 1942, during the U.S. chess championship in New York, Samuel Reshevsky was playing Arnold Denker when Reshevky’s flag fell. The tournament director (Walter Stephens), who was standing behind the clock, flipped it around and, looking at Reshevsky’s side of the clock (which he mistakenly thought was Denker’s), announce “Denker forfeits!” He refused to correct his error. This erroneous ruling by the director allowed Reshevsky to tie for first with Isaac Kashdan. Reshevsky then won the playoff match against Kashdan 6 months later.
In 1948, in the world championship match-tournament, Paul Keres (1916-1975) may have been ordered by the Soviets to throw his games to Mikhail Botvinnik for the world championship. In 1950, Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) was playing Fotis Mastichiadis, a minor master from Greece, at the chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. Reshevsky made his 24th move too fast, then noticed that the move was a blunder and that it would lose immediately. Without hesitation, as his opponent was busy writing down the move on his score sheet, Reshevsky offered a draw. His opponent, happy to draw with Grandmaster Reshevsky, accepted the draw immediately without examining the position before accepting the draw. Of course, there is nothing unethical or illegal in offering a draw from a clearly lost position.
In 1957, Donald Byrne was playing Samuel Reshevsky in a match. The referee, Hans Kmoch, was watching the game. In the first game, both players got in time trouble, and Byrne’s flag fell. All the spectators, as well as Hans Kmoch, saw the flag fell but no one said anything. Reshevsky, who was not paying attention to the clock, then offered Byrne a draw, which Byrne accepted right away (he knew his flag fell). After the agreed draw, Kmoch then told Reshevsky that he could have claimed a win on time forfeit. Resheveky then replied, “I claim it.” But it was too late. In the second game, Byrne’s flag fell first, then Reshevsky’s flag fell. Neither player had noticed that the other ‘s flag had fallen. Seated in the front row was Mrs. Reshevsky who suddenly rose to her feet and shouted, “I claim the game on behalf of my husband.” Samuel Reshevsky, who heard this and now noticed the fallen flags, made a claim of his own. Then Byrne, seeing Reshevsky’s flag down, made his own claim. The matter was referred to a committee for a ruling, which Byrne protested and temporarily resigned the match. Reshevsky’s claims to both the first and second games and Byrne’s claim to the second game were all disallowed. Play eventually resumed and Reshevsky won the match.
In 1962, Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) complained that the Russian prearranged draws against each other in order to conserve energy for play against him. Fischer’s article “The Russian Have Fixed World Chess,” appeared in Sports Illustrated. This led to the tournament system being scrapped in favor of a series of elimination matches. Years later, Viktor Korchnoi, after he defected, accused Soviet players of cheating, of ganging up on Westerners in tournaments and throwing key games when necessary. In the early 1960s, the first recorded computer chess cheating occurred at MIT. Some MIT students went to professor John McCarthy and another professor (both chess players), stating that they had a breakthrough in chess algorithms and that they should come to the lab immediately to see their discovery. McCarthy was led into one lab room and the other professor was led into another lab room. One of the professors was placed in from in a TX-0 computer, and the other in front of a PDP-1 computer. They were then asked to enter chess moves. Unknown to them, their computers were connected to each other by a single wire and the two professors were playing each other.
In the 1960, two players in the U.S. Intercollegiate Championship found that they were paired against each other. They did not want to play each other, so both went to the tournament director to have the pairings changed. But the TD said it was a logical pairing and they had to play. So the two players made up a game that would end up in a draw.
The game was actually a game created by Sam Loyd (1841-1911) as a puzzle for a short stalemate.
In 1967, Grandmaster Milan Matulovic of Yugoslavia was playing against Istvan Bilek in the 9th round at the Interzonal in Sousse, Tunisia. Matulovic moved his bishop (38.Bf3??), pressed his chess clock, and soon realized he had made a mistake. So he took back his bishop move, moved his king (38.Kg1), and only then said “J’Adoube” (“I adjust” – which is said before adjusting pieces on a square). Matulovic then wrote his move on his score sheet as if nothing happened. Bilek went to the tournament director to protest, but Matulovic replied, “But I said j’adoube!” There was an argument, but the tournament director, having only Bilek’s word against Matulovic, refused to require Matulovic to make his original move with his bishop, as the rules of chess state. Bilek protested three times to the tournament director, but was ignored. The game ended in a draw. After this incident, even the Yugoslav players shunned Matulovic. Ever since this incident, Matulovic has been referred as “J’adoubovic.”
A few days after the game with Bilek, Matulovic choked on a bone and had to be taken to a doctor. From then on, the joke in the tournament was that the doctor couldn’t find a bone, but the world “j’adoube” was found stuck in Matulovic’s throat. In 1968, at a tournament in Athens, two Greek players were trying to qualify for International Master at the event. During the opening ceremony, invited players to the tournament were asked to draw or lose their games to the Greek players. In return, they would be paid a sum of money or points would be thrown in their direction by other accommodating players. Some players cooperated, others refused. The two Greek players did get their International Master title. In 1969, at the World Student Team Championship in Dresden, the Yugoslavian player Despotovic was playing the American player DeFotis, who had white. DeFotis got in time trouble and was depending on Despotivic’s score sheet to determine when 40 moves were made before time control at 5 hours. Despotovic relaxed, made his next move, wrote it as move 41, and walked away from the board. DeFotis had 25 seconds left and thought he made time control since his opponent had turned over the score sheet after recording what was seemingly his 41st move. When DeFotis saw his flag fall, he thought he had made time control. But Despotovic swooped back to the board and immediately claimed a win on time, stating that his own score “accidently” contained a duplication of one move and hence only 40 white moves had been played. Despotovic was awarded the point. It was alleged that Despotovic pretended to make 41 moves in order to mislead his opponent. Despotovic pulled the same trick on another opponent during the tournament. In 1970, at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, Mark Taimanov was paired with Milan (J’adoubovic) Matulovic in the final round. It was alleged that Taimanov or his Soviet Federation paid Matulovic $300 to lose the game so that Taimanov would qualify for the 1971 Candidates matches. Taimanov needed a win to qualify. Matulovic showed up 20 minutes late, lingered at the board, looked at the previous day’s tournament bulletin, then finally made a move. Matulovic, normally a slow player, played at a fast pace and lost after about an hour of play. Taimanov qualified for the Candidates match and then lost to Bobby Fischer in Vancouver, with a 0-6 score. In 1971, Matulovic was sentenced to 9 months for killing a woman by dangerous driving. No evidence that he said “J’adoube” before hitting her.
In 1972, the Soviets claimed that Bobby Fischer was using an electronic “brain disruption” device in his chair that affected Boris Spassky. The device was supposedly activated when Fischer got up to walk around during Spassky’s turn to move. The Soviets ordered that Fischer’s chair be dismantled and examined, but the Soviet technician did not find any device. In 1972, at the World Student Team championship in Graz, Austria, German Grandmaster Robert Huebner was playing American Ken Rogoff. Huebner did not want to play the round so that he could rest as he still had several adjourned games to play. So he played 1.c4 and offered Rogoff a draw after the first move. Rogoff accepted. Both players signed their score sheets and presented them to the tournament director, who refused to accept a one move draw. So the players went back to the board and played a game where they sacrificed all their pieces, leaving just kings. Again they signed their score sheets and handed them in to the T.D. The matter then went to the tournament committee, which threatened to declare a double forfeit unless the players apologized and sat down to play a real game. Rogoff agreed, but Huebner refused to comply and was forfeited. In 1973, the police raided a chess tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. The arrested the tournament director and confiscated the chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the chess sets).
At the 1976 World Open in New York, a stronger player used the identity of a weaker friend in one of the lower sections. The stronger player was winning all his games until his identity was found out. Director Bill Goichberg had a talk with the person who disappeared before the end of the tournament. In 1978, Anatoly Karpov had a parapsychologist in the audience against his world championship match with Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines. Korchnoi claimed the parapsychologist was distorting his brain waves. Korchnoi then hired his own psychics to counteract the negative vibrations. During the match, Korchnoi also accused Karpov of cheating by receiving different flavors of yogurt during the game. The different flavors were part of coded instructions that Karpov followed. The arbiter treated the accusation seriously and imposed a fixed time of sending yogurt to Karpov. The flavors had to be in writing from Karpov to the arbiter. In 1980, a chess computer was used for the first time to clandestinely help a human player during a game. It occurred in Hamburg, Germany. German grandmaster Helmut Pfleger was giving a simultaneous exhibition at the Hamburg chess festival. One of the players who was playing in the simul hid a radio receiver on himself while he received moves from BELLE. As soon as Pfleger made a move, the move was immediately relayed by phone to Ken Thompson, who entered it into the computer BELLE. When Pfleger approached the board again, a move was dictated by radio transmission to the player’s earphone. The computer won in 68 moves. It was Pfleger’s only loss. The game was not strictly an example of cheating. It was an experiment in which the deception was immediately revealed. Immediately after the game, Pfleger was asked if he noticed anything undue in the games. He had not. He was then told that one of the games was played by a machine, surprising Pfleger. He was amazed to hear that it was the game he lost.
In 1983, Anna Akhsharumova was playing the final round of the Soviet Women’s Chess championship against her main competitor, Nana Ioseliani. Anna won the game on time forfeit and should have won the title. But the next day, Ioseliani filed a protest alleging a malfunction in the chess clock. Ioseliani demanded a new game be played. Anna refused to play, so the result of her game with Ioseliani was reversed by the All-Union Board of Referees in Moscow (the tournament itself was being played in Tallinn), thereby forfeiting her title. Anna went from 1st place to 3rd place over this decision. In 1985, Nick Down, a former British Junior Correspondence champion, entered the British Ladies Correspondence Championship as Miss Leigh Strange and won the event (and 15 British pounds along with the Lady Herbert trophy). He then signed up to represent Britain in the Ladies Postal Olympiad. He was later caught when one of his friends mouthed off about it and Nick confessed. The whole thing had been cooked up by Nick Down and a group of undergraduates at Cambridge, where Nick was a student. Nick returned the Lady Herbert trophy and was banned from the British Correspondence Chess Association for two years.
In 1986, at the New York Open, Pal Benko was playing Hungarian Grandmaster Gyula Sax in the final round. If Benko won, he would have earned $12,000. If Benko drew, he would only get $3,000. Sax offered Benko a draw at a critical position. Benko turned it down, blundered in time pressure, and lost. He got nothing. In 1988, undercover police arrested a chess player at a park in New York City after he won a marked $5 bill against a cop posing as a construction worker during a blitz game. The chess player was jailed for 3 days, his medication was confiscated, and he had a heart attack. The arrest was finally tossed out by a judge. Five years later, the city settled the wrongful arrest lawsuit out of court for $100,000. In 1989, the police raided a chess a chess tournament in Los Angeles. The L.A.P.D. vice officers raided a nightly chess tournament held at Dad’s Donuts. They cited three men for gambling after finding $1.50 on the table. The police staged the raid after an undercover detective tried unsuccessfully to join a blitz chess game. The detective then pulled out his badge and said “all of you are under arrest,” as the L.A.P.D. swooped in. In 1992, Grandmaster and former world junior champion Pablo Zarnicki of Argentina was disqualified from a Dos Hermanas Internet Chess Club tournament, accused of cheating by using a computer, which he denied. In 1993, an unrated player named John von Neumann was playing at the World Open in Philadelphia and scored 4/5 out of 9 in the Open section, including a draw with a grandmaster (Helgi Olafsson) and a win against a 2350-rated player. He wore a large pair of headphones and seemed to have something in his pocket that buzzed at critical points of the game. When quizzed by Bill Goichberg, the tournament director, von Neumann was unable to demonstrate very much knowledge about simple chess concepts, and was disqualified and received no prize money. It appeared he was using a strong chess computer to cheat and play his games. It was alleged that he was entering moves on a communication device whose signal was being sent up to a hotel room where an accomplice was operating a chess computer. Von Neumann has never been seen or heard from since. John von Neumann is the same name as the noted mathematician and pioneer in artificial intelligence.
In 1996, Claude Bloodgood, at the age of 71, became the 9th highest ranked chess player in the United States, by playing 1,700 rated games against other inmates. He was an inmate in a Virginia prison and just strong enough to beat other inmates, but was not a strong master. He built up a high numerical rating by organizing chess tournaments and matches in prison, and consistently beat the other weaker players. His rating highlighted flaws in the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) grading system. From 1993 to 1999, he played 3,174 rated games in prison, almost always winning. In 1997, Kasparov lost to Deep Blue. Kasparov later claimed that the team of chess players assembled by IBM had intervened in move selections that they were not computer selections because the moves were too human. In 2001, Grandmaster Alexandru Crisan was accused of faking his Elo rating of 2635 (number 33 in the world) by fixing chess matches for his own benefit and falsifying chess tournament results. In 2002, at the World Open in Philadelphia, a Russian player was caught going outside and getting advice from another player. His opponent followed the Russian player outside and caught him speaking in Russian to the same man intently watching the game. They had been discussing the last move of the game, which was heard by 30-40 onlookers. The Russian then said he would forfeit the game. In 2003, at the Lampertsheim Open, a player was caught with a handheld PC which displayed a running chess program. The player often left the tournament room for protracted periods of time to go to the bathroom. The tournament director caught him when he entered a neighboring stall, stood on the toilet bowl and looked over the dividing wall, where he observed the player using a stylus to operate the program.
In 2004, Grandmaster Arkadi Naiditsch admitted cheating by using a computer in an Internet tournament, claiming that everyone else was doing it. In 2004, top seed Christine Castellano was playing in the Philippine Women’s National Chess Championship when her cell phone rang. She was disqualified from the event. In 2005, at the HB Global Chess Challenge in Minneapolis, a player was caught receiving chess moves over his cell phone during his game. The rules were published that cell phones were prohibited. In 2005,one of the competitors in the San Luis World Championship tournament accused Topalov of cheating with a computer. It was alleged that Topalov’s delegation was using a laptop computer in the playing hall to analyze the moves and sometimes signaling the moves to him. In 2006, at a New Delhi tournament, an Indian player was caught using a chess computer via a Bluetooth-enabled device which was sewn in his cap. He had a Bluetooth headset sewn into the cap which he typically pulled down over his ears. An accomplice had been communicating with him outside the playing location. He was relaying moves from a computer chess program. The player was banned from competitive chess in India for 10 years. In July 2006, at the World Open in Philadelphia, two players were accused of cheating in chess by using computer assistance. One player was found to be using a wireless transmitter and receiver called “Phonito.” He had a wireless device in his ear, claiming it was a hearing aid. He was disqualified from the event. The other player, wearing a hat, was suspected of cheating. The tournament director wanted to search this person. The suspect agreed, but first ducked into a bathroom. Although no device was found, there were suspicions that he used the bathroom visit to dispose of a miniature wireless receiver that might have been hidden in the hat he wore.
In 2006, research from two Ph.D. economists at Washington University in St. Louis offered strong evidence that the Soviets cheated during the world chess championships from 1940 through 1964. Titled “Did the Soviets Collude? A Statistical Analysis of Championship, 1940-64,” the study was presented at several academic meetings. It concluded by saying, “We have shown that such collusion clearly benefited the Soviet players and let to performances against the competition in critical tournaments that were noticeably better than would have been predicted on the basis of past performances and on their relative ratings.” In February 2007, a burglary of the hotel room of Grandmaster Radjabov forced him to withdraw from the Morelia-Linares tournament. The burglary occurred in Patzcuaro, Mexico only a few days before the start of the tournament. Radjabov and his father left for a quick dinner and returned to their room within 30 minutes. All of their valuable items were stolen. They reported the crime, but got neither help from the local authorities, nor even a police investigation.
In 2007, the Rochester Chess
Center was the official vendor at the World Open in Philadelphia. They had
21 expensive chess clocks stolen during the event. Some of the clocks were
being used to pay off gambling debts from backgammon and poker. In 2007, a Dutch player was caught using PocketFritz on his PDA. The tournament director caught him when the player went outside to get some fresh air. In 2007, $73,000 was donated on behalf of a chess program and team at an elementary school in Washington, DC. It turned out that the school business manager who handled the funds was a thief. The business manager ripped off most of the $73,000 that was supposed to go to the chess program. The person used the school’s ATM card more than 100 times to steal from the chess fund. When the pillage was discovered, the school security and the police were immediately notified, but the authorities did little or nothing until an anonymous tipster told the D.C. government’s inspector general about the missing money. Before the plundering, the money was used to fund 12 Washington D.C. kids to Nashville to take part in the national scholastic chess tournament. The children of the chess team never competed in another tournament after the theft of their funds. In December 2007, the tournament director’s laptop was stolen at the 34th Eastern Open in Washington, D.C. It had occurred shortly after round 3, when the 6-month-old laptop was stolen from the director’s room. Generous chess players at the event contributed $600, which was matched by a generous donor to pay for a new laptop. In December, 2007, Anna Rudolf, a Hungarian Woman Grandmaster and International Master, was accused of cheating by some of the male players in the Vandoeuvre Open chess tournament in France. She was allegedly receiving transmissions of chess moves through her container of lip gloss. One of the male players even refused to shake hands with her in the final game and demanded that the arbiter take further actions against her. At the time, Rudolf was leading the tournament by ½ point. She was so shocked by the accusations that she lost the final round and ended up in 9th place.
In 2008, Grandmaster Nigel Short lost a game when his cell phone rang. The Nokia phone had been a gift from a sponsor at a recent chess tournament and Short had only started using it.
In 2009, in a match between Bulgaria and England, the Bulgarian Grandmaster Alexander Delchev’s cell phone went off, leading to an immediate forfeit of the game. In 2009, the 2nd Gedeon Barcza Memorial was supposed to take place in Budapest. Although the first round was actually played with 5 International Masters and 7 Grandmasters, it soon became clear that the main organizer did not have the money to play with the hotel or the players. The Ramanda Resort Hotel, where the players were staying and where the tournament was held, never received any money from the organizer. On the second day, the hotel decided to close the playing hall. The hotel manager said, “no money, no business.” All 12 chess players were financially harmed and the top GMs were still waiting for their appearance fees. The organizer blamed the situation on lost potential sponsors. In 2009, at the Aeroflot Open, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, the top seed, lost quickly to Igor Kurnosov of Russia. After the game, Mamedyarov accused his opponent of cheating, saying that his opponent went to the bathroom after every move, taking his coat with him. Mamedyarov said he examined the game against the computer program Rybka, and that every move in the game matched the computer’s recommendations every time. Kurnosov’s pockets were searched, and the organizers only found cigarettes, a lighter and a pen in his pockets. After the protest, Mamedyarov withdrew from the tournament and Kurnosov was allowed to finish the tournament.
In the days that moves were sealed, players have sealed a bad move when adjourning the game, and then offer a draw before play was resumed. In one tournament, a master asked his lower-rated opponent, “Are you playing for a draw?” The lower-rated player, willing to draw against the master, got up from the table accepting the draw offer. Later, the lower-rated player found a zero on the crosstable, indicating that he had lost on time forfeit. He went to the tournament director to tell him it was a mistake, that the game was agreed to a draw. When the master was asked to confirm his draw offer, he replied, “Who me? I did not offer him a draw. I only asked him if he was offering me one. Then he got up and left.” Another underhanded tactic that has been used by a master is to say to the opponent, “You played well,” and extend his hand for a handshake. However, the clock was not stopped. The opponent would get up and leave, thinking the master had resigned. Again, the lower-rated player found a zero on the crosstable, indicating he had lost on time forfeit.
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In
the 1561, Ruy Lopez de Segura (c. 1540- c. 1580), in his treatise on chess,
advised his chess students to “place your opponent with the sun in his eyes
if you play by day, and with the candle at his right side if you play at
night.”
In
1851, at the first international chess tournament held in London, Adolf
Anderssen (1818-1879) of Germany and Jozsef Szen (1805-1857) of Hungary
agreed that if either player took 1st place, he would pay 1/3 of
his prize money to the other person. Anderssen easily won his game from
Szen in round 2. Szen took 5th place. This may not have been
considered unethical. First place was 335 British pounds.
In
the 1950s, Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) played a chess game against a friend
at a restaurant and lost. He then went home, phoned his friend and bet some
money on a new game played over the phone. Bogart won the game, but then
admitted he cheated. At the time, U.S. Champion Herman Steiner (1905-1955)
was visiting Bogart at his house, who helped Bogart with the moves. Bogart
himself said that he liked chess better than poker because you couldn’t
cheat at chess.
In
1959, the Candidates’ tournament was held in Bled. Mikhail Tal (1936-1992)
tried to unnerve his opponents by staring at them while they were thinking.
Some players thought he was trying to hypnotize his opponents. When he had
to play Pal Benko, Benko brought a pair of dark sunglasses to wear during
their game. Later, Benko explained that he wore the glasses not to ward of
Tal’s “evil eye,” but as a stunt. A couple of Yugoslav reporters asked
Benko to wear them to provide an eye-catching photo and a lively story for
their newspapers.
In
1970, Bobby Fischer was playing White against Vlatko Kovacevic at a
tournament in Zagreb. On his 18th move, Fischer had a chance to
win if Black made the obvious move. Petrosian and Korchnoi, who were
watching the game, spotted Fischer’s deadly intention and were analyzing the
position in a different room. Petrosian’s wife had followed the analysis of
the Petrosian and Korchnoi, then walked across to the board and whispered
the lines to Kovacevic. Kovacevic then played another, less obvious, but
stronger move, and actually won the game. It was Fischer’s only loss in the
17-round tournament.
In
1981, at the Lone Pine tournament in California, Sammy Reshevsky offered a
draw to John Fedorowicz. After letting his time tick down, Fedorowicz
accepted. Reshevsky then denied he made the offer. There were several
witnesses to Reshevsky’s offers, but the tournament director, Isaac Kashdan,
eliminated all the witnesses, saying they were all Fedorowicz’s friends, and
upheld Reshevsky’s fabrication. However, the game was resumed with
Fedorowicz almost out of time and Reshevsky lost!
In
2003, former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov lost a game when his cell
phone rang during the European team championship. He lost his game to
Evgeny Agrest (who lost a game in 2004 when his cell phone rang) in his
Ukrainian team match versus Sweden. Ponomariov was the first player
penalized under this rule at a major event.
In
2008, at the Dubai Open, an Iranian player was caught receiving suggested
moves by text message on his mobile phone. The game was being relayed live
over the Internet and a friend was following it and guiding the player using
a computer. The player was caught when he was looking into his mobile
handset. When confronted, he immediately dropped his cell phone. On
examining the handset, it was found that he had received SMS instructions in
Farsi.
In
2008, Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk (ranked 3rd in the world at
the time) refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test at the Chess
Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. He was then considered guilty of doping while
playing chess and faced a two-year ban. It was the last day of the
tournament and Ivanchuck had just lost to Gata Kamsky. He was then asked to
submit to a drug test. Instead, Ivanchuk stormed out of the room in the
conference center, kicked a concrete pillar in the lobby, pounded a
countertop in the cafeteria with his fists and then vanished into the
coatroom.
In
2009, a 14-year old chess player from Australia was caught cheating with a
Playstation Portable with a chess program (Chessmaster). He was caught
using the hand held computer in the toilet cubicle by a deputy arbiter who
followed him in the bathroom. Suspicions were first aroused when the player
visited the bathroom 6 times in 20 moves. The player was in the under-1600
section of the Norths Chess Club Centenary Year Tournament.
