The Sad Reality of Cheating in Chess


In his recent Chess.com column, chess legend Bruce Pandolfini explores the phenomenon of cheating in chess and how technology has evolved over time to make it easier for cheating both online and in tournament games. The point of the article is to explore the community perspective of cheating in chess. Does it happen as often as we think it does? What is the community’s experience at large with such cheating? As I read through the article and perused the comments left by the Chess.com user community, I wondered how the world of professional chess has dealt with the rising prevalence of technology and its affect on tournament culture throughout the years.

WGM Mihaela Sandu: One of the more recent high profile cases was the accusations of cheating surrounding WGM Mihaela Sandu at the European Women’s Individual Championship. Her perfect 5.0/5 score led 32 people to submit a letter to FIDE claiming that she was receiving outside assistance for her games. WGM Sandu’s performance in the tournament suffered significantly after the accusations, which prompted some to believe was an indicator of her dishonesty, but the psychological difficulties with being accused by so many participants in a tournament like that would have devastated anyone person’s performance.

WGM Anna Rudolf, who is a huge chess crush of mine, was accused in 2008 of receiving hints in her game against GM Christian Bauer at the Vandoeuvre Open. She scored a WGM and IM norm during that tournament and drew the ire of three Latvian players: Oleg Krivonosov, Vladimir Lazarev and Ilmārs Starostīts. The Latvians accused her of receiving messages in her lip balm, which was confiscated during the tournament to satisfy the complainants. The fallout from the incident was well documented on Chessdom featuring interviews from GM Bauer and WGM Rudolf. There was no real evidence that Anna was cheating and few (if any) people believe that she was cheating even today, but it was just a precursor to other instances of cheating that would appear in the coming years as technology continued to advance. Here is the Bauer-Rudolf game from Round 2 of the 2007 Vandoeuvre Open in which WGM Rudolf was accused of receiving messages in her lip balm:

[pgn]
[Event “Vandoeuvre Open”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2007.??.??”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Bauer, Christian”]
[Black “Rudolf, Anna”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A00”]
[PlyCount “130”]

1. b4 e5 2. a3 d5 3. Bb2 Nd7 4. e3 Bd6 5. c4 dxc4 6. Bxc4 Ngf6 7. Nf3 O-O 8.
Qc2 b6 9. d3 Bb7 10. Nbd2 a6 11. O-O b5 12. Bb3 Rc8 13. d4 exd4 14. exd4 Bd5
15. Bxd5 Nxd5 16. Ne4 N7b6 17. Rad1 c6 18. Nc5 Ra8 19. Rfe1 Qc7 20. g3 h6 21.
Nh4 Rfd8 22. Bc1 Bf8 23. Nf5 a5 24. bxa5 Rxa5 25. Qe2 Raa8 26. Qg4 Kh8 27. Qh4
Re8 28. Kg2 Qd8 29. Rxe8 Qxe8 30. Qg4 Nf6 31. Qf3 Nbd5 32. g4 Bxc5 33. dxc5 Qe4
34. h3 Kg8 35. Qxe4 Nxe4 36. Bb2 f6 37. Nd4 Nxc5 38. Nxc6 Nf4+ 39. Kf3 Nfd3 40.
Bd4 Rxa3 41. Be3 b4 42. Rb1 b3 43. Nb4 b2 44. Nc2 Rc3 45. Nd4 Kf7 46. Ke2 Na4
47. Kd1 Rc4 48. Ne2 Ke6 49. Kd2 Nb4 50. Kd1 Kd5 51. f3 Na2 52. Bd2 Rc7 53. h4
Kc4 54. Kc2 Nb4+ 55. Kd1 Kb3 56. Nc1+ Rxc1+ 57. Rxc1 bxc1=Q+ 58. Kxc1 Nc3 59.
Be3 Ncd5 60. Bd2 Kc4 61. g5 hxg5 62. hxg5 f5 63. Kd1 Kd3 64. Bc1 Nc2 65. Bb2 g6
0-1
[/pgn]

Dhruv Kakkar: Cheating is an audacious behavior anyway, but this case was particularly disturbing given the brazen methods employed to cheat. Dhruv Kakkar basically came to the game wired with two Android smartphones strategically placed on his body to help improve his moves. However, when he missed some basic opening lines and paused at unusual points in the game, it gave away the fact that he was receiving outside help. The phones were linked into a tiny speaker tucked away in Kakkar’s ear (pictured below…the speaker, not his ear).

GM Gaioz Nigalidze: For one final example: at the 2015 Dubai Open, GM Tigran Petrosian faced a Georgian GM who held a strong attraction to a particular bathroom stall. After some investigation by the tournament staff, it was discovered that GM Nigalidze was using an iPhone hidden away behind a bathroom trash can. Prior to being discovered in Dubai, Nigalidze had won the Georgian Championship in 2013 and 2014 despite being ranked #9 and also won the Al-Ain Open in 2014 which netted him an $11,000 prize. In the official record of Round 6 between Nigalidze and Petrosian, the game ends at 23.Rf4, but the screenshot from the cheating device shows the game proceeding beyond move 24. Nigalidze learned quickly that cheaters will be caught and that it will stop them dead in their tracks:

[pgn]
[Event “Dubai op 17th”]
[Site “Dubai”]
[Date “2015.04.11”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Petrosian, Tigran L”]
[Black “Nigalidze, Gaioz”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A37”]
[WhiteElo “2671”]
[BlackElo “2566”]
[PlyCount “45”]
[EventDate “2015.04.06”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “UAE”]
[Source “Chessbase”]
[SourceDate “2015.04.16”]

1. Nf3 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. c4 e5 4. Nc3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. a3 a5 7. O-O d6 8. Ne1 Be6
9. d3 Nge7 10. Nc2 Qd7 11. Ne3 Bh3 12. Ned5 Bxg2 13. Kxg2 Nxd5 14. cxd5 Nd4 15.
a4 Nf5 16. Nb5 h5 17. h3 O-O 18. Na3 Qe7 19. Nc4 e4 20. Ra2 h4 21. b3 hxg3 22.
fxg3 Rad8 23. Rf4 1-0
[/pgn]

Unfortunately, cheating is alive and well in chess. Technology continues to advance at an incredible rate and with those advancements come temptations to skirt the rules to gain an advantage in tournament play. Anti-cheating measures can only go so far. The rest of the effort will always come down to the personal integrity of chess players to remain true to themselves and to the game that we have all come to love.