The chess player was severely punished for refusing to submit to an inspection. He probably cheated and hid the phone from him.

The chess player was severely punished for refusing to submit to an inspection. He probably cheated and hid the phone from him.

Alexander Fedyakov December 3, 2023, 16:15 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

The Belgian international master was not officially caught, but was still disqualified.

Cheating is the number one evil in world chess. They are trying to combat it, but the number of violators seems to grow year after year.

No one yet knows how to track violators in online tournaments, but in offline competitions everything is a little simpler, since participants in the competition can be physically tracked and, if necessary, inspected using metal detectors. that detect prohibited devices.

But even taking all this into account, cheaters run risks.

Famous cases of cheating in world chess:

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At the end of November, the Belgian Chess Federation suspended international master Stefan Dox for six months. He was long suspected of cheating, but the last straw was a puncture at a tournament in Spain in 2022.

The main referee of the Benidorm Open tournament, Ramón García, observed that the 48-year-old chess player went to the bathroom too often during the games and followed him. Dox was in the bathroom for about 15 minutes, during which time Garcia saw a light in the reflection of the bathroom floor tiles that could be interpreted as the light from a cell phone.

Upon leaving the bathroom, Dox was intercepted by referees with a metal detector, who asked the chess player to search him. But it worked, even though the refusal caused his immediate disqualification from the tournament.

The chess player stated that he did not have a phone with him, that he went to the bathroom because he did not feel well and that all accusations of cheating were unfounded.

Ramón García prepared a report for FIDE in which he expressed doubts about Dox’s honesty, and during the investigation it turned out that he was repeatedly suspected of cheating, including using a telephone. Thus, three cases were recorded in which a Belgian suffered defeat in a match because the phone he was carrying made strange sounds. But this did not lead to disqualification, because there was no serious reason to believe that Dox was using a prohibited device during the game.

It also turned out that Dox played a series of “suspicious” games in which he was able to unexpectedly beat stronger grandmasters.

As a result, even though direct evidence of Dox’s cheating was never discovered, they decided to punish him quite severely.

It is clear that this is just one case, and there are many more cheaters in chess. But at least it gives hope that the fight will not stop.

Here’s a pretty interesting method to cheat in tournaments:

A sex toy helped a chess cheater. He was inspired by rumors about Hans Niemann.