Chess Scandals

 

In January 1880, the 5th American Chess Congress was held in New York. It was controversial for James Glover Grundy (1855-1919) and Preston Ware (1821-1890) as the two were caught up in a scandal. In the last round, Ware threw his game to Grundy, hoping for a draw, but lost instead. The next day, Ware presented a written statement alleging that Grundy had offered him $20 ($400 in today's currency) to play for a draw. Grundy agreed, but when Ware played some weak moves, Grundy changed his mind and played for a win, tying for 1st place with George Henry Mackenzie (1837-1891). Grundy was forbidden from ever taking part in an American tournament again. Preston Ware never got his $20 and he was suspended for one year from playing chess in any tournament. Ware didn't need the money but agreed to the shady deal because he wanted his friend, Captain George Mackenzie, to take first place.  The American Chess Association debarred Grundy from participating in their tournaments and suspened Ware for a year.   [sources: Chess Life, Dec 1985, p. 10, Gilberg, The Fifth American Chess Congress, 1881, pp. 149-151, and Chicago Tribune, Mar 7, 1880, p. 3]

In 1927, former world chess champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker accused the organizers of the 1924 New York International chess tournament of brutality against him, crooked timing of moves on the chess clocks, and palming of gate receipts in the tournament.  Lasker expected some of the money from the gate receipts.  He refused to play in the 1927 New York International because of these charges.  The New York tournament committee denied all charges.  [source: "Chess Scandal," Simpson's Leader-Times (Kittanning, PA), Feb 3, 1927, p. 4]

In 1927, Efim Bogolubov, chess champion of the Soviet Union, was banned and excommunicated by the chess section of the All-Union Soviet of Physical Culture.  The reason was that he "exhibited the typically bourgeois vice of putting his pocket book above his principles."  He was expelled when he expressed the desire to give up his Soviet citizenship in order to play chess in other countries.  [source: The Bridgeport Telegram (Connecticut), Jan 21, 1927, p. 8]

In 1932, chess master Norman Whitaker (1890-1975) was involved in a confidence trick involving the Lindbergh kidnapping.  He concocted a scheme to swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact with the kidnappers.   He was arrested as the bagman to pick up her money.

From 1940 through 1964, it has been alleged that the Soviet chess grandmasters colluded with each other to agree to easy draws amongst themselves to help their chances in tournament play.

In the 1940s, Humphrey Bogart lost a game to a friend, and then went home.  He then called up his friend and challenged him to another game, this time for money.  Bogart and the friend played the game over the phone and Bogart won.  He later admitted he cheated because at his house was the former U.S. chess champion Herman Steiner, who helped Bogart make his moves.

In 1954, the Argentine Chess Federation called off its national chess tournament after a chess player punched one of the chess arbiters.

In 1962, the Soviets were accused of cheating in chess at the international challenge level.  At chess tournaments against non-Soviets, the Soviets agreed to draw with each other.  Then, when one Soviet reached a good score by beating other players, the other Soviet players would throw their games with him, assuring that the leading Russian would win the competition.  The result, was that no non-Russian had a chance of winning.  It was so bad the Bobby Fischer vowed he would never enter an international tournament with Soviets until the rules were changed to prevent such collusion.  [source: "A Russian First," Wilmington News-Journal (Wilmington, Ohio), Aug 31, 1962, p. 4]

In August 1965, the U.S. State Department rejected Bobby Fischer's travel bid to Cuba to play chess on grounds that he did not meet any of the classifications for Americans allowed to visit Cuba.   American chess players were allowed in the past to play chess in Cuba.  However, the State Department changed the rules and said that only journalists, businessmen with long-standing interests in Cuba, and persons on humanitarian missions were eligible to visit Cuba.  Fischer was still able to participate in the tournament via teletype from the Marshall Chess Club in New York.  [source: Pasadena Independent, Aug 9, 1965, p. 12]

In 1966, USSR grandmaster Mikhail Tal was flirting with a woman at a bar in Havana when her jealous boyfriend got into a fight with him and hit him over the head with a beer bottle.  Tal missed the first 5 rounds of the Havana Chess Olympiad because of his injuries in the bar fight.

In 1967, Grandmaster Milan Matulovic played a losing move at the Sousse Interzonal against GM Istvan Bilek, but then took it back after saying “j’adoube” (I adjust).  His opponent complained to the tournament director, but there was no proof that he took the move back or said “J’adoube” before touching the piece.

In August 1971, a chess antique dealer, Trevor Stowe, was arrested and charged in court in London for indecent exhibition on display in his window.  Each of the 32 chess pieces showed couples in sexual positions.  He was fined $84 and had to pay $48 in court costs.  [source: The Times (San Mateo), Aug 5, 1971, p. 8]

In the 1970s, the Coles Publishing Company of Canada published several chess books with phony authors that were identical to earlier chess books of known authors, but different titles only.

In 1978, Grandmaster Victor Korchnoi accused the Russians of cheating by sending messages to Karpov in the form of which yoghurt to send Karpov during their world championship match in Baguio, the Philippines. 

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union banned cosmonauts from playing each other in space after a fist fight once broke out between cosmonauts over a chess game during a Soyuz mission.

In 1984, Josif Dorfman worked as a second to Garry Kasparov.  In august 1984, before the first Karpov-Kasparov world championship match, Dorfman offered to sell information to Karpov.  He was paid 1,600 rubles.  When Dorfman demanded more money, Karpov refused.  

In 1985, Josif Dorfman was offered up to $150,000 to continue spying on Kasparov.  When he hesitated, Dorfman was shadowed and blackmailed, and his family got death threats.  [source: Evans, "Writer Documents Russian Chess Scandal," Sun Sentinel (Florida), Nov 21, 1993]

In 1985, Nick Down, a former British Junior Correspondence champion, entered the British Ladies Correspondence Chess Championship as Miss Leigh Strange.  She (he) won the event.  He was later caught and banned from the British Correspondence Chess Association.

In 1988, the World Active Chess Championships were held in Mazatlan, Mexico.  There was only a limited amount of cash for the winners.  The rest of the payments would be made by check.  It was an official FIDE event.  It turned out that some of the checks to the winners bounced and FIDE refused to make it good.  

In 1992, a grandmaster was disqualified from an Internet Chess Club tournament, accused of cheating by using a computer.

In 1993, an unrated Black chess player used the name “John von Neumann” (a famous computer science pioneer) played in the World Open in Philadelphia.  He wore headphones and was suspected of getting chess moves after he drew a grandmaster and beat an International Master.  When he was quizzed by the tournament director, he was unable to demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of chess of an average chess player and was disqualified from winning any prize money.

In 1994, world champion Garry Kasparov changed his move against woman champion Judit Polgar.  He moved a piece, then took it back and moved another piece, violating the “touch move” rule.  He went on to win the game.  The tournament organizers had video tape proving that his hand left the pieces, but refused to release the video evidence.

In 1994, Rustam Kamsky, Gata Kamsky’s father, threatened to kill grandmaster Nigel Short at a restaurant during a Kamsky-Short chess match.  Rustam, a former boxer, would often go to chess tournaments with his some and threaten anyone who he perceived was disturbing the concentration of his son.

In 1995, International Master Gilles Andruet, a former French chess champion, was murdered in Paris over gambling debts.

In the 1990s, life prisoner Claude Bloodgood organized chess games in his prison in Virginia, playing fellow inmates.    He rigged the ratings of the players, and then beat all these top players in match after match over the years.  By 1996 he had a rating of 2702, the second-highest rated player in the USA.  The U.S. Chess Federation changed its rating system to prevent “closed pool” rating inflation.

In 2001, a Romanian grandmaster, Alexandru Crisan, was accused of faking his chess rating by fixing chess matches for his own benefit and falsifying the chess tournament results.  The rating increase scam allowed him to get ranked as high as number 33 in the world.

In 2003, a player was caught in the bathroom using a handheld PC with a chess program on it.  He was disqualified and the tournament director asked his chess federation to ban the player in other tournaments.

In October, 2004, the World Chess Federation vice president was punched, wrestled to the ground and dragged to jail by a group of security agents.  It was during the closing ceremonies of the Chess Olympiad.  He tried to get closer to the stage to make an announcement on an award, but security people stepped in front of him, pushed him back, and assaulted him.

In 2005, one of the grandmaster competitors in the San Luis World Championship accused grandmaster Veselin 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 somehow signaling the moves to Topalov.

In 2005, chess master Robert Snyder, chess author and teacher, was arrested in Colorado on charges of sexual assault on a child and unlawful sexual contact.  He was known as a chess instructor for children and teenagers (chess for Juniors).  He jumped bail (registered sex offender) and was later featured on America’s Most Wanted, and captured a few months later in Belize.  He had started teaching chess to young boys again.

In 2006, a player from India was banned for 10 years for cheating after he was caught using his mobile phone’s wireless device to win his chess games.

In 2006, a chess master resigned from the U.S. Chess Federation executive board after being accused of ethics violations.  He was accused of fabricating or manipulating chess tournament results to keep his master’s rating by playing repeated games within a closed group of friends that either did not exist or never played chess anywhere else.

In 2006, Grandmaster Veselin Topalov accused reigning world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik of making suspicious 50 trips to the bathroom during a single game during their World Chess Championship match.  Topalov implied that Kramnik was secretly consulting chess-playing software or talking on his cell phone to get moves.

At the World Open in July 2006, a player was found to be using a wireless transmitter and receiver called a “Phonito.”  If he had won his final round, he would have won $18,000.  He was caught and was disqualified from the event.  Another player had a wireless device in his ear, claiming it was a hearing aid.

In 2006, during the Turin Chess Olympiad, a British grandmaster punched an Armenian grandmaster at a nightclub.  The two got in a jealous dispute over a 19-year-old chess-playing beauty, who was energetically dancing with the Armenian.

In 2006-2007, many forged email posts were made on the Internet targeting several U.S. Chess Federation members and candidates in the upcoming USCF election.    The fake identities were alleged to come from Susan Polgar, former world women’s chess champion and a board member of the USCF, and her husband, Paul Truong.  In 2009, both were removed from the executive board of the USCF.  Their webmaster, Gregory Alexander, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of email hacking and one count of aggravated identity theft.

In 2007, a chess team captain was caught outside the playing room using a PDA with a Pocket Fritz chess playing program.  The player was banned to play in any further league matches.

In 2008, an untitled Iranian player was caught receiving suggested moves by text message on his mobile phone.  The game was being relayed live over the Internet and it was alleged that his friends were following it and guiding him using a chess engine.

In November 2008, Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, ranked number three in the world,  refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test at the 38^th Chess Olympiad in Dresden.  He was considered guilty of doping and faced a two-year ban in organized chess events.  He had just lost a game on the last day of the Olympiad when a judge asked him to submit to a drug test.  Instead, Ivanchuk stormed out of the room, kicking a concrete pillar on the way.  The drug testing idea in chess is part of the World Chess Federation’s idea of getting chess to be a recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee.

In June 2011, the International Computer Games Association (ICGA) stripped Rybka of all its World Computer Chess Championship titles after discovering that Vasik Rajlich, who programmed Rybka, incorporated and plagiarized elements of older programs (Crafty and Fruit), without attribution. Rajlich violated the rule that each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code from others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details.  [source: Tartar, "Scandal in the World of Computer Chess," New York Magazine, July 2011]

On June 29, 2011, after a 5-0 vote, the Rybka chess engine was stripped of its titles, and Rajlich was banned for life in playing in computer chess championships. The ICGA disqualified and banned Rybka ants its programmer, Rajlich, from previous and future World Computer Chess Championships. Rajlich denied using other code, saying that Rybka is 100% original at the source code level.

In 2011, three members of France’s chess team were suspended after allegations of an elaborate cheating scheme.  The trio is reported to have used text messaging and computer software to help beat their opponents at a chess tournament in Siberia in 2010.  Phone bill records were examined showing over 150 text messages to one player and another 30 text messages to the other player.  Two players received five year suspensions and the third player was given a lifetime ban.

The scandals of Borislav Ivanov (1987- ) were a cause celebre in the chess world in 2012 and 2013, with cheating first being alleged at the Zadar Open, and then in Kyustendil. He was banned for four months by the Bulgarian Chess Federation, though this ban was overturned due to procedural defects, and was not based upon the cheating allegations, but rather Ivanov's rude behavior toward his accusers. After various interludes, he was banned permanently by the Bulgarian Chess Federation. The incidents were significant as they were one of the first times that statistical methods were used to analyze move-matching with computer programs, even though in the end such evidence was never used in a formal legal procedure.

In 2014, Wesley Vermeulen was caught cheating by consulting a mobile phone in the toilet, admitted his offense, and was eventually banned for one year by both the Dutch chess federation and FIDE

In 2015, after a number of irregularities were found by financial auditors, government prosecutors are investigating the Bulgarian Chess Federation for corruption.  Three-time Bulgarian Champion Grandmaster Kiril Georgiev called the Federation a “money laundering machine.”  The Bulgarian Chess Federation has been charged with inflated financial spending, organization of false or nonexistent tournaments, unreasonable travel expenses, etc.  It has also been alleged that Silvio Danailov, president of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, was involved in a scheme to defraud other national Chess federations of significant cash. The scam was supposedly accomplished by registering in Delaware a corporation with the name “European Chess Union LLC”. That entity then opened a bank account in Europe and convinced members of the real European Chess Union (a Switzerland-based organization) to send their membership fees and other payments to the wrong account. [source: www.purplepawn.com, June 2015]

In April 2015, Georgian grandmaster Gaioz Nigalidze was banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament after officials discovered him consulting a smartphone with chess software in the washroom during a game. He was later stripped of his grandmaster title and banned from competition for three years.

In 2017, a 12-year-old girl playing in the National Scholastic Chess Championship in Malaysia was harassed and humiliated by the chief arbiter that here dress she was wearing was too seductive and violated the dress code.  The girl was traumatized and withdrew from the tournament.  [source: Long, "Chess Scandal over dress code in Malaysia," ChessBase News, May 4, 2017]

In September 2017, Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov was playing in the Chess World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Shortly before the 3rd round, the tournament director told him to change from shorts that he was wearing to long pants.  The two exchanged words and Kovalyov ended up forfeiting his game and leaving the tournament.  [source: "Dress Code Incident At World Cup: Kovalyov Forfeits," chess.com, Sep 10, 2017]

In July 2019, Igors Rausis was caught cheating in the Strasbourg Open, using a mobile phone in the bathroom. He admitted to having cheated, and announced his retirement from chess.  [source: The Guardian, July 13, 2019 and Reid, "Disgraced grandmaster embroiled in ugly new chess controversy," Yahoo Sport, Oct 12, 2020]]

In August 2020, the Polish Chess Federation banned 17-year-old Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Patrycja Waszczuk for 2 years for using a phone during her chess play.  [source: chess24.com, Oct 29, 2020]

In October 2020, Armenian GM Tigran Petrosian was accused of using a chess computer in the finals of the chess.com Pro Chess League.  He was banned for life from playing on the chess.com server.  [source: "Cheating controversy at Pro Chess League," ChessBase News, Oct 5, 2020]