Chess Grandmaster Used iPhone To Cheat During Tournament

SternisheFan sends this quote from the Washington Post: Gaioz Nigalidze's rise through the ranks of professional chess began in 2007, the year the first iPhone was released. In hindsight, the timing might not be coincidental. On Saturday, Nigalidze, the 25-year-old reigning Georgian champion, was competing in the 17th annual Dubai Open Chess Tournament when his opponent spotted something strange. "Nigalidze would promptly reply to my moves and then literally run to the toilet," Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian said. "I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange, since two other partitions weren't occupied." Petrosian complained to the officials. After Nigalidze left the bathroom once more, officials inspected the interior and say they found an iPhone wrapped in toilet paper and hidden behind the toilet. "When confronted, Nigalidze denied he owned the device," according to the tournament's Web site. "But officials opened the smart device and found it was logged into a social networking site under Nigalidze's account. They also found his game being analyzed in one of the chess applications." Nigalidze was expelled from the tournament, which is still ongoing and features more than 70 grandmasters from 43 countries competing for a first-place prize of $12,000. The Georgian's career is now under a microscope. His two national titles are under suspicion.

Comments

title is wrong

[bobmajdakjr]

He isn't a grandmaster if he cheated. :p

Re: title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not even a master cheater.

Re:title is wrong

[Drethon]

Innocent until proven guilty, thought it doesn't look good.

Re:title is wrong

[ShanghaiBill]

Innocent until proven guilty, thought it doesn't look good.

"Innocent until proven guilty" applies to criminal courts of law in some jurisdictions. There is no reason that, say, a Chess Tournament in Dubai, should be held to that standard. Stripping him of his title would be an administrative, not legal, process. If he broke any laws, say, by claiming tournament money to which he was not entitled, that would be another matter.

Re: title is wrong

[SeaFox]

If he can argue his way out of the charges, he might be a masterdebater, though.

Re:title is wrong

[amRadioHed]

How much more proof do they need? They found an iPhone with a chess computer running under his account hidden in the bathroom he ran to after every move. Even in a court of law, which this isn't, that's a pretty solid case.

Re: title is wrong

[towermac]

And if he's kicked out of chess, and makes a career out of baiting hooks, then he could be a...

ah nvm

Re:title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the same things muslims say. "Muslims don't commit crime. He isn't a muslim if he committed crime". He cheated when he was a grandmaster and hence the title is perfectly right. Now sure who moderated you up.

Re:title is wrong

[sumdumass]

My plan is coming together nicely. Now with him out of the way, nobody can beat me.

Seriously, if I was going to set someone up, this is likely how I would do it. Its sort of like a cop throwing a weapon on the guy he just shot.

What they should have done was turned the sound up and watch for him to go in then listen from the next stall. If they heard the phone, call the number and ask him to step out of the stall.

Re:title is wrong

[EmeraldBot]

My plan is coming together nicely. Now with him out of the way, nobody can beat me.

Seriously, if I was going to set someone up, this is likely how I would do it. Its sort of like a cop throwing a weapon on the guy he just shot.

What they should have done was turned the sound up and watch for him to go in then listen from the next stall. If they heard the phone, call the number and ask him to step out of the stall.

If he was setup, why would he conveniently always go to THAT stall? Why would he need to go to the bathroom so incredibly frequently? Why would it be hidden somewhat well? How did someone get ahold of his phone and he didn't notice for so long? It doesn't add up. I'm normally much more interested in facts than coincidences, but this is way too suspicious even for me. I wonder what happens if he plays while they hold onto his phone for the match...

Re:title is wrong

[Penguinisto]

How much more proof do they need? They found an iPhone with a chess computer running under his account hidden in the bathroom he ran to after every move. Even in a court of law, which this isn't, that's a pretty solid case.

...just thinking; if he held out for a few more months, he could've bought that iWatch thingy and saved all the trips to the crapper...

(now how well he could've hidden that, who knows?)

Re:title is wrong

[YouGotTobeKidding]

Maybe the other stalls werent empty like the person who 'caught' him is claiming. Maybe they are the ones who set him up. Its how I would do it. IDK, just playing devils advocate...but that is why innocent until proven guilty SHOULD be the way it is in all courts - even the court of public opinion. Of course most people are too stupid to think for themselves - as Honey BooBoo and Kim K's popularity prove - so it probably is just a pipe dream.

Re:title is wrong

[EmeraldBot]

Maybe the other stalls werent empty like the person who 'caught' him is claiming. Maybe they are the ones who set him up. Its how I would do it. IDK, just playing devils advocate...but that is why innocent until proven guilty SHOULD be the way it is in all courts - even the court of public opinion. Of course most people are too stupid to think for themselves - as Honey BooBoo and Kim K's popularity prove - so it probably is just a pipe dream.

There's nothing wrong with playing the devil's advocate, and indeed I always try to look at situations from both points of view. But just look at it: you really have to stretch to make a case for this guy. The odds of him always going to the same stall, after every five moves (assuming there are only three bathroom stalls), is about 1/59049. Further more, how would the person framing him know what stall he was going to pick, and hide the phone accordingly? Why would it be fairly well hidden if they were trying to set him up? There are way too many coincidences here. Like I said, the guy can always prove himself without it if he really wants to, but somehow I doubt he will take them up on that offer.

Re: title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

master hook baiter?

Re:title is wrong

[pavon]

If they want to revoke his grandmaster status as the original poster suggested, they ought to have some proof that he cheated in those tournaments, not just this recent one in Dubai. Otherwise a ban on future play and footnote on his grandmaster status is more appropriate.

Re: title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

You assume the choice is random. It is not. Tell me that you don't have a favorite seat at the bar or a preferred seat at the dining table? It is normal to gravitate to the same familiar spot. I think he is guilty, but the choice of stall has, in my opinion, little to do with it.

Re:title is wrong

[unrtst]

While I'd agree that it seems very likely he was cheating...

The odds of him always going to the same stall ... is about 1/59049

I think that would be closer to 1/2 up to 1/10 max. Most people go to the same stall every time they go. People into competitive things often repeat the same (unrelated to the sport) actions every time for superstitious reasons. All that said, why is anyone at that level allowed to take a bathroom break every 5 moves!?!? On the second one, that'd be suspicious enough.

how would the person framing him know what stall he was going to pick

They don't have to if they just say they found it there after the fact.
Before the fact, see the above... he was likely to come back to that stall anyway.

Why would it be fairly well hidden if they were trying to set him up?

Why wouldn't it be? Hell, if I were planning on cheating, I would have got a waterproof phone and tossed it into the tank without any bag or anything. Wrapping it in TP and shoving it behind the tank isn't all that great a method.

Innocent until proven guilty should still be applied, though I'd certainly be more suspicious of him.

Re:title is wrong

[Iniamyen]

Well, people are notoriously not very good RNG machines. When asked to go to the bathroom a bunch of times in a row, I would bet most people would pick the same stall each time...

Re:title is wrong

[YouGotTobeKidding]

You are assuming that the two other stalls didnt have 'out of order' posters when he went to the can. I know that is how I would do it. See his routine....stick up a couple signs. wait till he leaves. take them down. rinse and repeat...UNTIL I wanted to 'catch' him. Maybe he has diabetes and needs to pee often. Who knows. My point is he probably is guilty...but peeps are way to fast to jump to conclusions and destroy peoples lives.

Re:title is wrong

[baegucb]

I think I hear a zebra approaching.

Re:title is wrong

[hcs_$reboot]

He has to be good at chess enough to only use the iPhone for decisive moves. Any player being (effectively) -200 ELO compared to a GM he's fighting would likely lose quickly, even with the help of a computer every 10 moves.

Re:title is wrong

[kylemonger]

Someone could have stolen his phone and then given him food adulterated with a laxative a day prior to the tournament. They then launch the analysis app and plant the phone in the restroom and wait for it to be found.

I don't believe this really happened, but we're only talking about a moderate level of cunning to frame someone like this. Professional chess players are capable of much more devious planning.

Re:title is wrong

[hcs_$reboot]

Did they really say "no calculator allowed" before the exam?

Re: title is wrong

[sharknado]

And if he's kicked out of chess, and makes a career out of baiting hooks, then he could be a...

ah nvm

A chessless hooker?

Re:title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

No it shouldn't. He is not facing criminal charges in a court of law, for god's sake.

Re:title is wrong

[sectokia]

A setup is possible. You would have to be dumb not to lock the phone. So they found it unlocked and logged in as his name.... how dumb can you be?

Re: title is wrong

[arglebargle_xiv]

If he can argue his way out of the charges, he might be a masterdebater, though.

And that's what's really going on here, he was ducking into the lav to toss one off but since masterdebation is still illegal in Dubai he had to come up with this ludicrous red herring involving an iPhone and toilet paper. Suspiciously soggy toilet paper...

Re:title is wrong

[ClickOnThis]

This is the same things muslims say. "Muslims don't commit crime. He isn't a muslim if he committed crime".

This is the same thing Christians say. "Christians don't commit crime. He isn't a Christian if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Jews say. "Jews don't commit crime. He isn't a Jew if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Hindus say. "Hindus don't commit crime. He isn't a Hindu if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Buddhists say. "Buddhists don't commit crime. He isn't a Buddhist if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Sikhs say. "Sikhs don't commit crime. He isn't a Sikh if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Humanists say. "Humanists don't commit crime. He isn't a Humanist if he committed a crime."

This is the same thing Atheists say. "Atheists don't commit crime. He isn't an Atheist if he committed a crime."

[sarcasm off]

Seriously, the "true Scotsman" defense has been invoked by many groups, not just Muslims. And I think they may be entitled to do so. Our ideals of behavior, expressed in many philosophies, are not necessarily followed consistently by all of their adherents.

Re:title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Were the stalls identical?

Maybe that stall was the only one with a western toilet and the others only had a hole in the ground?
(Those of you who have travelled know what I mean -- toilets can differ quite a lot)

Re:title is wrong

[sumdumass]

Or maybe it's for the same reasons he always turns door knobs to the right or pats his pockets whenever leaving a building or that some baseball players don't change socks until the end of season. People have all sorts of quirks that doesn't mean they are guilty. For years I used to wait until the ace of hearts came up when playing solidare before I would put any aces in the slot.

But some patterns are obvious enough that they could be used to do whatever - like accuse someone of cheating and point to the behavior as proof.

Re:title is wrong

[sumdumass]

Or, rig 3 phones in advance, wait until it looks like your guy is going to lose, drop off a phone in each stall he used, give the signal and have your guy complain. Then go about proclaiming how shocked you are and how guilty he has to be.

If i was to frame someone, that's what I would do.

Re:title is wrong

[Plumpaquatsch]

If he was setup, why would he conveniently always go to THAT stall?

Leonard: That was fast.
Beverly: Oh, the middle stall was occupied. I'll have to try again later.
Sheldon: That's totally understandable. In bladder voiding, as in real estate, it's location, location, location.

Re:title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

The World Chess Federation, FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs), awards several performance-based titles to chess players, up to and including the highly prized Grandmaster title. Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms (performance benchmarks in competitions including other titled players). Once awarded, FIDE titles are held for life, though a title may be revoked in exceptional circumstances.[1]

[1] "Handbook > FIDE Title Regulations effective from 1 July 2014" https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=174&view=article

(Quote from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_titles

This is obviously would one of those exceptional circumstances.

It is a title, and titles are used to promote the own sport. If a person is not a good sportman, then the title has to be revoked to improve the quality of that title for the rest that really deserve it.

Re:title is wrong

[Dutch Gun]

FIDE regulations actually allow for the revocation of titles in cases of cheating. They absolutely should revoke his grandmaster status. Leaving it intact, even with a footnote, is insulting to anyone who earned that title legitimately. Why leave the official title intact if he's banned for life anyhow?

Re: title is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do people always try to screw themselves and others over like this? Do you really like the idea of being assumed guilty of everything of which you are accused outside of criminal courts?

Administrative process ought to operate similarly, as currently it is used as a loop hole to nail people without much if any evidence.

Now there is plenty of evidence here, but you shouldn't be so quick to judge people where there isn't. It could be you next time.

Re:title is wrong

[Triklyn]

atheists commit crimes all the time. i think we say, "he didn't commit the crime because he was an atheist."

Re: title is wrong

[Waccoon]

Master Caster. Master Blaster's little-known cousin.

Re: title is wrong

[towermac]

Heh.

That wins the internet.

Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[timrod]

I think the real story here is that a Georgian man's cellphone became sentient and was using him as a proxy to enter chess tournaments. The phone is the real grandmaster here.

Re:Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[ShanghaiBill]

The phone is the real grandmaster here.

With the right software, all smart phones are grandmasters. Even a cheap modern cellphone is plenty good enough to beat even the best humans. This isn't 1997.

Re:Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[Anonymous Coward]

New title: Grandmaster iphone uses poor human in scheme to win chess tournament

Re:Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[AqD]

Which makes chess competition rather pointless. It's like a bunch of retarded kids playing math games.

Re: Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[Anonymous Coward]

The same could be said of any sport. I guarantee you could build a machine to kick field goals better or pitch a baseball better than any person could. Does that mean all sports players are like quadriplegics rolling around playing sports?

Just because a computer can do something better doesn't mean it is pointless for people to challenge each other to such tasks.

Re: Shouldn't the title be reversed?

[Jack Griffin]

The same could be said of any sport. I guarantee you could build a machine to kick field goals better or pitch a baseball better than any person could.

Kicking a field goal is not a sport, nor is pitching a ball. It's all the other stuff that a computer can't do that makes it interesting.

...didn't do nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

"When confronted, Nigalidze denied he owned the device..."

...didn't do nothing!

Re:...didn't do nothing!

[Adriax]

First thing that sprang to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

Re:...didn't do nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

He is a grand master; he should've said 'wow Thanks.. wondering how it ended up there' :)

Toilet Partitions

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently he opted for the logical partition, rather than the extended. Wise move.

Re:Toilet Partitions

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently he opted for the logical partition, rather than the extended. Wise move.

this was +10000funny. Just laughed a little bit too much at work desk.

Re:Toilet Partitions

[Anonymous Coward]

i don't get it :(

Hire this man, right now!

[Jawnn]

"He's got the kind of moral fiber we're always looking for, that will to win."

- [insert name], CEO
[insert big business name], Inc.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[iluvcapra]

Worked for Kirk when he encountered the Kobayashi Maru.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[Anonymous Coward]

NO, Kirk saw the situation, and modified the sequence of events to even the outcome..
This guy was just straight caught, and lied when exposed. Burn.

I wonder if he will use the same arguments, some Indian individuals had made in the near past about, "because of their environment, they have the right to lie, cheat, steal, and deceive inorder to get ahead."
I cry BS.. there is NO reason to be deceptive, and obsure tward your fellow man.. If there is an issue work it out through the engagement of the HIGHER learning and the usage of the art of communication..

my 2c

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[Anonymous Coward]

only in fantasy world

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[Dutch Gun]

Chess is not a no-win scenario.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[gstoddart]

It is when I play it. ;-)

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[sideslash]

I cry BS.. there is NO reason to be deceptive, and obsure tward your fellow man.. If there is an issue work it out through the engagement of the HIGHER learning and the usage of the art of communication..

my 2c

Scenario: you are captured by an oppressive, murderous dictatorship and being interrogated as to whether you've ever been in communication with the pro-freedom resistance movement. Your choices are to lie convincingly or be taken out and shot.

Generalizations are always* wrong.

* Almost always.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[iluvcapra]

Your choices are to lie convincingly or be taken out and shot.

This is often how the hypothetical is phrased but it almost never works out in just this way. The usual options are:

Door number 1: Tell the truth and accept those consequences.

Door number 2: Deny your involvement. The people arresting you usually have physical evidence of your association though, so in order to prove your loyalty they demand you become an informer and you have to turn over your friends. That's what's required to make your lie "convincing." Then when the revolution comes you're tarred a "collaborator."

Lying will save your hide but often at the cost of your cause. The "oppressive, murderous dictatorships" we have experience with won't settle for someone who's merely innocent, regardless of wether that innocence is the truth or a lie.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[sideslash]

This is often how the hypothetical is phrased but it almost never works out in just this way. The usual options are [snip]

Wow, you've gone through this experience enough times to make statistically meaningful claims about it. Can I shake your hand? How are you even still alive?

Or to put it another way -- Says Who?

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[iluvcapra]

Or to put it another way -- Says Who?

Hannah Arendt, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Arthur Miller... read something, kiddo.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[sideslash]

I've read Solzhenitsyn, though not the other two. I'm flattered that you call me a "kiddo". :p Can you provide a quote where one of these authors says that the authorities will "almost never" lack physical evidence against a detainee? I don't disagree with some of the principles of what you're saying, just calling out exaggerations and unsupportable generalizations.

Re:Hire this man, right now!

[iluvcapra]

I dunno, the original claim was pretty general in nature and equally unsupported.

The actual "evidence" question is actually sorta beside the point. Arendt specifically in Origins of Totalitarianism discussed how the Nazis would systematically treat actual criminals better than political prisoners or random arrestees, because in the end the message they were trying to send was that they could destroy you whenever they wanted, and it didn't really matter if you'd done anything wrong. The only way you could be safe is by enthusiastically cooperating, and even then it was never really enough.

At this point we would make the distinction between a merely authoritarian regime and a more "bloodthirsty" thing. The first would be like, say, Morsi's Egypt or Iran, where they arrest people for opposing the state. The latter would be more like North Korea, where they arrest people at random wether they oppose the state or not, because the terror is an end itself.

Miller was writing about the Hollywood Blacklist in the end, but it's an important example of authoritarianism of the first kind. Joe McCarthy knew that Dalton Trumbo and Clifford Odets hung out, that they were fellow travelers with more committed Communists and even soviet agents, he had all the evidence he needed to prove association. But the logic of the 50s Red Scare wasn't driven by the desire to find Communist agents as much as it was to get "suspect" individuals to turn over their friends, so that even though there was no evidence of actual wrongdoing, there were simply so many people named that spectre of conspiracy took on a life all its own, and the spectacle of people evading the "justice" of HUAAC or the senate, of "hiding" their friends and associations, would cast disrepute on leftism in general. They arrest you to make you look guilty, and then they make you turn States Evidence to buy back your respectability.

How is the phone model relevant?

[danbob999]

Slashvertisment?

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[DigitAl56K]

Did you read the first sentence of the summary? Or that the game was being analyzed in an iPhone app?

Re: How is the phone model relevant?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Siri, what move should I make next?"

Re: How is the phone model relevant?

[Anonymous Coward]

queen to bishop 4

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[danbob999]

Who cares that it was an iPhone instead of any other brand of smartphone? If a hacker break into the NSA, will you care about the brand of his PC?

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[Anonymous Coward]

if it is a Mac we would probably know, and if it was an older one, we may know that they used the blue one.

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[danbob999]

Should they also include in the summary that the chess player used electricity from company XYZ to charge his phone? Or an Internet connection from provider ABC? Why is the phone model used anymore relevant?

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the last time something like this made the news an android phone was used. At the time it was suggested there be a limit on bathroom breaks that could be taken.

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because his rise in chess matched with the release of the first iPhone, the implication being that he recognized that it could be used as a chess computer (more likely a link to a chess computer back then) and started using it then.

It matters because if you said "found a smart phone behind the toilet" and "started in 2007" plenty of people would say, "wait, the only smart phones in 2007 were iPhones. Why not just say iPhone then?"

Re:How is the phone model relevant?

[danbob999]

In 2007 there were many smartphones. The iPhone wasn't one of them, being unable to install applications. Sure it could browse the web, handle contacts and calendar, play music, but so did every feature phone in 2007.

Solution to electronic cheaters

[anagama]

Chess tourneys should be played by naked participants in a large faraday cage.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[gstoddart]

*shudder* While I'm sure this is someone's idea of where rule #34 should apply ... a bunch of nekkid/pasty/flabby chess players is a terrible idea.

Just ... no. Stop it.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[DigitAl56K]

This isn't as unusual as it sounds, Deep Blue always plays this way!

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do the rules permit so many bathroom breaks? A few simple rule changes, like no electronics at the table, and no bathroom breaks once the game starts, might solve a good bit of this problem.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[pla]

*shudder* While I'm sure this is someone's idea of where rule #34 should apply ... a bunch of nekkid/pasty/flabby chess players is a terrible idea.

And almost overnight, the world of chess would get obliterated by the Muzychuk sisters, as every opponent (except each other) conceded the match "and then literally run to the toilet".

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

Co-ed naked chess. I am not sure that ends well for the players or spectators.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[cfalcon]

MOD UP, Jesus. This is the day I don't have mod points?

Of course it's great that they caught this guy, and obviously they'll have to investigate whether he's really a grandmaster at all, in addition to all the other penalties. But the point that what he did was essentially cyborg (in a competition where that isn't allowed) is a good one. What would a chess league where everyone does this look like? Gary Kasparov may have eventually lost to IBM, some cutting edge hardware, and a huge team of software engineers and chess experts doing everything they could to beat him, but what would Gary Kasparov plus extra analytical hardware/software look like?

That's what I'm interested in. Magnus Carlsen plus a supercomputer versus just Deep Blue wouldn't resolve in favor of the raw silicon. "Cyborg" league gogo!

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

Cyborg chess tournaments actually have been around for about 20 years.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

I had to play a nearly 7-hour chess game once with a diarrhea. Had to run to the toilet not after every move, but after every other. I'd have given up if I was told to sit at the table. Or worse.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

So plan breaks at some interval that make sense for the tournament (45 to 60 mins?). If you can't sit and play for an hour, you are either too sick to play, or cheating.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[cfalcon]

Whoa, cool! And Kasparov even spawned it? This has been educational, thanks!

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

If two naked chess players played in faraday cage and no one saw them, did they still played?

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[cfalcon]

I'm not really interested in whether the players have an amazing bladder capacity or not. Bathroom breaks are fine. Probably want to ensure that there's no cheat methods in those bathrooms, though.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[sexconker]

No leaving the table once the game starts.
If you can't handle that, you're not fit to play.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

No. They played. or they did still play possibly. Not still played.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[HiThereImBob]

Chess tourneys should be played by naked participants in a large faraday cage.

or we could have the TSA screen them http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

And still patted down by TSA agents.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/04/14/200257/denver-tsa-screeners-manipulated-system-in-order-to-grope-mens-genitals

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

While we are at it, we should legalize all steroids and enhancing drugs at the Olympics. I would love to see some super-humans in a wrestling match or running around a track!

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[NeoMorphy]

Chess players, especially at the higher level, are in much better shape than you would think.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[NeoMorphy]

That can be over 4 hours. The second game is after lunch, I'm going to need at least one potty break.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[sexconker]

Over 4 hours for a game isn't unreasonable. Between games you can do whatever you want, but once you sit down to one you shouldn't be able to leave unmonitored.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm. Beg to differ:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-seven-sexiest-female-chess-players
and that thread missed on Anna Muzychuck. ;)

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[rahulov]

Correspondence chess also fails in this category. Altough it is illegal to use compuer assistance accoring to FIDE rules (applies same rules as over the board chess), nobody follow this and everybody are using computer and is considered normal practice.

Re:Solution to electronic cheaters

[Anonymous Coward]

"what would Gary Kasparov plus extra analytical hardware/software look like"

I've asked my two chess obsessed friends this exact same questions. The answer is that it has been tried (GM + computer vs computer) and the answer is... defer to the computer for every move, except possibly the opening move, which is generally chosen at random by most modern chess programs in computer vs computer tournaments.

Who cares about this guy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to know what chess program could beat grand masters at chess that does not require a super computer like deep blue.

Re: Who cares about this guy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Any smartphone will... look for the Stockfish engine in the app store of your convenience

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I don't know what the state of the art is(and it would presumably vary a bit depending on whether the phone was running the analysis or just acting as a nice UI for a remote server); but it's possible that he was using the computer to augment competent-or-better human play; but not replace it entirely.

Chess has a large enough search space that full scale brute force and ignorance is quite a challenge; but more constrained states(like the actual state of the board partway through a game, or after the use of one of the standard openings) have correspondingly smaller search spaces. A computer program could also assist in checking proposed moves for 'something dumb you would usually recognize; but sometimes miss under stress'. Again, by being one move 'in the future'(since you are just testing, without commitment) you reduce the difficulty of the analyzing the game; but get potentially useful error checking.

I don't know how thoroughly, in terms of human level of play, the game has been beaten with various amounts of hardware at your disposal; but it is definitely beaten enough that a good player with access to a machine is likely to play a better game, possibly a markedly better one.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[barfy]

There are three main programs that beat grandmasters on rather modest computers. Stockfish (an open source project), Komodo (A private original product that largely uses more correct algorithms and internal scoring), and Houdini (a project built by largely extending Rybka). There was a large increase in strength a few years back over the standard programs that had to do with much improved "search" and better pruning. Rybka took those ideas along with improved board scoring and led the field with an entire class difference in strength (about 300 elo increase). The programs since have raised that by about another 150 or so points. It may be that we have reached near apex with these techniques. And it may be hard to get more "strength" but there are surely points to be discovered. I suspect it may be in exception handling. There is a big resistance to to that, the argument being that exceptions just mean you have yet to understand enough. I'm not entirely convinced. There is also a movement to be exploitive. Magnus Carlsen is the top player in the world, and he uses exploitive technique a lot. He seeks positions unmemorized to allow rawer talent to shine and is really successful with that technique. And many of the top players do this more and more. There is little of this in computer play.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[Hussman32]

Others have already posted, but from a pragmatic standpoint if you could select 2 or 3 candidate moves and do a quick check on them to see where they would go, it would be a much greater advantage than doing the analysis in your head.

The guy should get the hammer...

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[itzly]

I don't know what the state of the art is(and it would presumably vary a bit depending on whether the phone was running the analysis or just acting as a nice UI for a remote server)

In 2009, a version of Pocket Fritz ran on a 528 MHz HTC Touch phone, and won the Copa Mercosur tournament in Argentina with 9 wins and 1 draw, and a performance rating of 2898. That's good enough to win most tournaments, and that was more than 5 years ago.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[gstoddart]

but it's possible that he was using the computer to augment competent-or-better human play; but not replace it entirely

Are you suggesting that somehow makes it OK?

Because my take would be to strip him of titles, and bar him from future competition.

Saying he only cheated a little is meaningless.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Oh no, his behavior was a flagrant violation of the rules; and they can selectively destroy his ability to interact with 8x8 black and white tiled surfaces using a cold war mycotoxin for all I care.

If anything, my intended thesis(that even a relatively weak or computationally limited computer could be a substantial aid to a reasonably skilled human) suggests that even modest machine assistance is quite dramatic cheating in terms of allowing you to beat people above your skill level. Being reasonably good just serves to make the computer's job markedly easier in this case, which then allows it to make your job markedly easier, which defeats the point of involving humans at all.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[eulernet]

In fact, you are wrong on several points.

First, the strongest program is Stockfish 6. It's still improving at a rate of 50 ELO points at each version, and is already is above Komodo:
http://www.inwoba.de/
You can see that Stockfish 6 is already 200 points above Rybka.
Stockfish is improved by a community and by using a distributed network: http://tests.stockfishchess.or...
The current version is already stronger than SF6.

Secondly, Rybka has been demonstrated as a copy of Fruit (an open-source chess engine), with only bit-tables added.
There has been an incredibly detailed decompilation about Rybka http://www.chessvibes.com/plaa... which leads no doubt about this.
The only difference in recent versions of Rybka is that the evaluation function has been improved by GM Larry Kaufman, but he works now on Komodo.

I have no doubt that Stockfish is stronger than Carlsen, except that it does not use a creative style.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[hcs_$reboot]

Where was that, already?

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[NeoMorphy]

There isn't a smartphone that can take on a GM, especially under those conditions. If he used it for every move, he would probably lose on time, you get close to 3 minutes a move(40 moves/90 minutes, 30 seconds added per move, then 30 minutes sudden death). He would probably use most of that time round-trip, his opponent would get serious time odds against a smartphone! It's not going to come up with anything amazing in 30 seconds.

But, you could setup a powerful server at home to run a chess program like Houdini and access it remotely with your smart phone. You would still have to carefully pick when you used it and memorize multiple lines.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, you are wrong on several points.

On which points?

First, the strongest program is Stockfish 6. It's still improving at a rate of 50 ELO points at each version, and is already is above Komodo:
http://www.inwoba.de/
You can see that Stockfish 6 is already 200 points above Rybka.
Stockfish is improved by a community and by using a distributed network: http://tests.stockfishchess.or...
The current version is already stronger than SF6.

OP gave a brief intro and history of 3 programs. He said that Rybka took an early lead in strength, but then others have since improved on that. Your point about SF6 being currently stronger than Rybka may be true, but it doesn't invalidate anything that the OP said.

Secondly, Rybka has been demonstrated as a copy of Fruit (an open-source chess engine), with only bit-tables added.
There has been an incredibly detailed decompilation about Rybka http://www.chessvibes.com/plaa... which leads no doubt about this.
The only difference in recent versions of Rybka is that the evaluation function has been improved by GM Larry Kaufman, but he works now on Komodo.

I have no doubt that Stockfish is stronger than Carlsen, except that it does not use a creative style.

OP made no claim about the source of Rybka. He said Houdini was built on Rybka.

Your comments are informative and add value to the conversation, but your opening statement saying the OP was wrong on several points doesn't seem to have any merit.

Re:Who cares about this guy?

[Anonymous Coward]

(In retrospect, I clarified that poorly: second try.

If you know effectively nothing about chess, computer assistance will allow you to play more or less exactly at the skill level of the chess engine assisting you. If you throw enough hardware at the problem, it's my understanding that this is actually pretty high(and a cellphone could establish a network connection to 'enough hardware' so the possibility can't be excluded that 'a cellphone' is actually '25,000 EC2 instances purchased for a few hours on tournament day'); but you'll just be the meat UI for the computer, assuming you are good at checking it without getting caught.

If you are good to excellent at chess, computer assistance is potentially synergistic; allowing you to play better than either you or the computer alone could. A good human player can play an opener, nominate some possible moves, and otherwise do things that vastly cut down on the set of possibilities the computer needs to attack. The computer may not be powerful enough to attack the possibilities of a full chess game; but is tireless and won't make stupid mistakes while intensely analyzing smaller chunks fed to it by the human player. The resultant hybrid should have the strategic acumen that makes humans so good(relative to their pitiful abilities in brute-force analysis or DB lookup) at dealing with very, very, large sets of possible moves by ignoring the dumb ones; but also have markedly better mental stamina than an unaided human, and a much greater immunity to momentary blindness and tactical blunders under stress.

For the purposes of the tournament, it is more than sufficient that his actions were against the rules. Games are defined by rules(which can be changed, by shifts in consensus; but are Final at any given time for the purposes of competition); so you need appeal to no higher authority(though, unlike a hypothetical rule against wearing flip-flops during competition, this rule also has good reasons behind it, not just convention); but it is also very likely that, even if his assistant program were relatively weak, it improved his performance considerably, which makes his transgression more serious in terms of distorting play and ranking; unlike a hypothetical amateur with a weak assistant program, who would play a weak game.)

He Did That Shtick For 7 Years?

[Guy From V]

All they have to do is remember how many times a tourney he has really bad IBS and they'll have the answer to whether he cheated a lot or not.

Re:He Did That Shtick For 7 Years?

[Jack Griffin]

This is the part I don't get. Did he go to the toilet in-between every move, in every game he played? And no-one noticed until now?

Professional chess players are so bling...

[Snufu]

they use iPhones for toilet paper.

Re:Professional chess players are so bling...

[wile_e_wonka]

Sorry I have no mod points, but this is funny.

Re:Professional chess players are so bling...

[NeoMorphy]

That was the most hilarious post I have seen here. Well played!

Re:Professional chess players are so bling...

[Plumpaquatsch]

they use iPhones for toilet paper.

And they certainly wouldn't use Android even for that.

a phone

[Paradise Pete]

When I was actively playing tournament chess the computer world champion program was about as good as a mid-level club player. It ran on a big mainframe at Northwestern University. Most strong players were sure that a computer would never be able to beat a human grandmaster. And now a damn phone wrapped in toilet paper can do it.

Re:a phone

[Comrade Ogilvy]

LOL. My serious counterargument is to be genuinely as good as a human player, the computer program should qualify for the big name tournament by entering lesser many tournaments and racking up a game history that could be studied for weaknesses. IMHO Kasparov played on a not level field, because his long career was open to study and his computer opponent's was not.

Re:a phone

[Anonymous Coward]

And now a damn phone wrapped in toilet paper can do it.

Back in the day, a phone could be used to cheat too. The hard part would just be concealing it behind a toilet.

Re:a phone

[itzly]

IMHO Kasparov played on a not level field, because his long career was open to study and his computer opponent's was not.

On the other hand, the computer program didn't study or understand his long career either. At best, the programmers could tune the evaluation algorithm a little bit towards the type of positions that Kasparov would like play, but that's hard to do, and there's no guarantee he would play in his usual style against a computer, especially because his usual style isn't very good against computers.

Re:a phone

[Little_Professor]

The iphone didn't actually run the chess programme. Most grandmasters could easily trounce an iPhone app - you need a fairly powerful computer to run software capable of beating a champ. This guy used his iPhone to connect to the internet so the programme didn't have to actually be running on the phone itself

Re:a phone

[itzly]

This guy used his iPhone to connect to the internet

It was probably connected to an Android phone in his car.

Re:a phone

[wonkey_monkey]

Well, it was a close run thing. I don't know whether Deep Blue analysed any of Kasparov's games or not, but I'd be surprised if a computer now couldn't beat any player even if that player's game were excluded from any analysis.

In fact, is past game analysis even a requirement for a chess computer to beat top human players these days?

Re:a phone

[itzly]

In fact, is past game analysis even a requirement for a chess computer to beat top human players these days?

No, strong computer programs can easily beat any top human player. That's why you don't see any more straight up computer-human matches. One of the more recent encounters was between Stockfish and GM Nakamura over 4 games. But in two of the games, Nakamura was allowed assistance of an older chess program on a laptop, while in the other two games, he had an extra pawn. The match was won 3-1 by the Stockfish program. The computer played all of its games without an opening book, and without endgame tablebases.

http://www.chess.com/news/stoc...

Re:a phone

[cfalcon]

I mean, lets be real here. IBM had meetings, and emails, and long engineering nights for Deep Blue to do that. They studied the HELL out him. He played a committee.

Re:a phone

[drkstr1]

Don't just make stuff up please. There are plenty of comments here talking about the various engines behind chess AI, all available in the app/play store. Stockfish seems to be the front runner. Cheers!

Re:a phone

[itzly]

In the decades before the match, no amount of meetings, emails and long engineering nights managed to build a computer program that could beat the world champion at chess.

Re:a phone

[amicusNYCL]

But in two of the games, Nakamura was allowed assistance of an older chess program on a laptop

That hardly seems fair.

"Grandmaster, we're going to pit you against the best computer program to ever play chess, it represents the combined efforts of decades of engineering. But, don't worry, here's a 386SX with Chessmaster 3000 to help you out."

Re:a phone

[NeoMorphy]

They hired GM Joel Benjamin and other GMs as a consultant. He studied Kasparov's career for Deep Blue. He could play games against it and help tune it against Kasparov.

I'm willing to bet that they took all of his openings and had Deep Blue put some serious time looking for potential novelties(maybe months) and when they were found, a team of GMs would decide if it was good enough to put into Deep Blue's opening database. They basically nullified Kasparov's repertoire. Studying your opponents games before a match is standard OP. Joel and IBM got to prepare against Kasparov, but he did not get to prepare against Deep Blue.

Re:a phone

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you don't need any particual hardware to beat GMs.
A few hundred MHz CPU is all you need. The advances in computer chess is NOT because of hardware improvements, but because of algorithm improvements.

Six years ago they let a cell phone play in a cat 7 GrandMaster tournament. It crushed them all (pretty much.).
A 624MHz ARMv4 CPU got a 2938 performance rating (which is higher than strongest human ever). And there have been leaps in chess engine algorithms since then (and iPhones today have like an ARM53 with Several 1.6GHz 64-bit cores?)

Re:a phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Not anymore. On a modern CPU like in the iPhone Stockfish is far beyond world champion level.

Re:a phone

[Comrade Ogilvy]

Which is indeed a great accomplishment. But whether it is the equivalent of being as good a chess player as the best human is a choice of definitions. Normal humans do not get to claim to be the best player of game X, without grinding through the ladders and/or tournaments. That is a very real cost with potential significant long term downsides the computer player skipped over.

Computers matter in chess

[l2718]

The progress of computers in both power and miniaturization has had a strong effect on chess. The biggest effect is the end of the practice of adjourning tournament games. It used to be that games which ran long would be adjourned to the next day, but once overnight analysis by computer became a serious possibility (displacing overnight analysis by each player), the practice became pointless and now tournament games run continuously until they end.

The challenge of miniature devices both for chess analysis and for communication with analysis occurring elsewhere can't be so easily met by changing the rules, but diligent policing will help. Stricter no-cellphones-in-the-playing area policies would have to be implemented.

Re:Computers matter in chess

[Tom]

The challenge of miniature devices both for chess analysis and for communication with analysis occurring elsewhere can't be so easily met

Nonsense. The time of naked chess has finally arrived.

You know, just like the TSA will soon make naked flying mandatory.

Want to be a grandmaster?

[Phics]

There's an app for that.

The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

How did Petrosian know Nigalidze would always visit the same toilet partition?

Re:The real question

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

His Nexus 6 wrapped in toilet paper was hidden in the adjacent stall...

Re:The real question

[X0563511]

... and why is that unusual? I use the same one at work. There's 3 just in that room and there's several rooms to chose from.

Re:The real question

[gmhowell]

His Nexus 6 wrapped in toilet paper was hidden in the adjacent stall...

Hopefully a Roy, not a Leon.

Eastern Europeans cheating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Clutch the pearls.

This dimwit became a grandmaster?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

How can such a simpleton become the grandmaster? It belies imagination. Everyone knows the way to cheat at that level of chess tournament is to have a team analyze the game in the audience and have them send color coded yogurt to the player in the middle.

Re:This dimwit became a grandmaster?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Looks there was an Indian boy who was using a blue tooth device sewn into his cap and an accomplice. It went undetected for a long time, and he qualified for the nationals as the top seed. Even he shows more "thinking" than "run-to-the-toilet-and-look-at-iPhone" grand master.

Re:This dimwit became a grandmaster?

[wonkey_monkey]

I seem to recall a pair of young siblings who (in league with their dad, I think) had a few people fooled with their telepathy act, which turned out to involve high pitched sounds which adults couldn't hear.

Re:This dimwit became a grandmaster?

[WarlockD]

Looks there was an Indian boy who was using a blue tooth device sewn into his cap and an accomplice. It went undetected for a long time, and he qualified for the nationals as the top seed. Even he shows more "thinking" than "run-to-the-toilet-and-look-at-iPhone" grand master.

I remember hearing that story a few years back. Funny enough it was the awful pun that made it stick with me ( Indian Chess Player Plays With Deep Blue...Tooth - Techdirt:P) Here is the wiki as I loath Techdirt for their puns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umakant_Sharma

Hey! It looks like his Chess ban is up next year, damn 10 years makes me feel old:P

The living Tigran Petrosian

[pmarinus]

Note: The former World Chess Champion Tigran V. Petrosian died in 1984.
The comments were made by grandmaster Tigran L. Petrosian, born 1984 and named after the champion.

Re:The living Tigran Petrosian

[Verdatum]

Whoa, no pressure on that kid...

Re:The living Tigran Petrosian

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for clearing that up.
The great world champion died before cell phones were used.

He was one of the greatest defensive players, very hard to beat. His subtle positional moves often bewildered his opponents. Downside, he made a lot of draws.

Re:The living Tigran Petrosian

[colinwb]

All true, with the proviso that draws can be very interesting. For example Reshevsky v Petrosian - Zurich 1953 in which, to quote from two of the comments: "24...Re6!! a wonderful example of an exchange sacrifice to set up an impenetrable blockade", and: "Beautiful draws don't get publicized nearly half or even a quarter as much as beautiful wins"

Tells you what we already know

[JohnStock]

about iDevice users

That's not strange at all

[steve79]

Since when did running to the bathroom after every opponent's chess move get considered unusual behavior?

Re:That's not strange at all

[Minwee]

After about eight years someone is bound to get suspicious.

Partition protocol

[wonkey_monkey]

I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange

Why would that be strange? I'd think it was stranger if he visited a different one each time, pausing to consider his options as he enters. "Now, I tried number 3 last time, but I reckon number 1 could be a winner..."

Re:Partition protocol

[DougOtto]

This. I always try for home field advantage.

Re:Partition protocol

[The-Ixian]

Agreed! I will sometimes go to another floor if my "regular" stall is not available...

"I noticed that he would always visit the same

[Anonymous Coward]

toilet partition".

And how was it that you came to notice that?

Professional chess: hard to make a living

[jphamlore]

There are at least 6 players by my calculations who wound up tied for the top score at this event and therefore split the top prize fund money, approximately $5,000 USD apiece. That is not an easy living if one is trying to survive on chess alone. This probably explains why some cheating at chess is so blatant, because one has to finish at the very top to get any money at all let alone turn a profit. Otherwise a rational cheater would do it sparingly and possibly versus lower level opponents.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[geekmux]

There are at least 6 players by my calculations who wound up tied for the top score at this event and therefore split the top prize fund money, approximately $5,000 USD apiece. That is not an easy living if one is trying to survive on chess alone. This probably explains why some cheating at chess is so blatant, because one has to finish at the very top to get any money at all let alone turn a profit. Otherwise a rational cheater would do it sparingly and possibly versus lower level opponents.

If the monetary award is so small, one would have to question why someone would spend the time to learn the game and spend countless hours in tournaments in order to cheat their way to a pathetic prize.

I don't know what to call for here; more integrity or less stupidity.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[PRMan]

Exactly. I am VERY good at Scrabble and with a lot of work I might be able to be world champion. But for what? Why bother? It's not worth anything.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[Anonymous Coward]

If the monetary award is so small, one would have to question why someone would spend the time to learn the game and spend countless hours in tournaments in order to cheat their way to a pathetic prize.

I suspect that most cheaters (whether you're talking about chess, college classes, or other competitions) aren't the result of long-range planning; rather, pretty much all contestants undertake the game/sport/activity with the original intention of getting very good at it. Then the stress starts to pile up: maybe they lack the talent that the next guy has; maybe they lack the commitment to put in the hours; and maybe there are real-world consequences (to career, money, etc.) for not doing well enough. Some people will respond by taking their lumps ("ugh, failed that test, better study harder") or finding something else to do ("hmm... maybe I'm not cut out to play football"). Others reach for a cheat to dig themselves out of an immediate hole, and then (once that crutch has been used) they find it easier to cheat again and again, progressively getting better at this new "game".

Given the clumsiness of his method, I would bet the guy is relatively new to cheating. It's possible he became grandmaster entirely on his own talent.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[Anonymous Coward]

You might find it difficult to support yourself completely on Scrabble prize money, but it'd be almost possible, if you lived frugally, and if the prize money was slightly more consistent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Scrabble_Championship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Scrabble_Championship

Considering most people have hobbies that only cost them money the better they get at it, nothing worth complaining over.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[Anonymous Coward]

Possibly for the prestige more than the money.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[FunkSoulBrother]

Not really. Scrabble Players buy in to tournaments like poker players. There is no 'house' rake, but oftentimes money is taken out for things like renting a hotel ballroom to or catering the event.

Add on top of that the amount of variance in Scrabble, and you're really not likely to make a consistent living unless you are *very* frugal.

I mean there is Nigel Richards, who undoubtedly the best player the game has ever seen, and he's 'only' won $200,000 since 1997: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

If we got some sponsorship money in the game, then sure, but not until then -- we're just trading money around in the community.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[FunkSoulBrother]

You should come to some tournaments! We're a small community but always in need of new blood.

http://www.cross-tables.com/

You won't make a living off of it, but it's a satisfying hobby with good people, and you don't have to put in world champion hours to win money and have fun.

Re:Professional chess: hard to make a living

[Jack Griffin]

Doesn't a world championship of scrabble require a fair bit of luck? If you pickup all vowels, the even more vowels, no amount of skill or training will get you out of that.

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Georgia chess checkmates you!

Helps chess as a sport

[SuperKendall]

Chess tourneys should be played by naked participants in a large faraday cage.

If you think about it that really helps the sport appeal to younger people - instead of advertising a "chess tournament" (what is this, the middle ages)? you get to advertise the event as a STEEL CAGE CHESS MATCH TO THE FINISH!

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[anagama]

Don't forget the naked part and the chance for spectators to pawn over competitors.

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[SuperKendall]

Have you seen what most chess players look like? Left out the "naked' on purpose.

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[H0p313ss]

Have you seen what most chess players look like? Left out the "naked' on purpose.

I like big chess and I cannot lie.

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[JustSomeProgrammer]

Yeah but the ads will only feature the beautiful announcer women (who may not even be at the tournament)

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[hippo]

Faraday cages are not made of steel you insensitive clod.

Re:Helps chess as a sport

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I would really like to play on any Open tournament if some of this women would be playing in such conditions :)

http://egotvonline.com/2010/10/20/the-seven-sexiest-female-chess-players/

http://ajedrez.chess.com/forum/view/general/smart-and-sexy---top-10-prettiest-female-chess-players

http://chesscraft.blogspot.com.es/2011/09/14-most-beautiful-and-hottest-chess.html

But if you think there they have just choosen the better looking female players, let's look at the top 16 in the last Women World Chess Championship held just one week ago:

"The Women's World Championship begins" http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-women-s-world-championship-begins
"Closing ceremony: Mariya Muzychuk is crowned" http://en.chessbase.com/post/closing-ceremony-mariya-muzychuk-is-crowned

I am not going to comment about handsome men chessplayers, it's not my play field :)

Useing the same stall is now braking the rules?

[Anonymous Coward]

I call the mythbusters to the stand to backup my part of liking to use Stall Number 1 as it has the least a mount of least amount of bacteria.

If it were me...

[toonces33]

I would have taken the phone and then sat back and watched the guy fall to pieces. Only after the match was complete (and the guy presumably lost) would I have busted him.

Re:If it were me...

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Then at the end of the match, he accuses you of bringing a phone in to cheat. After all, it has half the match in its cache memory.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my friend played this guy a few years ago, and he's been toileting every turn from years ago. My friend had great satisfaction this guy got busted because my friend accused him of cheating back in the day, but the officials did nothing.

Re:If it were me...

[pellik]

This sort of happened a few years ago with a tournament in Croatia with Borislav Ivanov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borislav_Ivanov). The cheating player had his friends analyzing the games that were broadcast live. They suspected him of cheating and disabled the broadcast, and he promptly fell apart. Interestingly, his wiki page makes it look like he may be innocent but statistical analysis is very clear (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr0J8SPENjM).

Literally ran to the toilet

[Dutch Gun]

Since 'literally' literally no longer means literally, I'm wondering if they guy actually jumped up out of his seat and sprinted to the toilets after each move. Maybe it wouldn't have been so suspicious-looking if he just casually walked to the facilities.

Re:Literally ran to the toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

He had to literally run. Gotta sell it or people won't believe you're experiencing gastric distress.

Re:Literally ran to the toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

Literally he figuratively had to go to the toilet.

So this guy played for 8 years like this

[Anonymous Coward]

And no one noticed he had to poop every move?

Under a microscope?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck no, you got cheating ONCE in this type of thing, therefore you did it EVERY time. If Fucking Pete Rose can't be in the hall of fame, you're not a grandmaster.

Why am I so angry? I don't even like chess.

There is no way

[wisnoskij]

That he got away with visiting the toilet between every single move up to now.

Re:There is no way

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not a complete patzer; he can play chess. But it seems he can't compete at this level without help.

Re:There is no way

[Anonymous Coward]

Right! And he didn't set a screen lock on the device!? Please.

Re:There is no way

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd think there'd be less noticeable ways to cheat like a custom BlueTooth vibrator/electric shock in a shoe or something. It would require an accomplice, but that shouldn't be too difficult (it could involve texting chess moves to a server and response coming back and triggering the shoe).

Re:computer program could assist

[TaoPhoenix]

I guess I am getting old - the relentless Slashdot decline is finally getting to me. Slashdot couldn't be bothered to report (much?) on *either* of the chess world championships (the Women's just finished), but they pick up the story about cheating ... and it's not filed under "Games ... Classic Games", but ... wait for it ... filed under iPhone. And then only 20% of the comments are intelligent, and the rest are silly snarks about what is basically the biggest issue facing chess today. You'd think with the brainpower this site commands when we're not exhausted fighting Beta, there could be a couple of cool chess discussions...

So I'll reply to you because your guesses are very close.

Unlike that Romanian guy from last year, this guy is not a putz. He is well into the high master range, leaving the first question "exactly how high without help". So let's just suppose at least low 2400's. As well as checking proposed moves, there is a huge component of "energy saving" where you just let the program "blundercheck" so that in a nightmare mess on the board, just tell the program "look five moves ahead and don't drop a piece or get crushed". So while your opponent is doing things to his hair trying to work out the interlocked chains of variations, the computer just says "hey, take a serious look at this other rook move - looks like it holds everything together for your requested five moves or more". So you play that, and a couple of the resulting forced followup moves, and then four moves later you're fresh and finally, out of exhaustion, your opponent blunders and you just mop up.

And it's getting so bad that AC's are wondering about bathroom rules ... just do the math on 175 bodies in a room for over four hours. You can't easily at all start a regulated tracking system on that!

Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[nehumanuscrede]

Cheating is rampant in all things anymore.

He's a grandmaster until he gets caught cheating. Until then, he dominates the field and the pressure is on for others to cheat as well just so the playing field is level. ( The Tour De France comes to mind, as does US Baseball's Steroid issue, Online Gaming / Gambling, Standardized Tests ( like the SAT, ACT, Bar exam, etc. etc. )

It makes it impossible to compete unless you're bending the rules also.

Makes you wonder of all the "winners" out there, what percentage of them made it to that pedestal legitimately ?

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

No.
He is looking at a 15-year ban.
Even if he was not banned, he would no longer get invitations to tournaments. People would refuse to play tournaments where he was present.

I have no idea if he is going to lose his GM title or not, but it does not really matter - he won't be able to use it for anything.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Anonymous Coward]

And why does anyone even care whether Complete Stranger X is better at some game or sport than Complete Stranger Y?

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[thegarbz]

what percentage of them made it to that pedestal legitimately ?

Define legitimate. Is a performance enhancing drug legitimate? Is drinking water or consuming sugar? We have placed arbitrary restrictions on technology and biology.

I for one think we should be leveling the playing field. There's no doubt that getting someone else to answer for you (as in this case) is cheating. However I would argue that all performance enhancing drugs should be legal. We should be finding out what the upper limits of the human body are, and we should allow any means of doing so. Likewise to technological assistance; those swimsuits that are now banned at international tournaments, give them to all competitors, better yet give them all different ones each time so we can progress technology too.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[gangien]

Cheating is rampant in all things anymore.

I really doubt cheating is a new phenomenon. I'm sure many so-called greats of all sorts, were cheaters.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[amicusNYCL]

Cheating is rampant in all things anymore.

Except in grammar classes.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Eloking]

Cheating is rampant in all things anymore.

He's a grandmaster until he gets caught cheating. Until then, he dominates the field and the pressure is on for others to cheat as well just so the playing field is level. ( The Tour De France comes to mind, as does US Baseball's Steroid issue, Online Gaming / Gambling, Standardized Tests ( like the SAT, ACT, Bar exam, etc. etc. )

It makes it impossible to compete unless you're bending the rules also.

Makes you wonder of all the "winners" out there, what percentage of them made it to that pedestal legitimately ?

This! And how much further until people start to put intelligent chip directly inside the body? I'm sure it wont be too difficult with today's technology to hide inside your mouth a device that communicate on the internet with a supercomputer at home. The input could come from the tongue and the output could be a speaker to send sound through the bone.

But chest wouldn't be the most lucrative target. Poker or blackjack (card counting) on the other hand seem to be way more lucrative.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[hcs_$reboot]

Cheating is rampant in all things anymore. He's a grandmaster until he gets caught cheating.

Well, if all grandmasters are proved to be cheating, that'll just lower the GM bar and all GM may keep being GM.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Anonymous Coward]

It makes it impossible to compete unless you're bending the rules also.

Makes you wonder of all the "winners" out there, what percentage of them made it to that pedestal legitimately ?

Sounds like something a "loser" would say.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[reikae]

I may be a loser, but at least I'm legitimately a loser!

(And there's plenty of proof of it too...)

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[joerdie]

This is my issue with OP's comment. Any time I hear someone say, "Kids these days" or "People are more selfish than they used to be" I cringe a little. People have been horrible to each other all along. We should be vigilant of cheaters; but implying that cheating wasn't rampant in the past is shortsighted at best.

Re: Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually bad grammar is a better indication someone did cheat to pass.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Triklyn]

terrible. part of the reason why it's a terrible idea is that many of those really impactful drugs dramatically shorten your expected lifespan. And i'm sure some athletes would be willing to make the trade, fame and prestige for years, but that's not the kind of behavior we really should be encouraging in our youths.

similarly with swim wear... there's the affordability aspect, you're endorsing an artificially intentionally unlevelled playing field. And it gets harder and harder to draw the line where technology ends and human achievement begins.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[thegarbz]

One of those is a grey line the other is a limitation easily overcome.

The grey line is the arbitrary idea that drugs should be banned because they are dangerous while we happily allow and follow sports where contestants literally beat the shit out of each other, watch men experience brain damaging injury chasing a ball while tackling each other, and accelerating themselves at 200+mph to do 7 hours of left turns where a slight mishap can and way too frequently does instantly end a life.
Sport is dangerous.

Affordability is also something that shouldn't and usually doesn't come into it. Very few professional athletes pay for their gear. Certainly none of the to swimmers did. I do however believe in a level playing field. They all should have equal gear.

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . .

[Triklyn]

sorry, that affordability bit was left in, was going to remove that entire train, but it was along the lines of the line between the man and the equipment he uses. similar to the prosthesis arguments, when it gets to the point that tangible benefits yada yada, would you chop off your arms and feet if you could toss jet engines in their place? i mean, they're weight. etc. etc.

And, it's the promotion of drug use in kids again. We're only now really getting it how much TBI these guys are really getting, and what the effects are. And i think parents are being a lot less willing to let their kids lead with their heads so to speak.

baseball, kids are already getting significant surgery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
to you know, compete. throw in some steroid abuse, and what a wonderful environment we create.

adults can make their own poor decisions. If they want to beat the crap out of each other fine. But we try to protect the minors. so i don't think we'll ever condone policy that would make it mandatory to kill yourself slowly to compete.

didn't secure his phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Smart enough to master of chess, but not bright enough to secure his phone.

Re:didn't secure his phone

[cfalcon]

> Smart enough to master of chess, but not bright enough to secure his phone.

Chess is some mix of high level strategy, getting in your opponent's head, visualization, and habituation.

Securing a phone is a technical problem. The two fields don't really have overlap.

Re:didn't secure his phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Chess is some mix of high level strategy, getting in your opponent's head, visualization, and habituation.

Securing a phone is a technical problem. The two fields don't really have overlap.

They do when your strategy at Chess relies primarily on how effectively you can hide a smart phone..

Stalin

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't he come from Georgia? He is still a hero there....

Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[Kevin Fishburne]

Why the frak would they let a competitor get up and leave the playing area at all, much less after every single move? Were they playing in someone's garage drinking cheap beer and no one gave a shit? They should treat these competitions more like a casino, where cheating is expected and overcompensated for by paranoid surveillance, especially when money's on the line.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the frak would they let a competitor get up and leave the playing area at all, much less after every single move? Were they playing in someone's garage drinking cheap beer and no one gave a shit? They should treat these competitions more like a casino, where cheating is expected and overcompensated for by paranoid surveillance, especially when money's on the line.

...and then you'll get a run of situations where someone spikes whatever the competitors are drinking at the tournament... so that 95% of the contestants end up disqualified, making the advantage that much easier.

The ones who are left are likely drinking mind-enhancing fluids anyway.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[adiposity]

Lots of time between moves.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[Feral Nerd]

Why the frak would they let a competitor get up and leave the playing area at all, much less after every single move? Were they playing in someone's garage drinking cheap beer and no one gave a shit?

I have no idea, what I do know is that somehow all of this is Apple's fault.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[Kevin Fishburne]

Lots of time between moves.

That certainly helps me understand how this could happen without arousing too much suspicion. At least one possible cheating vector has now been identified, if not eliminated. The down side is that it's hard to believe this guy was the only one taking advantage of that sort of strategy, and there's no way to tell who else cheated. Reminds me of the steroid scandal in baseball way back; the whole sport's been stained, with everyone's stats in question.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[Kevin Fishburne]

...and then you'll get a run of situations where someone spikes whatever the competitors are drinking at the tournament... so that 95% of the contestants end up disqualified, making the advantage that much easier.

The ones who are left are likely drinking mind-enhancing fluids anyway.

Or even likelier, hiring third parties to swing batons at competitors' fingers and hands, rendering them physically unable to move the chess pieces and unable to focus due to the pain. Or playing footsie with them under the table to break their concentration. Or building up a resistance to a nerve toxin over decades, then releasing a small amount into the room to kill everyone but their self. If I were going to cheat at professional chess competitions, I'd probably invent an FTL drive and ask the Vulcans if I could borrow Spock, as he's pretty good at chess. If that failed, I could intentionally become assimilated by the Borg and introduce a virus into their hive mind that both gave me free will and ran Chessmaster 9000. Failing that, I'd probably just have to nuke the entire planet from orbit, then carefully plant evidence that I'd won every chess competition ever held during my lifetime. Any future sentient species a few billion years down the road would be like, "Man, that guy was fucking boss at chess."

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[blackanvil]

Yeah, I mean seriously, if you're going to cheat, at least be creative about it, like that shoe-based roulette cheaters they found using a camera, computer analysis, and a vibrator in a couple of guys' shoes. Use one foot to show the move, receive the next move on the other. Or have an accomplice in the audience, and some sort of signal code. But hiding a cell in the men's room? That shows both lack of integrity and lack of imagination, as well as lack of talent and intelligence.

Re:Competition rules (or lack thereof)

[pellik]

Normal time control for tournament games in the US can be as much as 3 hours per side, and it's not uncommon for games to go the full 6 hours. Furthermore, there are typically two games per day. Not allowing people to get up and leave the playing area would just not be practical.

It's Chess

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the F*** cares? There are much harder games to play yet chess is held up as some great measure of intelligence. Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock comes to mind as a harder game than chess.

Female chess players

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop being abusive. Honestly that post is very close to being a form of assault.

The reason there's a Women's Chess Championship is that it's a "safe space". All men are capable of rape. Even grandmasters. We need a separate chess league to keep us focused on the game and not distracted by the potential of being abused. It has nothing to do with being worse at chess. Women are not worse at chess. We're just as capable as men so clearly there's something wrong with the SYSTEM.

Also men are guided into chess by the educational system and women aren't. Men don't just start studying chess on their own. How many grandmasters ever learned by themselves or from books?

But clearly you wouldn't understand because you're too busy being an abusive, threatening white male.

Re: Female chess players

[Redmancometh]

Obvious troll is obvious...I hope.

Tigran Petrosian

[Chess_the_cat]

Died in 1984.

Re:Tigran Petrosian

[TheMathemagician]

GM Tigran Petrosian was named after the original.

12k prize and toilet stalls on sight of players ta

[Anonymous Coward]

chess must be hurting for sponsors after they stopped updating big blue

Fake Article? Wikipedia Says Petrosian's Dead

[j33px0r]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

Of course, his death may be greatly over exaggerated.

suspicion

[Tom]

The Georgian's career is now under a microscope. His two national titles are under suspicion.

Also under suspicion: The intelligence of his opponents in those tournaments, because they apparently didn't notice the most obvious strange behaviour ever.

I'm Surprised...

[Transeau]

I'm really surprised that no one pointed out that the photo in the article captioned "A photo shows Gaioz Nigalidze’s match sheet and confiscated iPhone. (Dubai Chess and Culture Club)" is an iPod Touch, with the WiFi turned off.

Re:I'm Surprised...

[Transeau]

Not to mention, it's pink.

Re:I'm Surprised...

[Transeau]

and upon closer inspection, the moves written on the sheet do not match the moves listed on the iPod. A setup? A reenactment?

Thanks for the info.

[franciscoeduca]

Thanks, have a nice day :) http://www.educa.net/curso/tec...

Re:Not a shocking revelation to be honest . . -

[Anonymous Coward]

Happy United States Ultimate Cheat Day- April 15th

YATP - yet another tigran petrosian

[ananthap]

His oppnent WAS NOT THE TIGRAN PETROSIAN who was world chess champion about 30 years back but another Armenian with the patronymic Petrosian. Apparently this Petrosian's father named him as Tigran in honour of the original Petrosian.

DON VITO CORLEONE OF THE CHESS WORLD.

[ananthap]

It will not heve escaped people that hiding a device in the toilet cistern was the exact same trick described in THE GODFATHER.