Wednesday, March 30, 2011

European Championship cheating?

Participants at the European Championship have come out with an open letter aimed at fighting against cheating using electronic devices. The letter follows:

Open Letter

Dear French chess federation, dear ECU, dear chess community,

In view of the rumours and allegations about possible cheating using electronic devices and outside help taking place during the European Individual Championship in Aix-les-Bains, we have an atmosphere that makes it impossible for the players to approach their games calmly and being sure that their opponents do not break the rules.

We therefore demand that

- the arbiters reserve the rights to search any player’s pockets in case of suspicion

- no electronic devices can be brought into the playing hall, switched off or otherwise

- electronic boards can be unplugged if one of the players demands it

Respectfully,


Among the players that signed are Victor Bologan, Boris Grachev, Jan Gustafsson, Anna Muzychuk, Tomi Nyback, Jan Smeets,Gabriel Sargissian, Peter Svidler and Natalia Zhukova.

I guess it is no accident that this came about seeing that the "star" of the cheating allegations in the French Chess Federation is playing in this championship. See here and here for context.

Yes, Sebastien Feller is taking part in the European Championship. He is able to take part despite a ban on him playing because he is appealing the decision.

Feller is currently doing very well with a 5.5/7 score after seven rounds behind the current leader, Vladimir Potkin who has 6/7. There are another nineteen players with the same 5.5/7 score! Feller plays GM Francisco Vallejo Pons today.

1 comments:

HeinzK said...

Yes, repeating the same trick now would be quite a stunt... a huge group of grandmasters would stone him on the spot with copious amounts of pawns and heavy pieces

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