Chess Scotland Noticeboard

John Montgomery SW · Pawn Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 7

Just seen this story on BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12853229

Hope the Scots team didn't play the French at the last Olympiad.

AMcHarg · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:20 am Post subject:

The coach sat on a particular seat which represented a square on the board? How would the players know which board he was talking about? Also establishing the correct square is not the same as establishing the correct move (although I'd imagine players of that strength would then be able to work out the best move). It does seem a bit slow and unmanageable though does it not?

I hope it isn't true.

Andy McCulloch · King Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 280

This has been discussed at length on the ECF. It has been stated that the system only required the four boards of the match involving the French and a knowledge of the number system used in postal chess.
Something like player of white on board 1 of match is (a or 1), the player of black at that board would be (b or 2) etc..
Basically it would appear to indicate only the important destination square. The presumption being if a stong player got this information he could work out the required move.

robin moore · King Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 164

This story is quite incredible if true. I was wondering how many of us remember the "yoghurt" cheating accusation in the Karpov-Korchnoi world title match in the Phillipines? Basically during a game a yoghurt was delivered to Karpov. The same thing happened the next day and Korchnoi's team objected indicating this might be some kind of coded message. It was eventually decided that Karpov would be allowed a yoghurt of the same colour delivered at the same time by the same person from now on. One newspaper correspondent must have enjoyed himself when this was ongoing by suggesting a different product could mean make a different move. " A dish of marinated quails eggs could mean play Ne5 immediately." Modern technology? hmmm.

Alan Tate · King Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 377 Location: Edinburgh

Why bother with coded messages? Players are allowed to talk to anyone they feel like during their games.....

Stuart Blyth · King Joined: 11 Sep 2008 Posts: 209

I think this story is probably true - the French are a generally dubious bunch, partaking in revolutions and reeking of garlic. They have also been known to pursue a foreign policy independent from that of the United States. In fact, come to think of it, what the heck are we doing playing chess with them in the first place?

There is one redeeming development, though - Sarkozy is, at least, trying to ditch the independent foreign policy. Has he been reading Mike and company's posts from a few weeks back?

andyburnett · King Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 249

AMcHarg · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:18 pm Post subject:

To continue on from Andy's idea...

In the Scottish Championship in 2008 a junior defaulted a game after he was caught in the analysis room playing through variations in his game which was still ongoing. If my memory serves me correctly he left his board when it was his move and was gone for a while which is what drew the suspicious attention from his opponent. Laughing

Phail.

Stuart Blyth · King Joined: 11 Sep 2008 Posts: 209

In a minor tournament a couple of years ago something extraordinary happened. Two players graded around the the 1100 mark were playing each other. Turns out that one had actually had a microchip implanted in his brain, and was using this to receive help from a pal in another room. Extraordinary the lengths some folk'll go to - and just shows how right we are to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to mobile phones and the like.

I think I may have heard people discussing the incident to which Andy refers - though I didn't know the score sheet had been changed as well.

I don't think many people would completely cheat, but I do find things like not playing a move if your opponent has forgotten to press his clock a bit dubious - I've had that happen to me on several occasions. I find that deeply unsporting. On the other hand, once or twice, I haven't realised my opponent's forgotten to press his/her clock and they eventually press it just before I'm about to move - I can recall not wanting to press my own clock right away in case it looked like I'd been doing it on purpose.

robin moore · King Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 164

From the International tournament section.

An Open Letter To God....

Look pal,

You and I have been getting on just fine for the last wee while. I have been trying my best without asking too much in return. Well, the time is nigh to try and balance things oot a bit. What? You didn't think I would try and call in my marker this early? Ok Ok I'm sorry but I really need a wee bit of help starting next weekend. Could you possibly see your way to making sure I don't finish last at Ravenna in Italy in the next fortnight? I'm not asking too much surely. I am only asking you to deal me a good hand occasionally against one of the other diddy players there so that I can come home with my head held moderately high and not have to live like a deeply embarassed hermit in one of the caves on the Ayrshire coast for the forseeable future. Do you know how much it costs to change your name to Robin Moorenil? I even refrained from contributing to the cheating stories request on another link as I could have been there all night from a former life. So how about it? Second last would do just fine. See you later hopefully.

Robin.

admin · Site Admin Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 1386

andyburnett · King Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 249

Glenrothes congress again: many moons ago 2 very strong players (2300 plus) were matched up. White was completely lost in a bishop ending and (I was the only one watching) he held out his hand in what his opponent presumed was resignation.

His opponent accepted, and then white started filling out the results slip as a draw! Black asked what he was doing and white said, 'You offered a draw' to which black replied along the lines of, 'You're having a ......laugh!'

The arbiter (the legendary JD Wallace) was called over and the game had to resume - black duly won but there was no handshake at the end as black was convinced that white had tied to pull a fast one.

The player of the white pieces had a reputation as being a very sore loser and was almost certainly trying it on. Against the same player I once had to be restrained by Walter Pearson from physically dismantling the guy after he had swept all the pieces to the floor, swore at me and stormed off at the end of our game (a 5-minute game!) when he had lost! Evil or Very Mad

Donald Wilson · Queen Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 143

What is it about Glenrothes?

This incident took place at a Glenrothes Congress in the mid-90s, and I'm certain it was the same player AB refers to when he started this thread on cheating. About 8 or 10 moves into a game in the Minor, one of the players called me to his board and said that his K and Q were wrongly placed. That happens from time to time and is no big deal, but what struck me as odd was that this player insisted strongly on restarting the game from scratch; that's actually what the laws specify, but most players are willing just to correct the placing of the pieces and carry on unless either of the players feels the incorrect placing has actually affected the game. Anyways, I had no choice but to order the game to be restarted from the beginning with the pieces placed correctly. It was only afterwards that I realised what was going on: the player had, in fact, deliberately switched his K and Q either before the start of the game or maybe after the start when his opponent was away from the board, so that if things didn't go to his liking in the opening he could have a second chance and could do things differently - had the game developed in his favour, I'm sure the pieces would have been on the correct squares all along, or he would have been happy just to correct the error and carry on with the original game.

The player in question had a habit of using a pencil rather than a pen to record his moves. At a Borders Congress, a dispute arose btween him and his opponent about what the true position on the board was: at one stage in the game, one of the players had had the choice of making a capture with either of two pawns (I don't remember exactly, but let's say it was a choice of d-pawn or f-pawn); the opponent's score sheet, in ink, showed that the capture was made with the d-pawn, and as the game developed that proved to be to the opponent's advantage. But then the position seemed to undergo a transformation, the d-pawn was still on its file and it transpired that it had been the f-pawn that made the capture. The opponent naturally objected to this rewriting of history, but the player produced his (pencil) scoresheet as evidence of his version of the truth. Unfortunately for him, the original move he had tried to rub out was still just legible on his scoresheet, and agreed with the move recorded on his opponent's scoresheet. The outcome was that Alistair Maxwell, who was the most senior arbiter at the congress, took the player outside and left him in no doubt what the outcome of any further nonsense would be.

arf · Bishop Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 27

paul roberts · Bishop Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 24

If memory serves the incident at Glenrothes was Ian MacKay v Tim Wall from 1989. I did not witness it directly but heard about it from one of the leading players in the event!

Re the french being dubious - i can't agree more, 1...e6 blocks in the QB....