Player Banned for 10 Years Had Qualified for the National Championship of India
An Indian chess player has been banned for 10 years for cheating after he was caught using his mobile phone’s wireless device to win games, chess officials said on Wednesday.
The player, Umakant Sharma, had logged rating points at a rapid pace in the last 18 months and also qualified for the national championship, arousing the suspicion of officials and bemusing rivals.
Sharma was finally caught at a recent tournament when officials discovered that he had stitched a Bluetooth device in a cloth cap which he always pulled over his ears.
He communicated to his accomplices outside the hall, who then used a computer to relay moves to him, Indian chess federation secretary D.V. Sundar said on Wednesday.
This reminds me of an incident from around 1970. A kid who barely knew the moves became a rated expert because other kids kept deliberately losing to him. As his rating climbed, his co-conspirators giggled and snickered. They regarded it as a prank. The kid didn’t go out and win any prizes as a result, and he didn’t go around actually claiming to be a strong player. In fact, the kid had no intention of ever playing any tournaments. But the point of the anecdote is that there have always been means of achieving higher ratings by hook and by crook. With technology, however, the stakes are much higher, and the cheating is harder to stop. In my opinion, over-the-board play could become a thing of the past in the near future for this very reason. Even if you stop the cheating, you can’t stop the suspicion that cheating is taking place. That alone could be enough to make world class players decide that competitive matches are not practicable.
Found by Eideard
Don’t be surprised if Umakant Sharma ends up in politics.
this is old news, Bush did the same thing during the Kerry debate, you could see the transmitter box under the back of his jacket.
Actually, I would think that incidents like this would encourage over-board play as it would be easier to ensure fair play. All that is needed is something to jam all types of signals including bluetooth. What’s the alternative: play-by-play through the mail? Any other solution goes down the path of “my computer can beat your computer.”
Thomas (#3), in the short run I might agree with you. But long-term, I have to believe that technology will get better and better, and it will become easier and easier to cheat. It’s just a guess, but my guess is that the means to prevent cheating will not keep pace with the ability to cheat.
After all, this fellow was caught because people got suspicious at his great successes, even qualifying for a national championship. How many people have done the same thing and not been caught, because their goals were more modest?
Jamming signals wont stop someone from straping a compact powerful computer to themselves. Computers are getting smaller and faster at rapid rates, how long before someone can wear a computer like deep blue? With the right advancement it could be in the next decade.
At that point you’re looking at EMPs vs magnetic shielding. Which we really know crap about.
Anyway, I think there are enough legitimate players out there to keep it going. All of the sudden everyone wants to break down and cry at the first problem. Lets call this Sharma guy a terrorist, and over the board play is over the earth travel (Airplanes), you’re suggesting we let him win. Shame on you.
I bet he’s not the only one. That Fisher guy probably used electronic devices because anyone who consumes themselves with chess 24/7 deserves the free one way trip to the “whacky bin”.
See. This is what happens when we send tech-support jobs over there. They abuse the power of a technology they just found out about.
#4 agreed. Just wait till transceivers are placed in jaws. Then they will have to do full body scans or scramble signals while at tournaments.
Transceivers and other standard RF devices can be jammed easily today. Perhaps they need to hold tournaments in lead lined bunkers. On-person computers sound as if it would be more of a problem. Granted, you are no longer talking about Big Blue but you could get a hidden computer small enough to play in the 2100’s which would be sufficient up to a point.