Chess scandals

Some chess news from India-

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - 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.

"We have banned him for 10 years," he told Reuters. "We wanted to send a clear message to such people."

Some may say Sharma should be banned for life. If that was done in the case of US Correspondence Chess, I'd make a bet we would lost a dozen or more players. Its TFM's suspicion that computers are used for making moves by more than a few of correspondence chess opponents.

Talking about US Chess, we have a small scandal of our own.

A chess master who coaches at 10 East Valley schools resigned this month from the U.S. Chess Federation executive board following a November reprimand alleging ethics violations.

Robert Tanner, who helped put Gilbert on the map as the federation’s “Best Chess City” in 1999, received the reprimand following allegations that he fabricated or manipulated tournament results in the early 1990s to regain the master title that he first earned at legitimate events in 1987.

“It is apparent from his entire record that Tanner, frustrated with his inability to make master the hard way, decided to do it the easy way,” a written complaint filed July 20 says.

Tanner has denied wrongdoing and referred the Tribune to the written responses he submitted to the federation’s ethics committee.

His Dec. 4 resignation letter indicates he stepped down so the board “could continue its important work without being distracted unduly by this affair.” The longtime coach also said he wanted to focus on reactivating himself as a serious chess player.

“This I consider an important factor in speeding the healing within the chess community and for my own personal reputation and rehabilitation,” Tanner wrote.

Sam Sloan, the U.S. Chess Federation board member who filed the complaint, said Tanner delayed his resignation until other board members threatened to oust him.

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Sloan’s complaint alleges that Tanner achieved the titles of master and “original life master” by playing repeated games in 1992 and 1993 within a closed group of friends who traveled together and gathered in remote places such as Teton, Wyo., Wendover, Nev., and Ceres, Calif.

Original life masters must hold a master’s rating for at least 300 tournament games.

Sloan said the players in the group shared Tanner’s home address, and none of the nine men except Tanner ever competed outside the group.

“They are quite clearly fake people,” Sloan said from his New York home. “They don’t exist.”

Tanner maintains he did nothing illegal. He said the matches actually occurred, and the ethics committee supported his claim that the opponents were real people.

However, Tanner acknowledges in his Sept. 15 response to the committee that he circumvented the “spirit of the regulations” in the early 1990s while working to regain the master title. He also acknowledges that none of the opponents mentioned in the complaint were legitimate masters or even expert-level players.

Disclosure- I have strong reason to believe Robert Tanner is the same Corr. Chess player I once played in the 1990's. Both players live or lived in Arizona.

Chess is supposed to be a gentleman's game and a battle of intellects. It is sad that there are those who feel a need to cheat and ruin the game for others.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,