Chess

I agree. I'd rather lose and lose knowing I didn't take shortcuts to get there than win and know I didn't legitimately win fair.

 

I had this tech discussion in a slightly different context with someone earlier today. Why not just ban tech at the table? People have been doing chess notation for a long time with paper and pencil. I get that the tech probably lets you save the game or something, but just log it in later. This would not be a tough decision for me to make if I were the tournament director.

 

I can't go into it too deeply here -- I've not been all that diligent about hiding my identity -- but my issues with cheating have not-trivial links with the behavior of certain students in my classes. It is a simple fact that students of certain nationalities/cultures are more likely to cheat in their academic work than others, and I resent the hell out of it. I go out of my way to make sure it doesn't happen, but I get pissed when I observe someone even trying to cheat (or scoping things out to see if there's some way to cheat).

 

Here's what most technology in high school competitions comes down to:
1. Who can cheat the best
2. Who has parents that can buy the most expensive toy
3. Who can master the technology the best

Just not sure why they even allow these things. Sorry for the rant/thread hijack.

 

That's what they *should* do.

But in reality, there are two types of chess tournaments

1) Small, local tournaments where the director is hoping that just maybe he can get enough entry fees to break even on renting the playing hall.
2) Large tournaments run for profit

And both of those types of tournaments are scared to do anything that might offend players, because attendance might go down.

The only way it could really work is if you
1) Collected all smartphones and such at the door, in which case you'd have to basically be willing to pat people down.
And/or
2) Didn't allow players to leave the tournament hall at all while playing. Most chess players can't go that long without a bathroom break, and there have been incidents of people caught using their smartphones to check a position in the stall.

Actually, this does remind me of visiting the U.S. Championships in St. Louis this year. It was free to spectators, and it was a blast. There was a security guard with a metal detector on the way in the door, and you had to check your cell phones before you got to him. Players could not leave the playing hall and lounge area designated for them without being accompanied by a tournament director.

Anyway, there was one bathroom for 24 players to share. On the women's side of the tournament, I swear most of the competitors spent most of their time trying to eye when the bathroom would become free.

 

And really, even then, you'd have to ban spectators, too. There was an incident with some French (I think?) players a few years ago at a big European tournament. Their coaches were going out to the lobby and checking the positions on computers. Whenever there was a crucial move, the coaches would signal the best move to their players by pretending to observe a different game. Which game they observed was a code for which piece to move and to which square.

 

This was mentioned in the Grantland article. I read the Grantland story. Excellent piece. I can't say I'm surprised high-tech cheating has made its way to chess. Still makes me sad, though.

 

Sometimes it's the money, but mostly it's the ego stroke. Chess is a *huuuge* ego stroke. Not just for the thrill of winning, but for the way people treat you. It's lame as hell how much I love it. Some of my favorite chess moments:

1) The tournament director coming out to congratulate me after I knocked off the master mentioned earlier in the thread, and a small crowd of people wanting to hear about my training methods that had caused me to go from scrub to tournament-winner in about half a year.
2) Meeting some people at a new chess club and they barely turn their heads. Then a player I know says, "Hey, guys, this is Rick Stain, he won the Shelbyville Tournament this year" and suddenly they all want to play me and ask my advice.
3) Being at the Shelbyville Tournament a year later and hearing someone say "Oh crap, I have to play Rick" before a round.

I'm getting an ego boner right now talking about it, even though in perspective it's some really lame brags. I haven't the slightest doubt this cheating kid *loved* to hold court with people and talk about his awesome chess ascension.

 

I'm sure the kid did hold court and I can understand why you'd like the ego stroke. Anybody would. I feel the same way when I tell my friends about my pre-Army sportswriting career and they "ooh" and "ahhh" over it.

 

I'm playing chess right this second on Yahoo for the first time in years it seems. It's crazy how bad I am now, but equally crazy how much I still remember. I miss this game.

 

I took a couple of months off and came back this week. I actually think it did me some good. My brain must have needed time to process everything I had crammed into it.

 

The only time I found chess interesting:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/12/bobby-fischer-s-pathetic-endgame/302634/