The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword, And It Plays A Mean Game Of Chess, Too
Still another cheating scandal, though it appears so far that the only "penalty" the putative perpetrator paid was that he couldn't continue having his pen and briefcase at the board. This reminds me of something I noticed a few days ago but didn't comment on, but will now.
If you watch the summary video on the Metropolitan Open site, you'll notice at :47 and 3:24 that FM Michael Lee, who obtained an IM norm in the event, is wearing headphones. Are you kidding me? In these times, this is spit-take material.
Let me be clear that I'm absolutely not accusing him of anything. (I don't know him, I have no reason to think he cheated, and he's entitled to both a legal and moral presumption of innocence.) At the same time, it is absolutely insane for the arbiter(s) and his opponents to let him wear them. Not only is there the possibility of transmission to worry about, it's also quite possible to use an MP3 player to record one's opening prep. Perhaps the powers-that-be can take time out from their crazy anti-draw brainstorming sessions to make a rule banning players from wearing headphones during games. Too simple?
Reader Comments (11)
According to Jan Gustafsson on his blog, headphones were fairly common at the 2010 World Open where he participated ("players with headphones everywhere"). It is unclear whether this included one or several of his opponents, and he didn't complain because he assumed that it's legal or at least tolerated. This was just one of several reasons why US Swisses aren't "his cup of tea", others include time control with 5-second delay ("but noone has such a chess clock"), double rounds and pairings being announced one minute before the start of the game. [Still, he recently played the Manhattan Open - as he also writes "I love New York"]
http://www.jan-gustafsson.de/jans-kolumne/beitrag/tag-25/
I cannot tell if, and how much he exaggerates but would find it hard to believe that he's making this up entirely. Were Michael Lee's headphones just unusually big, hence easily visible on the video?
I agree Dennis, that headphones should not be allowed. To make things worse, Michael Lee seems to be wearing cordless headphones, that means we do not know where the signal is coming from. While my guess is Micheal Lee just like other teenagers, loves to hear music a lot, this should not have been allowed. Good spot!
[DM: The second part of the comment, half-accusing a prominent GM of taking a bribe, was snipped. It clearly wasn't the loser's greatest game, but the culprit doesn't seem to me some sort of general positional failure on his part but a poor 23rd move and an outright blunder the move after that. And it doesn't make much sense to buy a game so early in the tournament; indeed, if the winner did buy the win, he clearly ran out of bribe money before the end of the event. I've had suspicions and emotional reactions to bizarre games like that too, but in the absence of real evidence it would be grossly unfair to the players involved and to their reputations to publish such (half-) accusations. (It might also be legally risky, but the moral point is enough.)]
Hi Dennis... I was regretting writing my suspicions as a comment right after I posted it. You are right in saying that it will be morally wrong to publish them.
I was just reacting emotionally. I have heard many stories of where young players buying games to get norms (and at least one case where the culprit was caught), which have annoyed me a lot. In any case I am glad you did not publish the latter part of my comment.
Regarding the cheating scandal - the amazing thing is that even though the organizers inspected the briefcase and the pen, they could not determine how he cheated. There was no live transmission of the games, he didn't go to the bathroom all the time, and there was nothing unnatural in his behavior at the board.
Cordless headphones, especially if they look quite large, might well just be noise reduction headphones, which filter out background noise. I quite often use these in all sorts of environments (at home, in cafes, on planes etc.) and find that they enable me to concentrate better and think more clearly. Or at least it appears that way; I've never put the hypothesis to any serious testing.
Headphones.
Yes, I have worn headphones while playing chess tournaments.
They are what is called "noise cancelling" headphones.
They block outside noise from being heard by offsetting the frequencies of those noises
so that you hear no noise.
In a game where people are sniffling, coughing, sneezing, and making other noises
(sometimes on purpose), they provide an extra layer of "quiet" that allows the outside
world to fade away into just 64 squares.
I have tried playing music through them from my music player, but that is too distracting, and just
wearing them to achieve a more perfect silence helps to focus my concentration.
ChessVibes had a report on the Metropolitan by GM Dejan Bojkov, who played too. The bit of note:
"Thus, the only player who went home with a norm was Michael Lee from Washington – he made an IM norm after scoring 5.5/9, and by keeping his concentration throughout the whole event thanks to his headphones."
So there were no concerns raised by players and they were indeed to reduce noise. I must admit, I myself have only ever seen players use earplugs if they want complete quiet.
Dennis,
Something is definitely going on with Klimentiev.
Excluding the Botvinnik, he had two fantastic results from his two other most recently completed tournaments: White Nights 2011 Open and Summer on Petrograd Side 2011.
In White Nights, he entered the tournament rated 1698. Scored 6/9 for a 10th place finish even though 7 out of 9 opponents were rated more than 400 points above him. His K score= 77.55 which is far and away the largest increase in the field.
In Petrograd Side 2011, he ended up tying for first with 7/9 even though 8 out of 9 opponents were rated more than 400 points above him. Again he had a K score of 93.60- by far the greatest increase.
Kinda stands out like a sore thumb IMO.
More evidence is needed to prove guilt but I wonder if he had his trusty pen and briefcase along for those tournaments?
My source: http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calculations.phtml?idnumber=24155896&rating_period=2011-09-01
Seems to me that there is a product opportunity here, for official FIDE- and USCF-sanctioned noise canceling headphones, in the same vein as the Monroi PDA that is "certified" to not provide any ability to cheat.
I wonder how Monroi achieved such certification? It is certainly possible to modify such a device for cheating purposes. I sympathize with those who want to use headphones to block noise but the chess world needs to make adjustments in order to ensure fair play.
It is absurd that it took so long to rumble Klimentiev. His technique seems quite sloppy (i mean a pen and a briefcase? c'mon!)