He responded to cheating claims by calling the beaten grandmasters "washed-up arseholes"

Chess has always been a tactical game, but beyond the two people sitting at the board another cat and mouse operation is going on - between players trying to cheat - and now a Canberra man is trying to stop them.

He responded to cheating claims by calling the beaten grandmasters "washed-up arseholes" Artshaunpress620x349

As technology improves and communication devices get smaller and harder to detect, the International Chess Federation has been forced to set up an anti-cheating committee.

It is the anti-doping committee of the chess world, and Canberra's Shaun Press, a chess master and computer programmer at the Australian National University, is one of 10 on the global committee charged with combating the growing threat to the game.
Accused .. Boris Ivanov.

Accused: Boris Ivanov.

The chess world does not have the lure of big money, but since the 1990s, when computers became powerful enough to beat humans through the ability to calculate millions of scenarios in seconds, people have been trying to cheat the system through technology.
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Last month a Bulgarian amateur, Borislav Ivanov, threw the chess world in a spin when there were allegations he was cheating.

The 25-year-old has been beating grand masters, with statistical analysis showing a high probability he is using a computer program, but searches of his clothing and pen, as well as close observation, have failed to reveal any evidence.

He voluntarily had a CT scan and X-rays, ruling out implants in his head or body as he mounts court action to overturn his ban.

"The tricky thing with the Ivanov case is there has been some circumstances where it's almost at this stage hard to imagine how he could possibly cheat," Mr Press said. "That's why people are theorising there may be special contact lenses or some other magic method that he's using.

''If he is cheating, and I deliberately say 'if' - no one knows how he's doing it, and essentially there is the possibility that he is not cheating.

''Until you can find clear, definitive evidence that he has a computer, access to a computer or some other method for cheating, it's a hard thing to say, yes, the guy is cheating.''

Mr Ivanov has been banned for four months by the Bulgarian Chess Federation for use of bad language when he responded to cheating claims by calling the beaten grandmasters "washed-up arseholes".

Mr Press said statistical analysis was the key to working out whether people were cheating.

''On the other hand I do worry that the balance may be tipped the other way. In the zeal to stamp out computer cheating, we may go too far and punish the innocent," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/hightech-chess-cheats-keep-experts-wondering-at-next-move-20130612-2o4eq.html#ixzz2W5ycXHuq

He responded to cheating claims by calling the beaten grandmasters "washed-up arseholes"

He responded to cheating claims by calling the beaten grandmasters "washed-up arseholes"

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