Cheating at Chess
Good summary of cheating in tournament chess (link is to the first of five posts).
Comments
peter • February 20, 2013 3:19 PM
@grymoire
no; it’s the black queen. Go to the last move and step back five.
(almost used my real nick there… what if he had control of redhotpawn and was using it to try to identify schneier.com blog readers… )
smyle • February 20, 2013 3:56 PM
The remote assistance aspects they talk about are indeed interesting, but with miniature computers (Raspberry Pi, Arduino, etc), it wouldn’t surprise me if even a Faraday cage couldn’t prevent cheating.
Natanael L • February 20, 2013 4:56 PM
@smyle: Google Glass. 🙂
alreadyPosted • February 21, 2013 2:51 AM
From the page http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/01/cheating_at_che.html#c1090388 Bruce may have read the following comment:
@customary on January 17, 2013 5:31 AM: “Bruce, you should link to http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=190 which is better than all our comments, about previous cheating chess players.”
Mike B • February 21, 2013 7:29 AM
The beauty is that Chess is well on its way to being solved game which means from the initial conditions the outcome of the game will already be known assuming that both players don’t make any mistakes or try to throw the game. As soon as this occurs Chess can be retired as an international game of skill and assigned to the same pile as checkers and tic-tac-toe with human intellect then being directed at a new challenge like GO.
I don’t see this as a bad thing. It is a sign of progress to learn everything that can be learned about a game and then move on.
go • February 21, 2013 10:45 AM
@Mike B
Go is also close to being solved. There was a phase when it was touted as being hard for computers, but perhaps unsurprisingly that didn’t last once people took interest.
Nick P • February 21, 2013 11:29 AM
@ Mike B
“The beauty is that Chess is well on its way to being solved game which means from the initial conditions the outcome of the game will already be known assuming that both players don’t make any mistakes or try to throw the game. As soon as this occurs Chess can be retired as an international game of skill and assigned to the same pile as checkers and tic-tac-toe with human intellect then being directed at a new challenge like GO.”
I think you missed the entire point of playing games. For many people, games are fun and challenging. Any game that takes skill, strategy, etc. to win can be a point of pride for a player. That a computer can solve a game doesn’t make it less of an intellectual challenge for humans playing w/out computer assistance. So, solve it or not, we’re not throwing any challenging games into any piles. We simply won’t put computer players against anyone but savants. 😉
@ Mike B and Go
If you mean “solved” as in how checkers was solved, then I can’t say we’re close on that. Even chess isn’t solved yet. If you mean grandmaster style AI players, then we’ve seen excellent gains over the past decade in both chess and Go. I also follow Poker AI’s (more money to be made there… wink). I look forward to seeing the continual improvements in each of these fields.
jb • February 21, 2013 12:07 PM
The only way to stop chess cheating is to, if a player is suspected of cheating, sit them down with some grandmasters of the appropriate skill level (weaker than their suspect play, stronger than their historical play) and have a discussion. The grandmasters should be able to identify if, in a casual freewheeling conversation, the player is in fact weaker or stronger than they are, and if he understands the brilliant moves he was playing.
Daniel • February 23, 2013 6:40 AM
He,
That is a nice summary. But as i know, now the computers can beat any grand master…so never play online chess for money 😉
josh • February 23, 2013 9:39 PM
X-ray the players before the match
Vertreter • September 10, 2015 2:44 PM
Did they test the bloke for steroids? And if his accomplice was a better player, why didn’t he compete himself? Or was he being aided by a computer? Then how high is the level of these tournaments?
@Mike B:
The beauty is that Chess is well on its way to being solved game which means from the initial conditions the outcome of the game will already be known
Yes, sure, all pieces are in their initial position. White player ponders, and finally offers black a draw.
@Schneier:
If the cheater was batting his eyelids, he must have been SENDING Morse code, and not DECIPHER it.
Subscribe to comments on this entry
Leave a comment
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Richard Schwartz • February 20, 2013 1:08 PM
Very good summary, although a bit dated.