How a player could have cheated using technology
This posting is only about over the board (OTB) cheating. It is only concerned with the 2022 Sinquefield cup and the 2022 US championship tournaments. Both events were held in the St. Louis chess club.
It only examines how a player could have cheated using technology. It is NOT interested in circumstantial arguments regarding a player's (Hans') behavior, rapid rise, or early-teens online history of confessed cheating.
What is special in the 2022 Sinquefield cup? In the 2022 Sinquefield cup only 9 players (if you include Carslen who dropped out), the cameraperson(s), the arbitrators and event staff are allowed in the playing room.
In the first 3 rounds of the cup there was no transmission delay of the games to the outside world. After the 3rd event, there was a 15 minutes transmission delay.
What is different about the 2022 US championships? In this event, the transmission delay is 30 minutes. Only the players, the cameraperson(s), and the arbitrators and event staff are allowed in the playing room. Moreover, better detection sticks and other devices are used that detect electronic signals and silicon regardless of whether a device is on or off.
Hans defeated Magnus in the 3rd round of the Sinquefield cup where there was no transmission delay.
There are three ways that cheating could occur:
Scenario 1) The cheater gets help from a person inside the playing hall. Since only the players and the event organizers are allowed in the playing hall, and Hans is being heavily watched, I'm not going to get into this possibility whatsoever. Also, you could cheat without using tech (body signals, etc.) So in Sinquefield and US championships it is extremely unlikely and it does not have to involve tech. So we leave that to other speculators to prove!
Scenario 2) The cheater gets help from outside the playing hall. It means there should be a way for the cheater to get a signal from outside the hall. Also with 15 and 30 minutes transmission, the player would have to send data (regarding the current position) to the outside world.
In OTB in the St. Louis chess club the players couldn't get Bluetooth, NFC or other signals. Couldn't rely on wireless or hotspot since it would be easily traceable. SIM card in device is possible but a tall order since the in-person device has 2 communicate remotely (internet, cloud, another device) in real-time.
Scenario 3) The cheater has the chess engine and all the necessary tech with them and does not need to communicate with the outside world.
Here the cheater had to:
Step 1)
a) Take a full image of the board and transmit it to his device that has the chess engine.
And where will this camera be hidden to take a full image of the board? It could be an X-ray-like image as long as it is an accurate or full image of the board that could be translated by a sophisticated program into a full and accurate position. And the easy part would be to feed the position into a chess engine.
The camera unless it is going through thick materials and through the table has to be in his upper body so that it could take a full and translatable image of the board.
b) Instead of a cam or other sensing devices, the user could somehow record the move and somehow input them into his device that will eventually be received by the device that has the chess engine.
Really?! Hans is inputting every move. There were some accusations that he was doing it with his watch. But I no longer see a watch on him. Really Hans is using his toes or other parts of his body to input moves? Hard to believe.
Step 2) Once the full position is received by the device that has the chess engine, the device will make some kind of vibration or other signal felt by humans. The shoes and the feet are the most likely place for this to have happened. I agree that this is totally doable. That is you could have a device that makes a sensation in your feet and those sensations could be translated into chess moves.
But The camera is in the upper or middle body to take a full image of the game while the sensation device is in the foot and the chess engine device (if seperate from the cam) could be anywhere in between. Will Hans have a wire from middle body to feet? Will he send an electronic signal from the middle body to the feet? Will he through wireless connection, bluetooth, NFC or other creative ways send this signal from cam area (upper to middle body) to the foot area?
I agree that once the position gets to the chess engine, a computer (device) could generate a move and transmit it to a human-machine interface (vibrations on the foot, toes, etc.).
So, please don't show me your robotics project as a demo. It is trivial that a computer could communicate to an external device or robot!
I'm also aware that in 2005, someone attached a camera to their body and did not move their arms or their body during the entire game and got help from an outside source. I covered the difficulties of doing that in Sinquefield and the US championship. Instead please post realistic scenarios where one could have used tech to cheat in Sinquefield or US championship. And criticize all you want as long as they're rational.
It only examines how a player could have cheated using technology. It is NOT interested in circumstantial arguments regarding a player's (Hans') behavior, rapid rise, or early-teens online history of confessed cheating.
What is special in the 2022 Sinquefield cup? In the 2022 Sinquefield cup only 9 players (if you include Carslen who dropped out), the cameraperson(s), the arbitrators and event staff are allowed in the playing room.
In the first 3 rounds of the cup there was no transmission delay of the games to the outside world. After the 3rd event, there was a 15 minutes transmission delay.
What is different about the 2022 US championships? In this event, the transmission delay is 30 minutes. Only the players, the cameraperson(s), and the arbitrators and event staff are allowed in the playing room. Moreover, better detection sticks and other devices are used that detect electronic signals and silicon regardless of whether a device is on or off.
Hans defeated Magnus in the 3rd round of the Sinquefield cup where there was no transmission delay.
There are three ways that cheating could occur:
Scenario 1) The cheater gets help from a person inside the playing hall. Since only the players and the event organizers are allowed in the playing hall, and Hans is being heavily watched, I'm not going to get into this possibility whatsoever. Also, you could cheat without using tech (body signals, etc.) So in Sinquefield and US championships it is extremely unlikely and it does not have to involve tech. So we leave that to other speculators to prove!
Scenario 2) The cheater gets help from outside the playing hall. It means there should be a way for the cheater to get a signal from outside the hall. Also with 15 and 30 minutes transmission, the player would have to send data (regarding the current position) to the outside world.
In OTB in the St. Louis chess club the players couldn't get Bluetooth, NFC or other signals. Couldn't rely on wireless or hotspot since it would be easily traceable. SIM card in device is possible but a tall order since the in-person device has 2 communicate remotely (internet, cloud, another device) in real-time.
Scenario 3) The cheater has the chess engine and all the necessary tech with them and does not need to communicate with the outside world.
Here the cheater had to:
Step 1)
a) Take a full image of the board and transmit it to his device that has the chess engine.
And where will this camera be hidden to take a full image of the board? It could be an X-ray-like image as long as it is an accurate or full image of the board that could be translated by a sophisticated program into a full and accurate position. And the easy part would be to feed the position into a chess engine.
The camera unless it is going through thick materials and through the table has to be in his upper body so that it could take a full and translatable image of the board.
b) Instead of a cam or other sensing devices, the user could somehow record the move and somehow input them into his device that will eventually be received by the device that has the chess engine.
Really?! Hans is inputting every move. There were some accusations that he was doing it with his watch. But I no longer see a watch on him. Really Hans is using his toes or other parts of his body to input moves? Hard to believe.
Step 2) Once the full position is received by the device that has the chess engine, the device will make some kind of vibration or other signal felt by humans. The shoes and the feet are the most likely place for this to have happened. I agree that this is totally doable. That is you could have a device that makes a sensation in your feet and those sensations could be translated into chess moves.
But The camera is in the upper or middle body to take a full image of the game while the sensation device is in the foot and the chess engine device (if seperate from the cam) could be anywhere in between. Will Hans have a wire from middle body to feet? Will he send an electronic signal from the middle body to the feet? Will he through wireless connection, bluetooth, NFC or other creative ways send this signal from cam area (upper to middle body) to the foot area?
I agree that once the position gets to the chess engine, a computer (device) could generate a move and transmit it to a human-machine interface (vibrations on the foot, toes, etc.).
So, please don't show me your robotics project as a demo. It is trivial that a computer could communicate to an external device or robot!
I'm also aware that in 2005, someone attached a camera to their body and did not move their arms or their body during the entire game and got help from an outside source. I covered the difficulties of doing that in Sinquefield and the US championship. Instead please post realistic scenarios where one could have used tech to cheat in Sinquefield or US championship. And criticize all you want as long as they're rational.
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