Irish Chess Union to investigate cheating allegation

Luke Byrne and Barry Duggan – 25 April 2013

THE Irish Chess Union (ICU) has established a disciplinary committee to investigate an incident where a chess player hauled a schoolboy opponent from a toilet cubicle.

Gardai were called to the Cork Congress Chess Open after the 16-year-old – who attends a private Dublin school – was accused of cheating by his rival.

Gabriel Mirza – former secretary of the ICU – said he caught the teen using an Android computer to establish his next move in a toilet cubicle during their match last weekend.

Mr Mirza (47) has said he is proud of what he did after kicking in the cubicle door at the Metropole Hotel and hauling out his opponent before organisers of the tournament intervened.

In a statement last night the ICU said that in 100 years of its existence, it had never had to deal with such allegations.

It said that it was awaiting a report from the tournament controller about what had happened.

It is believed that gardai have not yet received any complaint, however the ICU has established a disciplinary committee to investigate the matter further and said that the result of its findings would be made public.

“Chess cheating has long been the subject of much discussion among arbiters and organisers of events across the globe,” the statement said.

“In recent days Ireland has just joined many nations in exposing how technology has interfered in the beautiful game.”

It added: “Any decisions made by the executive committee, following the procedures laid down in our code of conduct, will be communicated to our members and to Irish media who have shown an interest in the case”.

Following the incident Mr Mirza, a father of two, told the Irish Independent: “My opponent, after each move, he went out (to the toilet). He went in and out 20 times. We had made 24 moves.”

Source: http://www.independent.ie