Monday, January 08, 2007
NCFP to investigate chess game fixing
THE National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), besides looking and working to create more world-class chess players, is likewise hell-bent on cleansing the sport of unscrupulous acts like game fixing.
And Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr., president of the sole governing chess body in the country, means business. In fact, he is looking to investigate at least five players who are allegedly involved in game fixing in the past year.
Pichay, who assumed his post last March, was unhappy when he learned that some chess players were involved in game fixing. He mentioned the Tanuan Open, the Inter-Provincial in Cagayan de Oro and the National Championships last month in Manila as some of the tournaments where game fixing was common.
“Kapag napatunayan na nagkasala sila. Patatawan sila ng board ng six months suspension. Kapag hindi pa sila nagbago ay baka hindi mag dadalawang isip ang board ng life-time,” said Pichay, himself an avid chess player.
Pichay also said that a suspension will be slapped on players who will agree an early draw.
Lawyer Samuel Estimo, executive director under the leadership of NCFP president Representative Pichay said: “The move initiated our president Cong. Butch Pichay is a step in the right direction. Game Fixing is rampant in the highest levels of RP Chess. Even our young players are being exposed to it.”
Here is the full article. 
Thank you for giving us all the latest news. This site is better than chessbase with information.
I would comment on this topic, and in the process likely add to your fund of knowledge, but if my writing doesn’t fall precisely in line with Susan’s views and/or Paul’s view on the issue, they would just delete it.
Perhaps Susan should re title this “blog” to “Susan’s Scrapbook” or “Susan’s Sermon”
You can post what you wish as long as it falls under the guidelines of this blog.
This is not rec.games or the USCF forum where people can lie and attack anyone they want without consequence.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
I agree with the sanction for fixed games, but to extend it to those that accept draws in less than 40 moves is completely unfair.
An example based on my own experience, of my county championship: In the eighth round I played black against an opponent of my same rating elo (2155). My teacher, a GM, had been teaching me some Pirc lines, instead of my boring Caro-Kann.About the move 10 I no longer knew more theory, but according to my database, I continued making correct moves other 12 moves more.At the move 22 I was better but I didn’t see anything clear the plan… I thought during half hour and I could not find what piece should go to each place and what plan to do ,in that moment my rival offered draw… I thought 10 minutes more trying to solve that enormous problem,but i was not able to do it and I accepted the draw after having thought my move 40 minutes.
Should I be sanctioned for accepting draw before the move 40?That it is in fact what that Philipin says.
As always:just think about that…
Question:
Does anyone know of any important games where a cheating player snuck in an extra piece or rearranged the board while the opponent was taking a bathroom break? Since it is the easiest way to cheat in chess you would think it would happen more often than not. I bet this happens more often than is reported and you don’t need a computer to do it.
Jose A Delgado
I would like to answer your question. I think there is much to be said for YES.
That is what a game is all about. It is not about you remembering theory. It is about your ability to fight and find moves in new positions.
I am against ALL DRAWS.
I am strongly. Very Strongly in favor of changing the rules of chess to eliminate all draws.
Sorry but that is what sports is all about Winners and Losers. Draws are GARBAGE results.
I say you should have been forced to play more moves. Yes I would be willing to sanction you for taking a draw and your opponent for offering a draw.
DRAWS have NO PLACE in a sporting contest. The contest is all about winning and losing. And until chess players realize that fact we will have problems.
fun_chess
I really suggest if you dont like the way the blog is run then you need to go elsewhere. I personally think Susan is running this blog very well. And I agree that she needs to have some rules. Susan’s rules make this a better blog to come to every day.
Your posting is very negative and I dont like reading comments along the lines of your posting. So please shape up or ship out.
And I will add that you should feel free to start up your own chess blog where you can write the rules for posters. until then go get a life.
Hold on a sec…
This news was first reported by TCG blog. We receive the journalists reports a good 12 hours before it gets published by the papers in the Philippines.
Go to TCG blog for latest update!
game fixing falls under the same category as cheating. it needs to be invesitgated and punished. once again there will be people falsly accused but that is not a problem. if your innocent and falsly accused then you have nothing to sweat about. if your guilty then you need to starts weating because if i was in charge you wouldnt play in any tournament again. lifetime ban, fines and retraction of tournament money as well as possible criminal sentence. the only way to deal with these degenerates is swift and harsh punishment.
wolverine
Well, it is quite an extreme thing to say that draws are garbage results. They are, in many situations, perfectly reasonable and may be the only result acceptable.
What is important here is that draws must be as a consequence of a legitimate contest. I say we should apply the Sofia Rules more widely to promote fighting chess and avoid early ‘GM draws’.
Just look what happened in Hastings. Read Steve Giddins’ last report on the tournament.
– TCG
Jose Delgado –
You’re description of your situation is not the same as the game fixing scenario.
-TCG
To anom:
In Spain our mayor sport is soccer…probably the players of all the teams in the main league are millionaires.
This year, two of our teams, Seville and Barcelona have conquered the two european championships, UEFA and Champions League.We have the top soccer players in the world and our teams are really strong.
Well,they are professional,they are champions and they allow “draw” matches(if the game finished 0-0, 1-1,etc is like a draw).
Something forbiding the draw in chess goes against the own game.
If a sponsor doesn’t allow to offer draw in the tournament that he sponsorship I will decide if I play it or not, but an executive boss of a federation, doesn’t care as of important he believe that he is , cannot make that. This change should be VOTED! among all the members of his federation. And I think that you and him are part of a minority.
I must strongly disagree with the above anonymous poster. Draws are are a part sport. Sport is much more than winning or losing. It can be argued that the logical conclusion to any game of chess is a draw.
This being said I will admit to a loathing I feel for certain short draws, draws where nothing new is played and its obvious that it’s just a couple of GM’s wanting a short day. To this end I am very interested to see what happens after the NCFP inacts these new guidelines.
At the GM level when both players play to win, the draw rate is around 25%. this is much less than the average draw rate of 55%+
Under BAP, all the draws are the fighting draws that are nothing to complain about.
Since the BAP system makes sure there is a winner and a loser for every game, we can keep the draw alive and make chess into a sport.
BAP kills the “grandmaster draw”, which I think most would agree is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with 25% of the games being fighting draws and 75% being wins.
There is something wrong with the majority of games being draws especially if there are the unfought draws.
Clint
The players have full right to decide their game result. A game is a game, and the result has nothing to do with it. A player may draw for professional or personal reasons. Why should you or I have anything to say on the matter? There are too many control freaks in the chess world now…just look at the crazy time controls, zero tolerance rule etc., to understand what I mean. It’s time these wise guys realized that every game is different and got back to running their private prisons.
You can’t play a chess tournament as if it’s football. For that matter, does any other game have a ‘killing’ schedule of games everyday (sometimes two games in a day)? Who’s got the stamina for such slugfests? Is it right for us to expect players to burn themselves up this way?
Historically, games/matches have been thrown away for money, threats to oneself/family. Fixing in chess is very less compared to other ‘spectator’ sports because there is very less or no betting. Compare that to football in Europe, or cricket in India/England where every single ball and game in a tournament is fixed!