Grandmaster banned for cheating

by Frederic Friedel
9/5/2025 – On Tuesday 22-year-old Ukrainian GM Kirill Shevchenko was stripped of his title and banned from competitive chess for three years. He was caught cheating during the Spanish Team Championship last year – and admitted to his wrongdoing. The case renewed our interest in the subject, and we take a look back at the evolution of cheating in chess – and the very tricky way it can be exercised.
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Kirill Shevchenko [photo Stefan64] was stripped of his grandmaster title by FIDE, and was furthermore banned from chess competitions for three years. The reason: he was caught cheating by hiding phones in a bathroom during the Spanish Team Championship in 2024. 

Shevchenko was found to have concealed two cellphones in a restroom near the playing hall. He admitted to hiding a phone but denied using it to access chess engines for assistance, though official investigations found clear intention to cheat, which is itself a violation of FIDE's rules. Shevchenko's frequent absences from the board aroused the suspicion of his opponents. 

Later he admitted, in a letter to FIDE, to his wrongdoings: "I, Kirill Shevchenko, am writing to you regarding the case of cheating against Vallejo Pons on October 13th, where I am accused of using a mobile phone. With the deepest regret, I have to admit that I did this."

Shevchenko has become the fourth player in history to have his GM title revoked. The others are the late Isa Kasimi, originally Igors Rausis, who had his title revoked in 2019, In 2015 IM Gaioz Nigalidze also lost his GM title after being caught cheating in Dubai, and Alexandru Crisan for rigging tournament results in Romania.

The evolution of cheating in chess

The recent renewed attention to the subject has encouraged us to take a look at the history of cheating in chess. This is done quite comprehensively in the following 33-minute video, which represents a detailed account.

Chapters (click to jump to each section): 

Here is a a series written by Frederic Friedel more than two decades ago. It was for the book Advances in Computer Games 9, edited by Professors H. J. van den Herik, University Maastricht, and B. Monien, University of Paderborn. It was published by the Universiteit Maastricht in 2001 (written and submitted by the author in 2000). In the following the text has been slightly edited and additional pictures included.

Abstract: Nowadays, players at all levels of chess can profit from computer assistance during a game of chess. This is a new development and a serious problem for the game. This contribution lists the main forms of cheating and provides some occurrences from practice. The most prevailing one (Allwermann at the Böblinger Open) is placed in a historical context by describing previously noticed cases of cheating. Finally, the problem of cheating is addressed at the highest level of play. What are the possibilities and how can we prevent cheating at this level? Since there is no clear solution, the problem of cheating remains on the list of issues to be addressed very seriously in the near future. Here is the full article written by Frederic:

  1. A history of cheating in chess (1) 
  2. A history of cheating in chess (2)
  3. A history of cheating in chess (3)
  4. A history of cheating in chess (4)
  5. A history of cheating in chess (5)

And here some additional articles:

Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.