Support for Mihaela Sandu

Nr.306/28.05.2015

To the Organizers of the European's Women Championship 2015
Chief Arbiter of the European's Women Championship 2015
European Chess Union

Dear Sirs,

Romanian Chess Federation, being aware about some allegations regarding the possible cheating by the Romanian Player WGM Mihaela SANDU during EWICC 2015 which is happening in these days in Chakvi – GEORGIA, hereby ask you to observe strictly the FIDE Anti Cheating regulations and FIDE Ethic rules in this situation.

This field was recently regulated by FIDE in what regarding cheating cases, false accusations and sanctions and that is why we draw your special attention in dealing with the situation. In this particular case, it is clear when a Cheating Complaint, without any evidence or clue, was forwarded in the stage when Mihaela SANDU was leading the tournament, that a big pressure was put on her. Here we mention also the negative atmosphere around the case and that she is complaining about severe harassments, situation that clearly affects the capacity of Mihaela SANDU to compete at her best.

The Romanian Chess Federation (RCF) states that Mihaela Sandu had a irreproachable fair play attitude during all her chess career and express its will to support and protect Mihaela SANDU against any breach of Anti cheating or Ethics rules and kindly ask you to inform RCF about the entire situation and what actions were taken by the arbiters and organizer.

We assure you that our federation is supporting FIDE anti cheating policy, including the protection against false accusations and for the sake of chess, we ask your strong support in assuring a proper environment during the EWICC 2015.

Complaint

Dear organisers of the European Women's Chess Championship 2015,

I am writing in response to the attack I have been submitted to in the past few days in the European Women's Chess Championship in Georgia.

First of all I would like to know what is the official reason of the interruption of the transmission of my game in round 6 against Nino Batsiashvili? That was a critical point in the tournament for me, I was leading the tournament and that interruption started to generate suspicions about my play.

I somehow managed to pull myself together after this incident and my 6th round loss, and win another game in round 7, but after this I was submitted to a very strong attack from several women chessplayers in a written letter.

In this letter they were expressing "concerns about the situation with M. Sandu's performance" and asked to stop the live transrnissions of my garnes. The letter was signed by 15 chessplayers, the first signature on the list was of my next round opponent, N. Zhukova.

So I am writing this letter to file a complaint about their behaviour. What they did was a very dirty attack, permanently damaging my name in the chess world. Also want to mention Zhukova's paltry behaviour is standing out as she was the main benefactor of the defamation campaign, making psychological attacks right before our game.

I play chess for a long time now and I have never cheated in my life. My life revolves around chess, I am both a chess teacher and a professional chess player so my name in chess is very important to me. I have come to this cornpetition after serious chess preparation, with great hopes of a good result and confidence in myself. But some people seem to think that if you have a good result, you have to be punished.

I have tried to stay calm and play as usual after this attack, but I have learned it's impossible. There is an enormous psychological pressure and it's difficult to find the energy to play normal chess. I even thought about withdrawing from the tournament, but my family and my dear ones support me and tell me to continue in spite of everything.

I also want to inform all 15 chessplayers who have signed the above mentioned letter that what they did is a very serious crime, smearing my name, and that together with my Federation we're seeking legal counseling to make justice.

I hope this case is sent to FIDE and that they will take measures to prevent such situations in the future. I am looking forward to your official answer,

Mihaela Sandu