Support for Mihaela Sandu

by ChessBase
5/30/2015 – Yesterday we reported on the suspicions that had been expressed after the remarkable performance of WGM Mihaela Sandu at the European Women's Individual championship in Chakvi, Georgia. The protest was lodged by her rivals in the event. Now the Romanian Chess Federation and other players have expressed their support, and Mihaela Sandu herself has issued a press statement.

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Letter of support by the Romanian Chess Federation

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.

      

Letter of complaint by Mihaela Sandu

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

The blog of Irina Bulmaga: Cheating and Ego Matters

Friday, 29 May 2015

While studying hard for my final exams and having no time to throw away at all, I simply couldn't help myself expressing my deepest disgust about the situation where a few WGM's, ex World and European Champions and strong GMs amongst them, accused my colleague from the National Team- WGM Mihaela Sandu for cheating.

WGM Mihaela Sandu

We have been colleagues and also opponents for quite a few years so far and I find this accusations very disturbing, not only for Mihaela herself, but for the chess community as well. She is a very dedicated player who loves playing and teaching chess. All the games we played against each other were very combative and fought until the last drop of blood. I have a high respect and consideration for Mihaela's chess.

I understand that losing to a lower rated opponent can be quite frustrating, but I don't understand the need of being so paranoid and unprofessional. I find this whole situation simply outrageous and I want to point out that chess is not war and not all the means that can be used to win are ok. I used to think that professional chess players are very intelligent and highly sensible persons and as sportsmen they all demonstrate a high level of fair play. Well, I guess I couldn't be more wrong.

I understand that we all want our rights to be respected, then why not respect the rights of others? I can understand the accusations made though I could never agree with them. I understand that with so many cheating cases around, one might get paranoid. What I don't understand is:

  1. On what grounds could someone who didn't even get the chance to play against Mihaela accuse her?

  2. Why the arbiter to whom the accusations were presented after the game finished didn't check Mihaela immediately in order to clarify the situation and avoid all this fuzz?

  3. Why the organizers, after thoroughly having analyzed the situation and having come to the conclusion that there were no proof of any kind and the player was wrongly accused didn't take out those shameful signed letters from the walls of the playing hall? Why didn't they publicly apologize to Mihaela?

  4. Why the organizers didn't give a warning to the player who clearly took advantage of this situation in order to put pressure on Mihaela before their game?

Maybe some of you would think of this words to be somewhat harsh, but how do you think Mihaela felt with all this false accusations? How should I feel now as a professional chess player? Should I be afraid to play good chess and to win against stronger opponents? Does it mean that in 10 years I will be cataloged as an expired chess player who doesn't have the right to play strong? What is with all this nonsense?

I am very disappointed that such kind of situations can happen nowadays and I hope that conclusions will be drawn and measures will be taken so that such unfair and abusing behavior would never happen again!

Mihaela, all your friends and colleagues are with you, cheering for you and my admiration for your fighting spirit has only grown! Keep up the good work and I cross my fingers for you to keep offending those high egos!

Top standings after ten rounds

Rk. SNo Title Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 15 GM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2456 8.5 2359 53.5 57.5
2 7 IM Batsiashvili Nino GEO 2473 8.0 2421 58.5 61.5
3 14 GM Danielian Elina ARM 2458 7.5 2417 55.5 59.5
4 20 IM Kashlinskaya Alina RUS 2423 7.0 2434 57.0 61.5
5 30 IM Guseva Marina RUS 2391 7.0 2422 56.5 60.5
6 4 WGM Girya Olga RUS 2479 7.0 2404 58.0 62.5
7 11 GM Socko Monika POL 2467 7.0 2348 54.5 59.5
8 29 IM Gaponenko Inna UKR 2391 7.0 2348 51.0 53.5
9 6 WGM Goryachkina Aleksandra RUS 2474 7.0 2346 49.5 53.5
10 25 IM Bodnaruk Anastasia RUS 2402 6.5 2395 56.0 60.0
11 22 IM Savina Anastasia RUS 2417 6.5 2379 54.5 58.0
12 2 GM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2527 6.5 2360 55.5 60.0
13 9 GM Hoang Thanh Trang HUN 2472 6.5 2355 54.5 59.0
14 16 IM Melia Salome GEO 2452 6.5 2347 55.0 58.0
15 8 IM Paehtz Elisabeth GER 2473 6.5 2340 49.0 53.0
16 45 WGM Sandu Mihaela ROU 2300 6.0 2471 62.0 65.0
17 18 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina RUS 2450 6.0 2408 58.5 63.0
18 52 WIM Abdulla Khayala AZE 2266 6.0 2382 49.5 53.5
19 5 IM Galliamova Alisa RUS 2478 6.0 2372 54.0 59.0
20 31 WGM Charochkina Daria RUS 2391 6.0 2365 51.0 54.0
21 42 WGM Charkhalashvili Inga GEO 2318 6.0 2354 47.0 50.0
22 13 IM Mkrtchian Lilit ARM 2459 6.0 2332 51.5 56.0
23 17 IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2451 6.0 2307 48.5 53.0
24 34 IM Guramishvili Sopiko GEO 2370 6.0 2306 47.5 50.5
25 19 WGM Zawadzka Jolanta POL 2434 6.0 2283 48.0 52.0
26 28 IM Atalik Ekaterina TUR 2392 6.0 2246 44.5 47.0

Individual performance of Mihaela Sandu

Rd. Bo. SNo Title Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 45 94 Mammadova Aysel 1862 AZE 2.5 w 1
2 12 16 IM Melia Salome 2452 GEO 6.5 s 1
3 4 6 WGM Goryachkina Aleksandra 2474 RUS 6.0 w 1
4 1 4 WGM Girya Olga 2479 RUS 6.5 s 1
5 1 10 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 GEO 4.0 w 1
6 1 7 IM Batsiashvili Nino 2473 GEO 8.0 s 0
7 2 3 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2512 BUL 4.5 w 1
8 2 15 GM Zhukova Natalia 2456 UKR 7.5 s 0
9 3 14 GM Danielian Elina 2458 ARM 6.5 w 0
10 6 11 GM Socko Monika 2467 POL 6.0 w 0
As we go into publication Mihaela Sandu is playing her final round game in Chakvi against IM Alisa Galliamova, with the black pieces. A somewhat deeper scan of the ten games played so far has not yielded anything that would indicate that computer assistance might be involved. However, the fact that Sandu without exception won all the games in which there was live transmission and lost all in which the broadcast was delayed is going to be used by her opponents to justify their suspicions. We once again urge our readers to judge for themselves, using the computer correlation function in ChessBase 13 (highlight the games in the games list, right click and use "Edit – Let's Check Engine Correlation"). Please post your conclusions in the feedback section below, where possible stating which engine were involved in the analysis.
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arno55 arno55 1/17/2016 02:31
I also lost to players ELO 1600 and my ELO is 1849 you play against the pieces not to the people and Sandu won against a 2512 player who blundered her queen away also 1800-1900 players could have seen this trap so she didn't need technical support at all and white (Sandu) played the opening not extremely good it was black who forced the game and it was also in more games I've seen from Sandu when you (her opponent) avoid a draw and underestimate Sandu you give her chances. Besides I was able to win to players over 2000 and drew several times to players 2300
Martas Martas 6/3/2015 12:01
Maybe one more comparison to case of GM So, who was punished for distracting GM Akobian during the game. I would say public accusation of opponent right before the game makes much more damage then writing notes.
Punishing outside assistance is a must, but I would say bypassing rules when you become suspicious about it (such as public accusation) should be punished as well. This problem has already it's history (Topalov-Kramnik, Mamedyarov - Kurnosov, Zhukova - Sandu), I wonder how many cases like this would be enough for taking some measures.
Doutzen Doutzen 6/2/2015 11:21
That's tha situation! http://irinabulmaga.blogspot.ro/2015/05/cheating-and-ego-matters.html?m=1
@tyre you're great:)
tyre tyre 6/2/2015 12:14
There is no evidence she cheated. Her moves in the 5 games are logical.No bizarre computer moves in them.
So what this nonsense.Those bitches are derailing.

genem genem 6/1/2015 11:54
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The Letter from Other Players:
We have already asked for a 15 min delay in the live transmission of all the games. It is a common solution, used in many top level tournaments.
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Tournament Director:
Regarding to the first letter, organisers agree with 32 players to delay 15 minutes transmission of all games on the internet from round 8 to 11.
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Frederic Friedel, and probably others too, prominently warned about the folly of broadcasting the moves without a common sense 15 minutes delay at least 7 or more years ago. Why has there been such a long delay in Tournament Directors implement the common sense delay? T.D. shares some blame for this ugly scene.
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QUOTE OF ARTICLE: "After seven rounds Sandu was still leading, in joint first (together with IM Nino Batsiashvili), which led to the action of her colleagues in the tournament."
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Ms. Batsiashvili signed the first letter, but not the second letter a day or more later.
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I do not see in the ChessBase .com articles any claim of evidence by the other players, other than Ms. Sandu's current first place tie midway through the tournament? If they have some evidence, then fine but other 32 players need to state the evidence - which they did not do. Is there something important that the report is omitting? If nothing has been omitted, those 32 other players have some explaining to do.
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Sounds like the other players in this tournament really want a rule to forbid players from winning tournaments where their rating is 150 points lower than the upper range of players.
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V.Topalov, and his hovering manager S.Danilov, got away with aggregiously accusing V.Kramnik of cheating (by electronic means; "Pottygate") during Kramnik's defeat of Topalov in the Match World Chess Championship of 2006. Other players say Topalov was not punished, and a precedent was set. The closest thing Topalov suffered for his unethical accusation was damage to his personal reputation among the subset of worldwide chess enthusiasts who care about ethics.
How ironic that Danilov wrote and signed the offical letter cited in this ChessBase article that admonishes the 32 players who accused Sandu.
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By the way, it looks like there might be even more cheating going on in this tournament, because its top rated player, B.K., is 2.0 points behind Grischuk's wife after ten rounds, despite a major 71 point Elo superiority.
GM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2456 8.5
GM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2527 6.5
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And would these other 32 players also suggest that we reassess F.Caruana's stunning 7.0 start in St.Louis 2014, in what was advertised as one of the strong tournaments in history? Gosh, Caruana's performance was statistically very unlikely.
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QUOTE OF DANILOV: "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."
True.
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imdvb_8793 imdvb_8793 6/1/2015 09:45
"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."

Damn straight!

Needless to say, I add my full support and confidence in Mihaela Sandu's innocence to that of the Romanian Chess Federation and others, as someone who has know her personally for many years, and who knows that she would never even for a second consider cheating at the game she loves so much.
Stupido Stupido 6/1/2015 04:58
A 5-0 win streak is hardly a proof of anything for a player of that experience and level. This has nothing to do with a 2200 amateur who destroys grandmasters playing games wtih computers' firt choice moves.

There should be hard facts to substantiate such an accusation. There does not seen to be any so far.
Rational Rational 6/1/2015 12:35
In bridge they play matches , which need two tables of 4 players each one in the closed room and one in the open room. Spectators can see what goes on in the closed room via vugraph which is a sort of delayed transmission with commentary.
It takes quite a lot of the atmosphere of normal bridge away though. Bridge is different to classical chess also in that each hand only takes a few minutes as opposed to four hour classical games.
Personally I think we could have chess games as say best of 6 blitz games rather than One long game which would help. The very slow time limits come from back in the 1800s when players had little opening theory and middle game or ending models to base their play on. nowadays games could be played a lot more quickly, look how almost all the best blitz players are also the best classical.
The_Tenant The_Tenant 6/1/2015 04:30
@sxb103
Thank you for the clarification about scrambling. Seems it's more complicated after all!
So what other possible solutions are there? How about scanning all players before playing starts using one of those wand things? That ought to deter most cheats.
sxb103 sxb103 6/1/2015 03:40
The _Tenant: It's not that easy to scramble modern communications such as cell phones( 3G and 4G) because they use spread spectrum and OFDM which are originally anti-jamming technologies. Also it may jam cell phones in the whole hotel ( where usually such venues are held). In addition in most countries , there are laws against communications interference.
Using a screen room such as a Faraday cage would work, but is expensive and inconvenient. This also does not preclude a cheater from using a cell phone in the bathroom. The cell phone could have been planted there by a third party.

The_Tenant The_Tenant 6/1/2015 02:37
As suggested previously, why can't they just use some kind of electronic device to scramble all wireless communications so that no one can send or receive any moves from computers? It's really a straight forward solution to what seems to be getting repetatively presented as a difficult problem, when really it's not.
Captain Picard Captain Picard 6/1/2015 01:09
I think everyone is paranoid due to the large number of confirmed cheating cases that have come to light recently. I think that anyone can have a good run like she has had. She beat 5 opponents in a row who were all rated only about 150 points higher than her. Why do these women think this is such an impossible accomplishment??? Ivanov was beating players 300-400 points higher... I think it is now impossible to determine who cheats and who does not. The savy cheater doesn't need to cheat every game, and when they do cheat they do not need to cheat on every move. This problem will never go away completely. However, I don't know why they do not delay the transmission of moves for every FIDE game. This poor lady is most likely the victim of paranoia and it is an incredible shame. I hope she sues everyone who signed those petitions. These women have essentially ruined her career, her passion, and ultimately her entire life due to their reckless accusations. What a shame.
Martas Martas 5/31/2015 11:40
Slightly comparable to 6 year old case of GM Mamedyarov. I've very much disliked his accusation of GM Kurnosov, but compared to this case it seems like a behaviour of gentleman. Main differences :
1/ he was protesting after his game with GM Kurnosov (not trying to take any advantage from his accusation)
2/ he was not hiding behind signatures of his friends
3/ he published his reasons for the behaviour including quite detailed analysis of games which made him suspicious
Well maybe Mrs. Zhukova will at least try to explain this. Otherwise I feel sorry for her husband as well.
Derek880 Derek880 5/31/2015 11:11
This is an embarrassment and puts a dark face on the women's game, which I have usually found more enjoyable than men's tournaments because of the women's fighting spirit. Men are guided by ignorant egoism, which allow us to do and say stupid things. However, I always thought women were above this type of thing. I'm very disappointed to see that this has been proven wrong.
Logos Logos 5/31/2015 10:50
@ ff2017

You can call them whatever you like. A free citizen still has that right, and your name-calling does not change anything. It does, however, suggest much about you and those who support you. I am glad I do not live in a society where your values prevail.
ff2017 ff2017 5/31/2015 06:22
@Logos "Any free citizen has a right to leave her country and represent another. Kateryna Lagno is no exception. To use such words about a colleague's decision is shameful."

Ah yes, we call these people, "traitors".
Jason Rihel Jason Rihel 5/31/2015 05:29
The computer correlations don't look too impressive to me. Some of her later round opponents had much higher correlations to the computer. The fact is, many of the ones that do match are 'only' moves, or one of only a few. When there are many reasonable options for moves, the moves often don't match.
MagicLieske MagicLieske 5/31/2015 04:51
http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2015/5/31/Game1477860963.html
the game correlation, 53% matching if I remember right.
chessdimlad chessdimlad 5/31/2015 04:37
The prize money of any of the signatories should be withheld. If Ms Sandu is cleared of the accusations the withheld prize money can be used to compensate her.
Deep_Port Deep_Port 5/31/2015 02:45
Two things

* Check moves against computer software and look at percentages versus other players

* Scramble wifi frequencies using small electronic device in playing room
semprun semprun 5/31/2015 02:29
I myself have had a few tournaments I have performed well above my rating. Luckily, in all of them there were blunders in most of the games. It's worrying to think that suspicions may arise if one performs well, but it is also very annoying to suspect someone you are playing is cheating.

I have to agree that I could not care in the least if my games were transmitted after a 15 min delay, in fact I WOULD WELCOME it to avoid suspicions. AND being thoroughly searched (including my shoes :-) )
ashperov ashperov 5/31/2015 12:13
First of all its clear this nonsense derailed her tournament which is a shame.
Secondly the players that signed a petition did so without any evidence? perhaps even just consulting a chess engine would have turned them off the idea yet they didn't even bother.
I live in Africa, and I have come across disgusting people plentiful. Be they the leaders of the country or what not- These characteristics have been around in our world for thousands of years, and have done their part in bringing us the imperfect world we have today. Long story short. In the world fair competition is hardly realised. HOWEVER in an organised tournament this is supposed to be garenteed. They beat her off the board. These problems require some ingenuity. Too strict and you chase shadows. Too lenient and the monsters come out
Deep_Port Deep_Port 5/31/2015 11:00
1. Anyone can check her moves against multiple computer engines using Fritz or Arena

2. To deal with cheating, small devices that scramble wireless communications can be placed in the playing room.
Pionki Pionki 5/31/2015 10:53
FIDE needs to work out rules against irresponsible organizers of chess events. I hope organizers in Georgia will be punished.
daftarche daftarche 5/31/2015 10:19
She lost her last four games(R9-R12).
asdasdasdas asdasdasdas 5/31/2015 09:02
Poor woman.. Trying so hard and then running into this nonsense.. I personally hope she will recover cause she's a great player obviously!! Problem she has that her competition is solely women, stupid crazy and perhaps in some cases paranoid women.. Why not simply accept someone is better than yourself? I'd like to say fucking bitches, I'm actually that upset.. Wasting a tourney of a perfect legitimate woman. It is really sad and should be punished. Hardcore.
molespe molespe 5/31/2015 07:27
KOLTD. You are not probably a very strong player or you have a conflict of interests. All the moves in the game you bring as a "proof" are quite stereotyped and human-like. When it comes to the only move that has some difficulty 26 f6 that she misses and instead plays the rather stereotyped Rad1, you claim that she misses a stronger continuation to make things not too obvious. The point is f6 is not a so difficult move to find, and even typical in this structure. Nobody being computer assisted with a certain level of understanding chess, would avoid playing this. Why do you think Mamedova plays 27... f6, just to prevent this tematic idea of opening the diagonal for the white bishop and pointing to h7... This in fact, weakens the diagonal b3-h7 and the way that Sandu takes advantage of it is against quite obvious: reñove the knight from c5 and play Bb3.
MrL2014 MrL2014 5/31/2015 06:23
@KOTLD: You better leave this type of analyses to GM level players! Sandu was seed 45 in this tournament so she played on board 45 in the first round. Only 35 games were live during this tournament so Sandu's 1st game was not live!
Sandu is 450 ELO points stronger than her 1st round opponent and whoever has some clue about chess realizes that she would need no help to beat such an opponent.
Your post shows that one can statistically prove anything!

sco-ish sco-ish 5/31/2015 05:41
Disgusting, this is outright defamation, and should be subjected to the full extent of the law. How can you outright accuse a player so blatantly without any empirical evidence? Shame on all 15 signatures. What? Someone can't have a good tournament once in a while? Goodness gracious me.
Captain Slag Captain Slag 5/31/2015 05:24
Good lord....KOTLD ...I applaud your effort in perhaps trying to clarify this mess but it is ultimately pointless. What you are suggesting is guilt by mere association and a tenuous coalition with the output of a computer program. Try taking a historical game played between any top 2 players of the day who have been long dead and you will probably achieve the same result as you have posted. Would it be your suggestion that somehow they cheated as well???
Cyric Renner Cyric Renner 5/31/2015 05:14
She doesn't react well to pressure or controversy that is for certain. Lost her next four games. It was a cheap shot by the other players, but that is how it is going these days. A lower rated player simply cannot have a good performance now without raising eyebrows.
mylife4iron mylife4iron 5/31/2015 05:08
Thanks kotld. Now the question is...how typical is that for a 2300 player? Is it common to have all moves within the first 3 computer choices, with the majority in the top 2? There are many other questions on my mind, like how much of a difference each engine makes, whether any of the second or third best moves were CLEARLY worse than the first, whether the game necessarily followed a tightrope (lots of forcing tactical lines, etc)...and of course, what happened in the other games that she won.
Cajunmaster Cajunmaster 5/31/2015 02:54
Having played Zhukova at Fischerandom, I can testify that she is easy to beat. This is from an amateur...
theoldmanhomeyard@gmail.com theoldmanhomeyard@gmail.com 5/31/2015 01:35
I think the 15min delay should be employed in all international events but see no real reason why suspicion fell on her anyway. Well prepared players sometimes get above average expected results and that is understandable (and earn't!). :)
Captain Slag Captain Slag 5/31/2015 01:17
I have said it once and I will say it again, everyone has been so paranoid about catching these new age techno-chess cheats at tournaments, I have seen no one really pause to wonder what would happen if it all went pear shaped and someone making an accusation of computerized maleficence actually got it wrong....Now it would seem we have reached such a point and it does appear that the FIDE circus is just as confused now as it is with it's own rules over cheating. There really needs to be some caution here...BIG TIME.
On another subject some what related. The thing that somewhat confuses me is when a male is accused of cheating because he plays to quickly, doesn't look at the board long enough, goes to the toilet to much, moves in his chair to often and on it goes, the chess world raises it's collective fists to the sky accepting no rhyme, reason or rationale and bays for blood wanting at best cavity searches and at worse life time bans. Yet a woman is accused and it is poor her. Simply put, from top to bottom what a bunch of hypocrites.
ThisIsNotMe ThisIsNotMe 5/31/2015 12:30
"Just use let's check in Chessbase 13" ... C'mon CB - do you expect us all to shell out 270 Euro??? The shop says "everyone uses it" I don't think so ... I suspect it's a minority of your readers who have it.

Just give us the analysis. We all want to know what happened, especially in light of the before/after delayed broadcast issue.
Logos Logos 5/30/2015 10:52
This is not the first time Zhukova behaves in an unsporting fashion. She also had unwarranted and nasty words for Kateryna Lagno when she switched federations from Ukraine to Russia:

"Getting rid of the parasites is always painless. Well, love cannot be forced. If she doesn't want to play for Ukraine, why do we need such people? We didn't communicate at the Olympiad, she avoided it. Cleansing is always for the better." Source: http://chess-news.ru/en/node/16452

Any free citizen has a right to leave her country and represent another. Kateryna Lagno is no exception. To use such words about a colleague's decision is shameful.
ember3 ember3 5/30/2015 10:44
In the first game Sandu - Mammadova she missed two easy wins for white: 26. f6 instead of Rad1 and 33. Qc5 instead of Rxd8. Both moves would have won a piece for white. If she cheated she didn't do it very well.
PEB216 PEB216 5/30/2015 10:05
Gee guys, I wanted to give my moral support to WGM Mihaela Sandu, then I'm told "Sandu without exception won all the games in which there was live transmission and lost all in which the broadcast was delayed." Now I don't know what to believe!!!
syuanjiang syuanjiang 5/30/2015 09:37
Natalia Zhukova, Alisa Galliamova, Lanita Stetsko, Anastasia Zezyulkina, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Anastasia Savina, Dean Bilenka, Jovana Voinovich, Evgeny Gadfly, Salome Melia, Svetlana Matveeva, Marina Guseva, Anna Tskhadadze, Tatyana Ivanova, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya are ALL losers. If they spent more time preparing themselves instead of making baseless accusation, they would be better players. Instead, they chose the "low road" - shame on them, they are the people who should be banned and kicked out of the tournament!
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