The fake Heroes of Chernobyl

by ChessBase
5/3/2005 – From April 14 to 26 an interesting GM tournament called "Memorial Heroes of Chernobyl" was held in Óity a Slavutich, Ukraine. The official tournament site has games, results and pictures. All very nice, except that apparently the event never happened, as TWIC's Mark Crowther reports.

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Fake Heroes Tournament

Recently TWICThe Week in Chess, certainly one of the most assiduous and comprehensive chess game collectors in the world – reported on an International Chess GM Tournament called "Memorial Heroes of Chernobyl", which place in Óity a Slavutich (Kiev region, Ukraine) from April 14th-26th, 2005. Here is the official final table of the event:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heroes of Chernobyl Mem Slavutich UKR (UKR), 14-26 iv 2005 cat. VIII (2427)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Nosenko, Alexander IM UKR 2513 # 1 = = = 1 = = = 1 1 1 1 1 10 1
2 Kislinsky, Alexey IM UKR 2410 0 # = 1 0 = = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9,5 2
3 Komarov, Dimitri GM UKR 2531 = = # = = = = = 1 = 1 1 1 1 9 3
4 Drozdovskij, Yuri GM UKR 2517 = 0 = # = = = = = 1 1 1 1 1 8,5 4-5
5 Savinov, Viktor IM UKR 2507 = 1 = = # = = = = = 1 1 1 = 8,5 4-5
6 Bobras, Piotr IM POL 2501 0 = = = = # = = = = 1 1 1 1 8 6
7 Mikhaletz, Lubomir GM UKR 2451 = = = = = = # = 0 = = = 1 1 7 7
8 Stepa, Dima FM MDA 2422 = 0 = = = = = # 0 = = = 1 1 6,5 8-9
9 Savinov, Vladimir MDA 2407 = 0 0 = = = 1 1 # 0 = = = 1 6,5 8-9
10 Indrak, Igor FM CZE 2357 0 0 = 0 = = = = 1 # = 0 = 1 5,5 10
11 Chokhonelidze, Giorgi IM GEO 2311 0 0 0 0 0 0 = = = = # = 1 1 4,5 11
12 Huda, Maryana UKR 2290 0 0 0 0 0 0 = = = 1 = # = = 4 12
13 Tuka, Oleg UKR 2400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = = 0 = # = 2 13
14 Ivanov, Sergei RUS 2354 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 = = # 1,5 14
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tournament has an official web site, which is painfully slow, but does offer results, games (incomplete ChessBase component files, with the instructions: "It is save to keep all files on your computer"), and pictures.


Thumbnail pictures on the site, which expand into small pictures (if you have the time to wait)

Sounds all very nice, except that TWIC's editor Mark Crowther has uncovered an interesting fact: the event never took place, the tournament was faked. Crowther: "It's possible some games were played at a rapid time rate but a large number of the participants didn't compete at all as the organisers didn't have any money and its now clear some of them didn't even know of the event. I gather there is a game file for the entire event!"

The Ukrainian Chess Federation has confirmed that it plans to apply sanctions to the organizers and arbiters. And they will not send the results of this tournament to FIDE. Mark Crowther has advised chess players to delete the tournament from their databases.

Links

  • TWIC Vol. 545 with four rounds and 28 games (hurry get them before Mark deletes them!)
  • TWIC Vol. 546 with a report on the fake tournament

You can get the weekly installment of chess games by going to the TWIC download page or by clicking on the menu "Get new games" in ChessBase 9. This will automatically retrieve the last four issues (if the program does not already find them in your database directory) and display the contents in the database window.


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