Punishment for cheating junior chess players will be decided by Central Council: AICF

"We will place the matter before the Central Council for decision," Bharat Singh Chauhan told IANS.

According to AICF, the Fair Play Panel had found a couple of players cheating in the recently concluded National Under-18 Open & Girls Online Chess Champions.

According to AICF, one player who tied for the champion position in the Under-18 category was removed from the final standings after the Fair Play Panel found the player violated Fair Play Rules in another age category event.

This resulted in the crowning of Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal as the Champion.

Similarly in the girls section, the Fair Play Panel disqualified few players for Fair Play Rules violation which paved way for Tamil Nadu's V. Rindhya to clinch the title with 8.5 points while Bristy Mukherjee of West Bengal and Dhyana Patel of Gujarat finished second and third with 8 points each, the AICF said.

Later the AICF said any player secured any prize/standings in the National Online Age Group Chess Championship-2021 and later found that he/she violated Fair Play Regulations in other category events, their standings and prizes won in all other age group categories will be scrapped.

Incidentally, it is cheating season in chess it seems.

Recently, the co-founder of stock broking company Zerodha Broking Ltd, Nikhil Kamath, tweeted a reluctant apology for cheating and winning against former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand in a Covid-19 fundraising match.

By cheating in a charity game, Kamath has also putA AZerodha Broking's reputation at stake.

"My stock account is with zerodha ... God bless my soul!" tweeted International Master Vishal Sareen.

In reply to that English Grandmaster and FIDE Vice President Nigel Short tweeted: "I think you mean "was"..."