Lo and behold: the cheaters of the chess world. You clicked “Hall of Fame”, but you’re in the other building. No legends here. Just the players who smuggled help into a game of pure thought: a master hidden in a cabinet, a Bluetooth receiver in a cap, and a lot of phones in a lot of toilets.
House rules
Getting in is hard. FIDE, a federation or a court ruled against you, or you confessed. Suspicion alone doesn’t open the door, and ordinary online accounts never get in.
Every case comes with the story, how it was done and the verdict, plus sources you can check.
The Shame score is our own, very unscientific verdict: one pawn for cheeky, five for shameless.
One famous case is here unsolved. It’s clearly marked, and it gets no score.
1770#8
The Mechanical Turk
Wolfgang von Kempelen’s chess “machine” · Vienna
Shame score
The story
Built in 1770 to impress Empress Maria Theresa, the Turk was a turbaned figure seated at a wooden cabinet that seemed to play chess on its own. It toured Europe and America for decades and beat most of its challengers. It is said to have played Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin, although the accounts of those games don’t agree.
How they cheated
A strong player hid inside the cabinet. He followed the game through magnets under the board and moved the Turk’s arm with levers, while sliding panels and fake clockwork fooled audiences whenever the doors were opened. Masters such as Johann Allgaier and William Lewis took turns inside.
The verdict
Never punished, just slowly exposed. The Turk burned in a fire in Philadelphia on 5 July 1854, and its secret was published in full three years later.
Crișan became a grandmaster in 1993, and in January 1998 his rating of 2635 put him around 33rd in the world. Yet hardly anyone had seen him play: no results in the national championship’s top group, no Olympiad, no notable games against Romania’s best players.
How they cheated
He didn’t cheat at the board. He faked the paperwork: reports of tournaments and results that earned him rating points and title norms.
The verdict
FIDE’s congress recommended taking away his titles in 2001, but only in 2015 did FIDE strip all of them and cut his rating back to 2132. He is one of just four players ever to lose the grandmaster title over cheating.
Sharma’s rating jumped from 1933 to 2484 in just 64 games, fast enough to make officials suspicious. In round seven of a 2006 tournament in New Delhi, Indian Air Force officials checked the top eight boards with metal detectors.
How they cheated
A Bluetooth receiver sewn into his cap. Accomplices outside the hall ran a chess computer and sent him the moves.
The verdict
Banned for 10 years by the All India Chess Federation. As officials put it: “It is like cheating on exams.”
At the 2010 Olympiad, a French grandmaster was helped by two compatriots: his team captain, GM Arnaud Hauchard, and IM Cyril Marzolo, who followed the games from home in France. The French federation says the scheme was uncovered by its vice-president, Joanna Pomian.
How they cheated
Marzolo checked Feller’s games with a chess program and texted moves to Hauchard as coded numbers, about 200 messages in all. Hauchard then stood behind particular tables in the playing hall, each table standing for a move.
The verdict
FIDE banned Feller for 2 years and 9 months (Hauchard 3 years, Marzolo 18 months). In 2019 a French criminal court in Thionville found his conduct amounted to fraud and gave him a six-month suspended prison sentence. Feller denied the accusations.
In December 2012 an unknown, untitled Bulgarian scored 6 out of 9 at the Zadar Open, beat three grandmasters and gained about 70 rating points in one go. More wins over strong players followed in 2013, and more than twenty Bulgarian grandmasters and international masters signed a petition refusing to play him without anti-cheating checks.
What was suspected
A device hidden in his shoe or under his shirt, feeding him moves. In Blagoevgrad in October 2013 he refused to take off his shoes for the arbiter and forfeited the game. In Navalmoral de la Mata, Spain, his shoes were checked and nothing was found; when a later search reached his chest, where tape was visible under his shirt, he stopped it and left the tournament. No device was ever found.
The verdict
Never proven. The Bulgarian Chess Federation banned him for good in December 2013, and in January 2014 FIDE took away his FIDE Master title and removed him from the rating list. He said he was treated unfairly.
In round six of the 2015 Dubai Open, his opponent, GM Tigran L. Petrosian, complained that Nigalidze kept visiting the same toilet cubicle.
How they cheated
Officials found a phone hidden behind the waste bin in that toilet, logged into Nigalidze’s social media account, with his current game being analysed in a chess app.
The verdict
Thrown out of the tournament on the spot. FIDE then banned him for 3 years and stripped his grandmaster title (he kept his IM title). He admitted it.
At the 2015 festival in Imperia, other players complained about his results and his behaviour, including strange blinking at the board.
How they cheated
Before round eight, a metal detector check found a pendant on a cord, wired to a small box sewn into his undershirt under his armpit. Officials suspected a hidden camera sent the position out and the moves came back in Morse code. He called the pendant a lucky charm.
The verdict
He refused a closer look and left. The Italian federation suspended him, and FIDE found him guilty of cheating and banned him worldwide for two years.
Latvia, playing for Czech Republic · GM · Strasbourg Open
Shame score
The story
At 58, Rausis had climbed to 2686, the oldest player in the world top 100, mostly by beating much weaker opponents. FIDE’s Fair Play Commission had been watching him for months.
How they cheated
In July 2019 he was photographed in a toilet cubicle during a game in Strasbourg, looking at his phone.
The verdict
He confessed to cheating four times (three with a phone, one pre-arranged result). FIDE banned him for 6 years and took away his grandmaster title. While still banned, he turned up at a Latvian rapid tournament under a new name, Isa Kasimi, and withdrew after a protest. He died in 2024.
Ukraine, later Romania · GM · Spanish Team Championship
Shame score
The story
A former world no. 39 (peak rating 2694), he was thrown out of the Spanish Team Championship in October 2024 after complaints from his opponents, GMs Francisco Vallejo and Bassem Amin. He kept leaving the board for the same toilet cubicle.
How they cheated
A phone was found hidden in the toilets, next to a note whose handwriting was matched to his. He admitted hiding a phone and using it to open Lichess, but denied it affected his games.
The verdict
FIDE found he had tried to cheat and banned him for 3 years, one of them suspended. On appeal in August 2025 it also took away his grandmaster title. He is the highest-rated player ever suspended for cheating.
Facts as reported by FIDE, national federations, courts and the chess press; see the sources under each case. Spotted a mistake? Write to [email protected].