Fair play!

[Andrew McHarg]

Personally I know of a specific individual who played my brother last season and 'cheated' at a congress by deliberately picking up a piece placing it down on the board took his hand off the piece to press the clock realising it was going to be taken he then picked the piece back up and moved it elsewhere.

Fair play is something we like to preach but in practice if someone cheats you, the arbiter asks for witnesses and if the boards to your left and right are empty - good luck! Its a farce, In my 12 years playing chess on and off that has never happened to me. If it did and my opponent didn't admit it the board would have been flipped over by me. Why would an adult cheat a 13 year old boy? :\

The case for video evidence in chess anyone? :U

I think most people are more honourable than that.

I was playing a guy once and he put his Queen in a place where my Knight could just capture it for nothing and then pressed his clock, and then quickly put his hand back on his Queen and started moving it around as if he hadn't yet decided. When I told him that he had already made the move and even pressed the clock, he agreed and then resigned without making a fuss. I think it was just an impulse, when the horror of what he had done became immediately apparent to him. If he had made a fuss over it I would have been very angry! I might even have resorted to throwing the pieces all over the place and leaving, but I probably wouldn't have because I was still winning anyway.

Anyway, there's a silly wee irrelevant story, it's nice to see some nice gestures at the highest level, whether technically correct or not it's still a good demonstration of honour and integrity.