I have just found out about a teen around here that was found cheating with a chess computer in a bathroom during a scholastic championship event (He was forfeited out of the tournament for removing his scoresheet from the room). Apparently the same youth has lied about his rating in order to get easier pairings at a different scholastic event.
Since these were not USCF events, there aren’t going to be any more imposed sanctions from the State organization.
Here’s my question. First - how would you handle it if this player came to one of your USCF tournaments. Also, if you were TDing a national tournament that this teen was coming to, would you want to know about the previous history?
My thoughts are that I will let this player know when he registers that he is on a short leash, and that any complaints or odd behavior, and he will be removed from the tournament. If he doesn’t like it, then he can simply not play in my tournaments. I don’t need his money or his participation badly enough to have him causing problems.
My experience, and this is not just in chess, is that it is harder to get rid of the problems if you allow them to occur in the first place. Not just once in the last year have I wished I was tougher at the beginning. I will not criticize your compassion in the least, but I would probably deal differently in the situation, if it is my legal right to not allow him to play.
A compromise you might consider, especially if he is a pre-reg, is to get him to do some chess community service first before you let him enter one of your events. Helping a TD with grunt work at a state championship, going over games of little kids, etc. Make him earn his way back in perhaps.
We had a local scholastic player with an integrity problem. The player was still fairly young - not yet in HS. A national event was held in our town. We let the TD team know the player needed watching. When there was a problem and the player was removed from the tournament the 3 local area TD’s talked to the parents and told them we thought the player needed some time away from the game and that we would not accpet any registrations from them for the next 6 months - then after that we would not be too inclined to listen much to a controversial claim. That plyarer is now 2-3 years older, back to playing and no hint of problems.