Well, for the first time in my life I’ve been accused of cheating. My K-5 U900 team in Pittsburgh was the object of a cheating accusation last weekend. The problem started when, to encourage the kids to play slow, I told them to get up, get water, go to the bathroom, and look at teammates games (always from behind their teammate and never making eye contact) during their games. This way they would not be glued to their chairs and could relax and play slow. Our bright tied-dyed team shirts made it clear in the first round than many of our players listened and did look over teammate’s games [ many players did set records for the longest games they’d played in their lifetimes]. Late in the first round one parent of one of my kids opponents was quite upset that teammates were looking at his daughter’s game. He also didn’t like that other teammates were in the spectator area trying to see what the position was. He confronted me with quotes of “she is playing your whole team” and that I should be ashamed of teaching kids to cheat. Well, I didn’t really know how to respond. I knew they were not cheating and when I told him that he didn’t believe me.
After the first round I instructed the kids to not look at any teammates games and to take the long way to the bathroom to avoid walking behind a teammate’s board. I thought this would be the end of it. When I asked them later they said that they did not look at teamate’s boards.
Then during Sunday’s morning games I was confronted with another accusation of cheating by the coach for a group of schools and we went to see the floor TD. Then we spent 45 minutes hearing about how a surveillance program had been set up and that one of my kids had gone to the bathroom three times in the last hour. The basic accusation is that my kids were meeting in the bathroom to exchange ideas. The floor TD was very patient but since they could not provide proof (which was impossible since there was no cheating!) and he would not punish us right then, they became very frustrated.
I got to talk for about a minute but it doesn’t do any good once some is sure you are guilty. I admitted to telling the kids they could look at the teammate’s games. I also said that I told them not to any more but they claimed that we were still doing it. We did have quite visible shirts but there were other similar tie-dyed shirts that a couple of other teams had. I also found out that they had instructed their players to follow our players to the bathroom! When I tried to apologize to the coach of the teams, he said he didn’t want to talk to me an walked away.
In the end, I told the kids for the last round to go to the bathroom before the round, limit water intake, and not look at teammate’s games. All these are things that are within the rules but I thought that it was better to be extra clean. We had the floor chief TD come to our room and talk to the team for 20 minute before the last round. He said that they could look at teammate’s games but I still told them not to. I’m not sure if all the distractions affected the play of our kids in the last round. We did a little worse than I had hoped in the last round and finished 19th.
A lot of this is due to parents who were able to continuously observe their kids play. They then interpret anything out of the ordinary as suspicious. From there it all just feeds on itself to become clear cheating. Once they had set up the surveillance program, only sitting in the chair for three hours would have removed their fears. It is just a real shame to place this level of distrust in the kids. I could have watched my son’s games easily from the crosswalk but I could not take the tension of sitting a watching.
Overall, it was one of the most depressing and frustrating things in my life! To have people be 100% sure you are cheating without proof is surreal. I was barely able to hold it together when I talked to the team before the last round. I now have 13 schools sure that I've taught my kids to cheat. Personal integrity is important to me but there is not a thing in the world I can do to convince them that they are wrong.
There’s a lot to talk about here, and I got to go, but I thought it was kind of funny for U900 kids to be accused of colluding in the bathroom. I suppose it’s possible, but not likely. Most of the time they’re not even aware of the position when they’re at the board. And the coach is saying that they’re reporting the position accurately to a teammate for constructive analysis? Have 900s gotten a lot better in the past 5 years?
Accusations of cheating occur a lot more than we would like. Three years ago, one of my players, a teenager rated about 1850, was accused by two different much lower rated opponents from the same state of violating the touch-move rule. He had never in his life been accused of cheating and now was accused twice in the same tournament. My student denies touching the pieces and there were no witnesses.
He was informed by the TD that they would watch him more closely and, if there was a third accusation, then he would be forced to move the piece. You can imagine the psychological impact of that statement by the TD, especially the second half of it, considering that he knows he did nothing wrong. Fortunately, nobody else accused him.
As long as the accusations are on a 1:1 correspondence with actual cheating, I don’t care if the rate is high or not
On the other hand, hopefully we never forget the Salem Witch Trials or the French Revolution or Stalinist Russia where false accusations and denuciations were commonplace death warrants on a platter.
It’s charming that people suspect such low-tech means of cheating. I would be more concerned about “cheating shoes” – yes even in an elementary championship. Google that phrase and read about them. They are used in China to cheat on all-important university entrance exams.
I can however imagine that the girl you discuss might be distracted by the riot of color from a whole bunch of tie-dyed shirts clustered around her tie-dyed opponent.
Mike it’s good that you got to say your piece. I doubt that what’s posted here will have much effect on the opinions of whoever thought you were breaking the rules, but maybe it will.
According to the Floor TD the rate of accusations to real cheating is around 100:1. I’m beginning to think that K-6 should be like the K-1, no parents or coachs in the room at all.
Mike
David,
As to the low-tech vs. high tech cheating. One thing I did feel uncomfortable about was the ability to see the boards from the crosswalks in the convention center. Many parents were camped out with binoculars or cameras monitoring the games. High tech cheating requires two parts: getting the postion out to someone else and getting the move reccomendation back to the player. With the ability to monitor the games directly, half of the problem is solved. I didn’t see anything suspicious but I just felt we shouldn’t make it easy.
Mike
Mike, you appear to be long on integrity, but I think you were a bit short on wisdom. In today’s paranoid atmosphere, encouraging kids to engage in behavior not typical of kids (even perfectly legal behavior) is bound to create suspicion.
Bill,
You’re right. I do realize that by telling the kids to get up and walk around I made them stand out from the crowd. The problem is that the crowd sits down plays fast and leaves before they get thirsty or needs a bathroom break. I’ve clearly learned a lesson here about standing out from the crowd while wearing bright tie died shirts.
Mike
Teach the kids to raise their hands when they have a problem. Teach them to take chess notation so they can go over their games afterwards. Then pick up a good book, find a comfortable spot to sit, and let 'em play in peace.
Spectators have no rights. I prefer to not have them in the hall for younger kids. The problems I see over and over are:
Spectators get all worked up about things that the kids don’t care about
They do not know the rules even if they think they do
They do things that bring suspicions on themselves (like use phones computers, etc) and get offended when one asks them to stop.
If a child gets upset they assume it is because someone is abusing the kid- too often it is either the kid so afraid to lose that it makes one wonder what those parents/coaches are doing to them when they do lose.
TD’s get stuck in very difficult situations when parents/coaches think they see things that are not there. At national events the spectators are usually too far away to really understand what is going on in the playing area. And in my experience most who are complaining have little capacity to listen at that point.
Each time I have seen a parent come up to complain that the score posted was wrong - their kid won more games than posted. Each time I have produced the score sheets and after discussion we find the kid was afraid to admit he/she lost. And each time that happens I worry about what is going on in the family. What pressure is being applied so that a child is afraid to tell the parent the game was lost?
Realize that at the national event the TD comes to the board, asks each player what the result is and makes sure the form agrees with what each player says. If I sense ANY hesitatation on the part of a player as to the result then I will suggest they look at it more. So for a parent to then claim at a national that the results sheet is wrong or that the other player cheated in recording the score many independent things have to go wrong with the process and that is really rare. Something may be entered into the computer wrong - it is rare but it is the more likely error.
National events would be much better if the grown ups learned to act, well, like grown ups.
What do the lawyers say? Still, they choose to participate in the event so it should be alright to take their children out of their sight. What will future attendance numbers say?
Ben,
The K-1 section does not allow parents in the room. Until this year, parents had to leave the room for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the round in the other sections. I never allow parents in the room for either my local scholastic tournaments or our state championships (except for the HS sections). I was surprised at my first Nationals that parents were allowed into the playing hall.
Mike
Usually I think the decision to keep the parents out has more to do with site limitations. I seem to remember a thread aways back discussing the desireablity of having the parents be able to watch their children play. Now I’m wondering is it truely that much of a problem or is it just a small minority of the parents/coaches causing problems? And if so then should the vast majority suffer because of their actions?
I would go along with “most” being correct. However, a small percentage can make a fair number of inaccurate claims. I think back to the early and mid '80s when the tournaments were small enough that there was space for parents at one end of the playing halls. I lost track of the number of times in those (pre-chess-computer days) that some parents were the subject of signaling accusations even though in many cases the parents either did not know how to play or were multiple classes weaker than the kids they were supposed to be signaling moves to.
Those accusations were one reason that I always push for a closed floor (which eventually became a necessity when the one-day local tournaments grew in size and the venues could not keep pace).
Since some directors have been accused (wrongly) of altering the pairings to favor some players I am glad that nowadays we can point to pairing programs being impartial. In my case I at least had more than two decades to establish a reputation for impartiality before my only child started playing tournaments.
Accepting everything you’ve said as absolutely true, your mistake was in changing your instructions to your team based solely on a parent/coach’s complaint.
That’s what the TD staff is there for.
Next time, don’t bother trying to take instructions on how to coach your team from your opponents. If they say “they are cheating” - just ignore it. Yes, they will call you nasty names and cast aspersions on your character. But, as you found out - they’ll do that anyway, no matter how much you try to please them.
When the TD Staff tells you that what you are doing is wrong, then you can start to worry about it.
There is nothing wrong with checking on teammates’ games. If anything, it’s far preferable to being in the bathroom at the same time. If I’m working the floor, I wouldn’t pay very much attention to teammates looking at each others’ games unless both players suddenly took a trip to the bathroom, together.
Personally, I think that players should leave the playing hall once their game is over - but it’s OK to watch from the spectators’ area. The problem with kids this young is that it’s hard for them to act as pure “spectators” and they often succomb to the temptation to wander the aisles among the games. Rather than try to teach them how to be good spectators, I think it’s better for them to leave the room.
but, again - do NOT let other parents/coaches tell you how to run your team. Unless, of course, you ask. I know from walking the floor at more National events than I can count that 90% of what parents/coaches say on the playing floor is hogwash - either due to ignorance or to an attempt to gain advantage. Just turn off your ears and demonstrate your ethical behavior by BEHAVIOR - words won’t do it.
