Looks like many players are coming back to chess. One person caught my eye who has been gone since 2006 who cheated in an event. I’m surprised that uschess let this person play again.
I would expect that due process would be followed. Was there an Ethics case? If so then what was the verdict?
I’ve never been on the Ethics committee but I’ve heard of 1-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year suspensions. There could have been a lifetime suspension (one that bars a person from playing in US Chess rated events) that I haven’t heard of.
Rather than speculate about it here, the OP should send specific details to the US Chess office.
Among the possibilities here are:
The OP was wrong about the player in question
No official sanctions were made against the player in question
Sanctions against the player in question have expired
Current sanctions against the player in question were not accessible to the TD, so the TD was not aware of current sanctions against the player in question
As to the subject matter of this thread, we are seeing a rebound from the lows experienced during the Pandemic, where we bottomed out at around 52,000 members. As of the end of March, we were approaching 79,000, surpassing the lows from the last membership slowdown in 2010-12.
March is usually the peak of the year for memberships, so we may not see significant additional membership gains until the next academic year begins.
See the graphs at uschess.org/datapage/USCF0200.htm
Without naming the player I would think that the ethics committee would have been involved. It was back in 2006 in the world open. I’m just surprised that after 16 years that this players name has appeared on cross tables.
I don’t specifically recall the case, but I was never on Ethics. But I was on staff 16 years ago and I don’t recall any lifetime bans coming through the Ethics process.
I was the Ethics Chair in 2006-07. There were two cases from the 2006 World Open. Neither resulted in a lifetime ban.
As far as I know, there have only been three lifetime bans. One was in 2003, one in 2018, and one in 2019.
– Hal Terrie
out of curiosity, what warrants a lifetime ban?
…scot…
You must understand, the composition and philosophy of the committee has changed over time. Back in the early 2000s, the most extreme sanction recommended was generally a three-year membership suspension. That changed however, after about 2017, when there was a big increase in the number of cases. The committee decided that stronger sanctions were needed and also loosened confidentiality a little, to provide more public information about cases and sanctions, with names redacted.
The committee came to agree that in most instances, premeditated cheating (and related) offenses involving adults deserved a lifetime ban. Most (but not all) such offenses by juniors tend to be impulsive, so some lenience is given in those cases. However, when there is strong evidence that an adult has spent weeks or even months planning and even practicing for cheating at a major (over the board) event, there are no second chances given any more.
There are likely some other things which might result in a lifetime ban but I’m not going to get into discussing hypotheticals.
Hal Terrie
thanks, hal. was sorta wondering if “just” cheating warranted a life-time ban. guess that was my main question. and, like you mentioned, i can think of some egregious hypotheticals that would warrant the same ban.
cheers, …scot…