How much cheating

 A recent study on the prevalence of cheating in chess has been published. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211266925000271 is the link to the study, if you wish to read it yourself (NB You may have to click past the warning page as well).

Although I only did a quick read of it, there were still a couple of things that jumped out at me. In terms of cheating in OTB events, the vast majority of self-reported cases involved receiving advice from a 3rd party. Well down on the list was using electronic devices to cheat (less than 10% of total cases). And while there may be an argument that the improvement in results of using electronic aids are greater than advice from other players, it still says to me that in terms of fair play, player to player assistance is what arbiters should be mainly dealing with.

The other item was the use of drugs to improve your chess (a subject I am familiar with!). The authors reported a blind study involving players either taking drugs or placebos, and then playing rapid games within the playing group. Somewhat confusingly they both found no improvement in results between the players in each group, but drew the conclusion that the players using the tested drugs still played better chess. This was because they noted that the players on drugs played more slowly, but if you excluded the games they lost on time, then they actually improved their results. So apparently drugs can make you play better chess, as long as your brain isn't affected by those drugs

I've been taking a break

 As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've been on a break from the blog. I decided to see what it was like not to try and post every day or two, but this turned into a 2 and a bit week holiday. I did use that time to focu on other things (mainly chess related), but will try and catch up with the things I have missed.

Some easy listening

 From the most recent episode of BBC's 'Not by the Playbook' - Chess Mates

2025 Asian Individual Championship

 The 2025 Asian Individual Championship (Open and Women's) has attracted large fields. The Open has 156 players, with around half the Asian federations sending representatives. This includes players from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Guam. The Women's event has 100 players, with Australia and New Zealand being represented.

As the entry requirement for this event was quite tough (except for official representatives), the 1st round saw a number of upsets. In the open, the ANZAC representatives all drew their games against higher rated opponents, while a number of GM's lost against their lower rated challengers.

Apart from the large prize pool, the leading players are also playing for qualification spots at this years World Cup. Live games are being broadcast from 9:15pm (Canberra time) and can be followed at https://lichess.org/broadcast/asian-individual-chess-championships-2025--open/GOUSblMI 

2025 O2C Doeberl Cup Minor and Mini

 Like the Major, the Minor event (Under 1800 ACF) was also very popular. The 98 player field even had a few titles players drift down from the Major, making it another tough event. Daniei Yelkhovsky finished in 1st place on 6.5/7, half a point ahead of top seed, CM Jeff Cabilin. Yelkhovsky and Cabilin drew in round 6, but an earlier draw left Cabilin half a point behind. There was a 4 way tie for third, including local (ACT) junior Larry Cheng, Cheng was on 5.5/6 going into the final round, but his top board clash against Yelkhovsky was essentially the tournament 'final', with the win to Yelkhovsky deciding 1st place.   

The Mini event (Under 1500) had a smaller field of 63 players. In the end Masaon Tay and Padma Gyalpo tied for 1st on 6/7, with tay taking home the trophy on countback. Tay concede 2 draws on his way to 1st, while Gyalpo's only loss was in round 3, against Tay.

Fit for chess

 Inspired by memories of 'Round the House' chess, and a recent discovery (via IA Alana Chibnall), that you can play chess while working out on gym equipment, a kind if cross-fit chess.

Set up against another gym buddy, or an bot, you gain extra time by running extra distances. eg For every 100 metres, you get 10s added to you clock. So a 5 minute game between 2 very fit players may see an extra 120s added if both players cover 1200m (NB you can run when both you and your opponent are on the move). The challenge is to maintain a fast enough pace to gain time, while not exhausting yourself, and losing the ability to think. As an extra incentive/challenge the result of the game determines the level of resistance/gradient on the treadmill for the next time around.

2025 O2C Doeberl Cup Major

 One of the big surprises from this years Doeberl was the large number of players playing in the Major. The 100 player limit was reached about a month in advance of the tournament, and I was constantly dealing with requests to become the 101st player in the field. One of the reasons was that the cutoff for the premier was raised to 2000 ACF or FIDE (up from 1900 last year), which meant more players had to play the Major. The 1st prize of $1600 was also attractive, although only 1 player with an ACF rating above 2000 chose to play the Major.

The large field also left the top seeds with somewhat of a problem, in how to win the event. One loss was almost fatal to outright winning changes, while even a good score of 5.5 may leave them out of the prize list. 

As it turned out, this was how the tournament played out. DM Daniel Ding started with 5 wins, as did overseas visitor Balanandan Ayyappan. Their 6th round game was drawn, leaving them tied for 1st going into the last round. Wang defeated WFM Alaina Vincent to go to 6.5, while Ayyappan drew with Ethan Retnaraja to take a share of 2nd. He was joined by Vincent Qiang, whose only loss in the event was to the tournament winner.

With such big numbers, and a desire to make the tournament numbers a little more even, the rating limits for the Major (and Minor) are going to be squeezed, like for the Premier. The bottom floor will 1700 ACF or a FIDE rating to be decided later. So you have 12 months to get to work if you want to play this very popular event!