It has always been possible to cheat playing chess. Back when I played in tournaments in the Bay Area, I recall players who admitted to me after the fact that, when presented with a particularly difficult opening line they didn’t know, would go out to the merchandise area and see if they could peruse a book on the opening. Part of why I quit playing tournaments back in the mid-80s was I could see where things were headed with computers getting smaller and smaller.
The problem is only going to get worse with time. We are already in an era where your glasses can be linked to a computer, and not so far away from being able to do the same with contact lenses. Implanted microphones and speakers would let a player give or receive information without anyone seeing that there was a device involved.
The good news is that I suspect that, just as most golfers refuse to cheat even when they could, most chess players refuse to cheat as well. I’ve never understood the point of cheating, but then, for me, winning has never been “everything.”
If there’s enough money in it, people will find ways to cheat, especially as technology advances. I’m convinced that the reason Wizards of the Coast has constantly pared back Magic: The Gathering professional level play in favor of more lower stakes tournaments is that they are extremely worried about cheating that is very difficult to detect if done with enough skill. I think they are also transitioning to online play which eliminates the sleight of hand and such that consists of much of the possible cheating. They want people to be able to play for rewards, but if those rewards are high enough they will get people that specifically will try as hard as they can to cheat in whatever way possible. It’s been a problem for the entire history of the professional game. By making events larger with lower stakes, they make it harder for cheating to be cost effective; making up the travel costs to an event outside of your home area requires you to do extremely well, and there’s plenty of areas of luck in the game that you can’t guarantee any particular result using any method of cheating that can’t be detected easily. The people that want to make a living at the game have really complained a lot from what I can tell, and one would think that with ever-increasing numbers of players that it would be trivial to add more of a prize pool, but as much as some of their reluctance might be because it wouldn’t increase sales by that much, I think most of it is to not have it become a cesspit of cheating.
When I want to cheat at chess, I point behind my opponent and shout, “Hey, wow, it’s Alexander Alekhine!” And while they’re distracted by the idea of being the presence of such a legendary, if unfortunately long-dead, player, I sneak a few extra pieces on the board that I had cleverly hidden in one of my socks. Then I watch them wither in the face of my patented “Hey, How’d You Suddenly Get Nine Bishops … Is That Even Legal?” attack. I would go with extra queens, but I decided that that might be a little suspicious.
In the 1978 world chess championship held in the Philippines that pitted Karpov with Korchnoi, there was enough maneuvering on both sides to certainly affected the game of one or both players. All in all, there was enough drama to fill a three-part movie series. Though I don’t believe the Soviets committed that much cheating outright, the game they played with Dr. Zukhar, the expulsion of Korchnoi’s yogi pals from the venue, and all other moves must have rattled Korchnoi enough for Karpov to take the final match.
In answering my own question from upthread, it indeed looks like he has not admitted to using the phone to cheat at chess, just to using the phone. I can’t make heads or tails of his stated motivations for using the phone, though. And he reiterates that his rapid improvement since 2013 is entirely from focus and hard work.
(and since we’re in a chess thread… If you aren’t watching the Sinquefield Cup, you should check out the Caruana-MVL game taking place right now. Double exchange sac on board with Caruana (with the rooks) still clearly in prep after 21. c4 novelty, and MVL finally out of prep and in the tank. Fascinating position.)