One of the most well-known and valuable chess players of the moment, American of Japanese descent Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s number 2 player, harshly criticized the organizers of the Candidates Tournament, a competition currently taking place in Cyprus.
The Candidates Tournament is the event that will determine the challenger for the world title match against the reigning champion, 20-year-old Indian Gukesh D. Nakamura was furious with the people organizing the competition in Cyprus for the „excessive measures to combat fraud” implemented by the organizers of the Candidates Tournament.
Nakamura is one of the eight players participating in this elite tournament. Currently leading after 5 rounds out of 14 is Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov, followed by Fabiano Caruana and Indian Praggnanandhaa. Nakamura is in 7th place with only 1.5 points.
Nakamura strongly criticized the use of scanners and monitoring devices as part of the anti-cheating protocol implemented by FIDE: "It's absurd! They scan us before games, they scan us after games," the American said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
"They have metal detectors, they have separate scanners... What are we, Mossad agents in Iran or something like that? We are chess players, let's be serious," the chess player continued, as reported by the news agency Reuters.
FIDE came to the defense of the measures, stating that they are vital to protect the integrity of the competition and the fairness of the results:
"We consider strict anti-cheating measures to be essential. Furthermore, this sentiment is shared by the vast majority of players," said FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky to the cited source.
"At the same time, the physical checks of the players have hardly changed since the Toronto tournament and there is no significant difference for the players.
No other participant has complained about this for a valid reason: all additional measures control and intercept signals without requiring players to undergo further searches."
These ongoing concerns related to rule violations in chess stem from 2022 when former world champion Magnus Carlsen accused Hans Niemann of cheating after being defeated by him at the Sinquefield Cup in the USA.