'Sandbagging' means a player deliberately losing his games, along with it his rating points, so as to play in a lower rated player tournaments and win cash prizes.
In a 2-1 split decision, the International Chess Federation or FIDE's disciplinary commission has banned Chinese chess player Li Haoyu for six months from playing in any of its rated tournaments worldwide.
The reason? Haoyu had lost all his games in the two tournaments he had played after a gap of years.
The FIDE ban is on the suspicion that Haoyu trying what is called 'sandbagging'.
In chess, 'sandbagging' means a player deliberately losing his games, along with it his rating points, so as to play in a lower rated player tournaments and win cash prizes.
Haoyu's ELO rating after the two tournaments came down from 2379 to 1979.
However, in Haoyu's case -- where the complainant is the Chinese Chess Association -- it has not been clearly proven that he lost his games intentionally to play in a lower rated tournament.
FIDE's ban order does not specify any lower rated tournaments where Haoyu had played or entered after losing all his games in the two tournaments.
FIDE's Ethics and Disciplinary Commission titled the decision as 'Case no: 9/2025 Alleged sandbagging at chess competitions'.
The dissenting member Khaled Arfa said the standard of comfortable satisfaction is not met and, therefore, Haoyu should be declared not guilty.
Arfa citing the fundamental legal principle said the benefit of the doubt must always favour the accused.
In this case, Haoyu had not played chess for ten years, and the only claims about his intentions 'sandbagging' are speculative and unsupported by solid evidence.
Such circumstances give rise to a clear and material doubt, which must be resolved in the respondent's favour, Arfa argued.
Arfa also said the report of mathematician and scientist Professor Kenneth W Regan's report -- often cited in this matter -- explicitly states that his statistical model is not validated for use in situations such as this.
Arfa pointed out that Professor Regan himself has said that his statistical model has not been validated for use on the lower extreme of the bell curve and 'the IPR figures (on non-book moves) are not for judgment', making it clear that his system cannot form a sound basis for determining guilt.
The accusation that Haoyu intentionally decreased his ELO rating to gain access to tournaments restricted to lower rated players is entirely speculative.
It is not substantiated by any concrete, corroborated evidence and remains mere conjecture, Arfa said.
It is readily explained by the fact that he had not played competitive chess from September 2012 to September 2022 -- a ten-year absence.
This lengthy break from chess fully accounts for the decline in his performance, Arfa argued.
According to chess players, sandbagging is rampant in India too.
As per the All India Chess Federation rules: 'Players who finished first or second in any rating restricted tournament will not be eligible to play in any rating restricted tournament for one year from the date of such achievement.'
The earlier rule of threshold of 36 months remains the same (once the player crosses the rating threshold he cannot participate for the event below that rating level for the next 36 months).
Not many know that a decade ago the AICF had wanted FIDE to punish Grandmaster Koneru Humpy.
In 2015 Humpy withdrew from the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Delhi after the fourth round.
Humpy was declared lost on time and decided to withdraw from the tournament.
Humpy's contention was that the tournament arbiter made an unclear announcement of the rules pertaining to time control.
International Master Tania Sachdev too was declared lost on time in the first round of that tournament.
Receiving the complaint against Humpy from the Delhi Chess Association, the AICF forwarded the same to FIDE and sought appropriate action against her for violating its rules; withdrawing from the tournament without a valid reason and making unjustified accusations against the chief arbiter.
The FIDE Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint saying that it was not admissible as the Delhi Chess Association is 'not a member or organ of FIDE and lacks the capacity to represent the general interest that FIDE might have in a case like the present'.
'GM Koneru Humpy is urged to react more appropriately in similar future situations,' the FIDE Ethics Commission held.
The AICF was successful in seeking FIDE to revoke the ELO ratings of several Indian players for participating in chess tournaments not recognised by it.
A couple of years ago, FIDE restored the ELO ratings of about 50 Indian chess players.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
© 2025