NEW DELHI: The year was 2015. At 55, veteran Grandmaster (GM) Pravin Thipsay hadn’t won any chess tournament in four years. He arrived at the inaugural Dr. Hegdewar Open in Delhi hoping to break the hex, but by the fifth round, he found himself staring at a nightmare.Across from him sat Dhruv Kakar, a 19-year-old engineering student with a modest rating of 1575 on paper. But as the game unfolded, Thipsay watched in disbelief as his pieces were traded away with clinical, engine-like precision.After 87 gruelling moves, the teenager prevailed as the GM sat at the other end of the board with utter disbelief.
“The quality of moves was not matching his rating,” Thipsay told TimesofIndia.com, recalling the incident. “There was a consistency of time taken by him irrespective of whether the move was obvious or not.”The suspicion was immediate. In a scene resembling a thriller, the youngster was taken to a private room afterwards. Authorities then conducted a body search on Kakar and found him strapped with several mobile phones across his body and wearing an earphone so tiny it had to be removed with a magnet.The veteran eventually went on to win the tournament, his first in four years, but the victory was stained by the realisation of how easily the soul of the game could be sold for a digital signal.Fast forward to 2026, and the shadows of 2015 have grown into a global obsession. At the ongoing FIDE Candidates, the pinnacle of the sport, the atmosphere is less like a quiet library and more like a high-security black site.It was this tension that prompted World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura to launch a sarcastic verbal gambit that has since gone viral.“They scan us before the game. They scan us after the game. They have metal detectors and a variety of other scanners,” Nakamura scoffed on his YouTube channel. “I mean, who are we? Are we like Mossad agents inside Iran or something? Come on, we’re chess players! Let’s be real.”For Nakamura, the measures are “complete nonsense”, a theatrical overreaction to a threat he believes is managed through sheer hardware saturation. Yet, FIDE stands firm.Andy Howie, FIDE’s Fair Play Officer, defended the protocols as a necessary shield for a World Championship qualifier. “We have to make sure the players are in a safe environment,” he said on video on FIDE’s YouTube channel.The debate has split the chess world down the middle. Is FIDE protecting the integrity of the game, or have they turned a battle of wits into a TSA checkpoint?The Indian perspectiveRight after the Nakaumra rant, Koneru Humpy, India’s legendary female GM, was one of the first Indian GMs to take to X (formerly Twitter) to voice her support for the strictness.“In today’s era of rapid technological advancement, strong anti-cheating measures are essential,” she noted. “They may feel demanding, but they ensure games are decided by skill. There have been times of doubt during games, but existing rules make it difficult to speak openly.”Humpy’s sentiment is echoed by GM Shyam Sundar M, though he acknowledges the friction Nakamura describes.“It (having proper safety measures) is an absolute must because these days so many technologies keep coming up,” Shyam told this website. “I know how annoying it is. Before the game, players are usually focused only on the board. A long queue for ten minutes or more can be frustrating.”“What annoys a player even more than the waiting time is if someone cheats and never gets caught,” Shyam added. “So, for the benefit of the game, I think, uh, it is essential. Like in the airport, the security check is for our own safety. Once this is done, we know whether we are playing human players or ‘meta-humans.'”Is broadcasting the real problem?While Nakamura rails against the scanners, Pravin Thipsay offers a radical alternative that could render the metal detectors obsolete. Kill the live feed.“Cheating is a major threat. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry with the help of an engine could beat the world champion,” Thipsay explained.“I think live chess is not a necessity. If the games are delayed by one hour, it’s not going to affect the popularity of chess. It’s not like a cricket match where people want to see the match live. People look at these games at their convenience.”
Pravin Thipsay
Thipsay argues that FIDE is “mistaken” in thinking that popularity depends on instant data.He points out the logistical nightmare the current rules create for travelling pros.“When we go abroad, we don’t know where to leave our phones. You need a mobile to reach the location, but you can’t leave it with the organisers, and you can’t take it to the hall. It’s a serious inconvenience,” he further added.His solution, thus, lies in delaying the broadcast by 30 to 60 minutes. “In that case, the cheating chances are almost zero. Players are happy to see even 100-year-old games. The priority should be that nobody has the privilege of showing the games while they are in progress.”A price for the greater good?For younger GMs like Abhimanyu Puranik, the “Mossad agent” treatment is simply the cost of doing business at the highest level.“Anti-cheating measures are of paramount importance nowadays,” Puranik, who recently turned 26, told TimesofIndia.com. “While obviously nothing suspect is going on in events like the Candidates, these events set an example for the quality of anti-cheating that tournaments around the world should aspire to.”
Puranik feels the process can be a hassle, but he also feels: “It is a small price to pay for the greater good of the game.”Nakamura might feel like a spy in a foreign land, but for many Indian players, the memory of the “average player” playing god-like moves is a ghost they aren’t ready to stop hunting.For now, the scanners aren’t going anywhere. And as long as that threat exists, Grandmasters will have to keep acting like secret agents.
