22-10-2013, 11:44 AM
The laws of chess don't supersede the laws of the land and a chess arbiter is just a member of the general public in legal terms, so they have no right to perform a body search of anyone. Presumably, it would be possible to call in the police, but you'd need to establish reasonable evidence that a criminal offence had been committed. If there was evidence that a player had cheated at the Dundee congress then presumably one could say this was an attempt to obtain money by deception and if the evidence was strong enough the police could arrest them and perform a search. However, if there was evidence that a player was cheating in the Dundee League (which presumably has no prize money) would it be possible to call in the police, because what criminal offence is the culprit being accused of?