07-09-2015, 08:42 PM
Daily Telegraph Monday 7 September 2015
Italian chess player, Arcangelo Ricciardi entered the International Chess Festival of Imperia ranked 51,366 in the world, but astonished rivals as he breezed through the early stages of the competition to reach the eighth and penultimate round.
Jean Coqueraut, who refereed the tournament in Liguria, northern Italy, said “I kept on looking at him. He was always sitting down, he never got up. It was very strange; we are taking about hours and hours of playing. But most suspicious of all, he always had his arms folded with his thumb under his armpit. He never took it out.” He was also “batting his eyelids in the most unnatural way”. “Then I understood it,” he said. “He was deciphering signals in Morse code.”
Tournament organisers asked the 37-year old to pass through a metal detector and a sophisticated pendant was found hanging around his neck underneath a shirt. The pendant contained a tiny video camera as well as a mass of wires attached to his body and a 4cm box under his armpit. Mr Ricciardi claimed they were good luck charms. It is thought the camera was used to transmit the chess game in real time to an accomplice or sophisticated computer, which then suggested moves for Mr Ricciardi through a series of signals received in the box under his arm.
An investigation has been launched and the Italian Chess Federation is deciding whether to press charges for sports fraud.
Italian chess player, Arcangelo Ricciardi entered the International Chess Festival of Imperia ranked 51,366 in the world, but astonished rivals as he breezed through the early stages of the competition to reach the eighth and penultimate round.
Jean Coqueraut, who refereed the tournament in Liguria, northern Italy, said “I kept on looking at him. He was always sitting down, he never got up. It was very strange; we are taking about hours and hours of playing. But most suspicious of all, he always had his arms folded with his thumb under his armpit. He never took it out.” He was also “batting his eyelids in the most unnatural way”. “Then I understood it,” he said. “He was deciphering signals in Morse code.”
Tournament organisers asked the 37-year old to pass through a metal detector and a sophisticated pendant was found hanging around his neck underneath a shirt. The pendant contained a tiny video camera as well as a mass of wires attached to his body and a 4cm box under his armpit. Mr Ricciardi claimed they were good luck charms. It is thought the camera was used to transmit the chess game in real time to an accomplice or sophisticated computer, which then suggested moves for Mr Ricciardi through a series of signals received in the box under his arm.
An investigation has been launched and the Italian Chess Federation is deciding whether to press charges for sports fraud.
