Bệnh thành tích: Căn bệnh trầm kha!

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Chess has enjoyed a huge boom (bùng nổ lớn) in internet play this year as in-person events have moved online and people stuck at home have sought new hobbies (sở thích mới). But with that has come a significant new problem: a rise in the use of powerful chess calculators to cheat on a scale reminiscent (làm nhớ lại, hồi tưởng) of the scandals that have dogged cycling (đua xe đạp) and athletics. One leading ‘chess detective’ said that the pandemic (đại dịch) was “without doubt creating a crisis (khủng hoảng)”.

The problems are not confined to (không giới hạn ở) chess, with similar issues reported in poker, bridge and even backgammon, but they are perhaps most disruptive (mang tính chất phá vỡ/phá bĩnh/phá hoại) for a game with a reputation for gravitas (vẻ trang trọng trong cử chỉ) and class (sự thanh nhã, thanh cao).

“The pandemic has brought me as much work in a single day as I have had in a year previously,” said Prof Kenneth Regan, an international chess master and computer scientist whose model is relied on by the sport’s governing body, Fide, to detect (phát hiện) suspicious (tỏ ra có sự nghi ngờ, ám muội, mập mờ) patterns of play. “It has ruined my sabbatical.”

Chess.com, the world’s biggest site for online play, said it had seen 12 million new users this year, against 6.5 million last year. The cheating rate has jumped from between 5,000 and 6,000 players banned each month last year to a high of almost 17,000 in August.