The FIDE Ethics & Disciplinary Commission has handed a two-year ban to a minor after he was caught with a mobile phone hidden inside his shoe during a tournament in Slovenia. The phone had the game position open on Chess.com.
The five-page decision by the FIDE Ethics & Disciplinary Commission (EDC) is dated April 9 this year, but was published last week. It concerns an incident at the 165-player Ljubljana Chess Festival in Slovenia, held from April 28 to May 4, 2025, that had not previously been made public.
FIDE named the player in its ruling, but Chess.com has chosen not to identify him because he was a minor at the time of the incident.
According to a report by the chief arbiter of the tournament, the phone was discovered during a post-game inspection following the fifth round. The EDC concluded:
The EDC Chamber further finds that [the player] attempted to cheat, as his game position was open on Chess.com.
The chamber ruled that the incident went beyond merely bringing a prohibited electronic device into the playing venue and amounted to attempted cheating under Article 11.7(e) of FIDE’s Ethics and Disciplinary Code.
The case was referred to FIDE’s Fair Play Commission (FPL), which opened an investigation and made several attempts to contact the player and his mother. Neither responded, according to the decision.
After the case reached the EDC, the player was again given an opportunity to answer the allegations, with the notice sent to his mother due to his being a minor. No response was received by the deadline.
When deciding the sanction, the chamber noted several mitigating factors. It was the player’s first offense; he had a clean disciplinary record; he was a minor at the time; he had limited experience, no official FIDE title, and a relatively low rating.
However, the panel noted:
The Respondent’s failure to co-operate during the investigation and adjudication process has been taken into account as an aggravating factor.
The player was found guilty of breaching Article 11.7(e) and given a two-year worldwide ban, effective from April 9. The ruling could be appealed to the EDC Appeal Chamber within 21 days of being received by the player. The public decision does not state when it was communicated to the family, and no appeal has been published on the EDC website.
The incident resembles a case involving a Dutch teenager, who received a three-year ban—with one year suspended—after a phone was discovered inside his sock at the HZ University Chess Tournament in Vlissingen in 2024.
In that case, the player initially refused to undergo a scan and later declined to unlock the phone. The EDC found him guilty of cheating and failing to cooperate, despite an earlier Dutch Chess Federation ruling that there was insufficient evidence to prove he had intended to use the device.
The latest decision cited three of the most prominent phone-cheating cases in chess history:
- In 2025, former GM Kirill Shevchenko was given a three-year ban, with one year suspended, after phones were discovered during the 2024 Spanish Team Championship. Shevchenko admitted using a phone to access Lichess during the game. He was eventually stripped of his GM title. His ban runs until October 18, 2026, with the suspended portion in effect for another year.
- In 2015, Georgian Gaioz Nigalidze was banned for three years and stripped of his GM title after an iPod containing engine analysis of his ongoing game was discovered in a toilet cubicle.
- The most severe precedent involved the late Igors Rausis, who was banned for six years and lost his GM title after being caught using a phone during the 2019 Strasbourg Open. Rausis admitted to cheating with a phone in three games and pre-arranging the result of another.
