Cheating, groupies, big money and drunken brawls: how chess went rock’n’roll

Chess’s fusty image has been shaken by recent allegations of underhand tactics. But as any fan or player can tell you, it has long been younger, hipper – and wilder – than most outsiders realised

Chess has entered a new era: younger, hipper – even a little rock’n’roll.
Pic: Getty Images

ONE of chess’s best-known grandmasters is considering a theory so outlandish that, until three weeks ago, it lurked only in the murkiest corners of the internet. 

“Vibrating anal beads?” says Simon Williams, a popular commentator known as Ginger GM. He pauses to consider the claims, amplified by Elon Musk, that a remote-controlled sex toy could help a player cheat. And then he delivers a withering dismissal. “It’s completely surreal,” he replies. “Laughable. Monty Pythonesque. It’s an interesting idea. But it’s not going to work.”