Africa Chess strives for fair play in all our online chess tournaments. Online chess tournaments have provided an incredible way to grow and promote the game of chess but the platform and environment also brings risks that would normally be easily managed in over-the-board play and tournaments.

We take the issue of cheating most seriously as we believe it can easily undermine our efforts to promote chess as well as give the game and organisation a bad reputation. We have taken the following measures to try and minimise the incidence of cheating in our tournaments:

• Having very short time controls in our tournaments
• Having several rounds in our paid tournaments

We rely heavily on Lichess monitoring during our games and tournaments. They have offered to assist during our tournaments. 

If there are allegations of cheating we will investigate these to the best of our abilities and take necessary action as appropriate working in conjunction with Lichess and any other third parties as the need may arise.

Sanctions
Should a player be found guilty of cheating in our event or an event before that or breaching the Lichess terms of use regarding fair play, sanctions and action that we take may include suspending or banning players found guilty from playing in any Africa Chess online tournaments. We also reserve the right to reclaim any monies or funds paid out as prizes.

Players marked for cheating on lichess can NO LONGER play rated games.

Players will also not be able to take part in lichess tournaments once their accounts are flagged.

 

Presumption of innocence

A player is presumed innocent until found guilty. All decisions taken by Africa Chess management will be final.

Even the most stringent of conditions may not deter a determined cheat during our games. However, we believe that we have done the best to ensure fair play given our limited resources.

Continuous review of practice and process

We will continue to review our policy, practice and processes regarding anti-cheating in our tournaments. Changes will be made to these as and when we deem fit.