Today we will discuss a working chess cheating device, a Morse code vibrating anal bead designed with Andruino and coded with Python by YouTuber Coding Balls Deep (“CD”).

CD’s invention was inspired by the recent Hans Nieman chess cheating scandal to demonstrate that an anal device, while maybe improbable and almost certainly not used by Hans Nieman, actually can be constructed and utilized with success. You can review the Hans Nieman cheating scandal in my article Cheating in the Chess World. In actuality, cheating in the chess world has been exposed in the past on several occasions. One such case involved a player, Borislav Isanov, who had a device in his shoe which he used to receive and send signals, possibly in Morse code. When first accused, Borislav refused to remove his shoes at a tournament, claiming that  “I categorically will not take off my shoes. My socks smell.” The ShoeAassistant – Ivanov Forfeits at Blagoevgrad. But these days, chess tournament protocols sometimes go so far as to use metal detectors and check shoes, just like at an airport! Can we hide a device…somewhere else?

The idea is that the anal beads could contain a microcomputer and a vibration motor. The microcomputer can connect with wifi to communicate to someone anywhere in the world. The vibration motor can then be controlled by that person, who will find the best move using a chess engine and who will then send back to the microcomputer a vibration pattern in morse code representing the best move. Note that this process is simpler than one may expect; the conspirator does not actually receive a board position or any information from the bead; rather, the conspirator would be watching the game live from the comfort of his or her home and is only sending information, not receiving it. For instance, if the best move is knight to square c3, the morse code would need to translate KC3:

K: -.- (long short long)

C: -.-.

3: …- – –

The Arduiono nano is a small microcontroller IOT with wifi capability. You can attach motors and sensors to it.

First, CD tested the Morse code using a LED built into the Adruino chip. He used a Python switch statement with two cases: the first case represented a short in morse code: if this case is reached, the LED lights up for 1 second. The second input represents a long in More code: the LEDlights up for 3 seconds.

CD practiced the circuitry using the website Tinkercard.com, emulating a simple circuit virtually.

Then, he created a Python dictionary (similar to a Hashmap) of key and value pairs where each number and letter needed to communicate moves and coordinates was represented by a combination of dashes and dots. For instance, if we loop through the string “Kc3,” the value for key K would be -.- The proper switch statement case will execute three times when looping through just the value of K, -.-,  and determine that there should be a three second flash, a one second flash, and then a three second flash – next, we would continue to c and then 3.

The user can enter KC3 into the program and the chip LED will properly flash for the end user, the cheater. Once satisfied that the built-in LED worked properly with the Python code, CD purchased and attached a vibrating sensor to the chip, and eventually succeeded – although, disappointingly, he lacked the courage to do more than sit ontop of the device.

Unfortunately, Morse code requires a lot of vibrations to represent a single move, which may be overheard, alerting the security, or misinterpreted by the cheater. Chess GM and streamer Hikaru Nakamura discussed on a Lex Friedman podcast that it is not necessary for a sophisticated user to receive Morse code; rather, it may be sufficient for one vibration to signify that a position is great and two vibrations to signify the position is equal, or there is no interesting tactic. If a GM is notified that the position is great, he or she would know to look for a tactic. The power and ease of use of the Arduino nano is wondrous but also scary. Fortunately, Chess.com and the US Chess Federation are constantly combating cheating and improving security measures.