Why Is Kirill Shevchenko Banned By FIDE? All You Need To Know About The Cheating Scandal News24 –

Chess grandmaster Kirill Shevchenko has been banned for three years from playing in all FIDE-rated competitions and disqualified from his grandmaster status due to a cheating scandal. Even though one year ban is suspended, it is only “contingent on the absence of further misconduct”.

“FIDE takes cheating cases among top players with the utmost seriousness. We are working hard on both prevention and swift, appropriate sanctions. Ensuring fair play is non-negotiable – it is essential to the credibility and future of our sport,” said Dana Reizniece, Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board.

This ruling makes Shevchenko the highest-rated grandmaster to have been banned by FIDE for cheating in a tournament. The ban will be from October 19, 2024, to October 18, 2026, has been imposed by the FIDE’s ruling. The revocation of the grandmaster title is effective immediately from the date of the official statement.

The first decision was made by the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission’s (EDC) First Instance Chamber on March 15, 2025, in which Shevchenko was suspended for three years, although his title was not stripped at the time. The matter was re-examined after Shevchenko had appealed and FIDE’s Fair Play Commission cross-appealed.

The case in point happened at the Spanish Team Championship of October 12–18, 2024, in Spain. On October 13, a mobile phone was discovered in a private toilet with a handwritten message stating, “Do not touch! The phone is left for a guest to answer at night.” It sparked suspicion, particularly after a member of the cleaning staff claimed to have found a similar phone the day before. Tournament authorities started to probe, and uncovering soon landed on Shevchenko, who was disqualified from the event.

Shevchenko had been accused by two of his opponents – GM Francisco Vallejo Pons and GM Bassem Amin who notified arbiters about his long walkaways from the board. This led the arbiters to investigate the issue deeper.

Although Shevchenko owned up to concealing a phone in the restroom, he disputed using it to draw upon chess engines during games. Nevertheless, as per FIDE’s report, he subsequently accepted using the Lichess application on the phone, which added to the ultimate disciplinary measure. At 22 years old, Shevchenko’s decline is one of the most publicized cases of cheating in recent chess history.