Gopakumar appointed as Fair Play Officer for Chess Olympiad in Hungary

India's top chess arbiter S.Gopakumar will be one of the Fair Play Officers ensuring the players do not resort to cheating at the upcoming Chess Olympiad to be held at Budapest, Hungary.

"The primary role of a Fair Play Officer in a tournament is to uphold the integrity and fairness of the competition by preventing any player from using unethical practices, especially cheating, during the event," Gopakumar told IANS.

"Rather than focusing on catching cheaters, the main duty of the Fair Play Officer is to devise and execute a comprehensive plan to prevent cheating from occurring in the first place," he added.

The International Chess Federation or FIDE has seven Fair Play Officers and Gopakumar is the only Asian among them.

A former official of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Gopakumar said, the Fair Play team uses various tools and methodologies, such as sophisticated equipment, statistical analysis of the games through screen tools developed by Prof. Reagan, and closely observing all the minute happenings in the tournament hall.

"Due to the sensitive nature of the work, I can't divulge full details," said Gopakumar, who was the Deputy Arbiter at the 44th Chess Olympiad held in Chennai in 2022.

Interestingly, Gopakumar was the first arbiter to detect a player cheating using an electronic device way back in 2006.

"I found a Bluetooth device fitted in the cap worn by a player. He was getting outside assistance to make the moves. The player was frisked when the device was found," Gopakumar had told IANS.

As part of detecting a cheating player, his game moves will be compared with the moves suggested by various chess engines.

Queried about the difference in roles of arbiter and Fair Play Officer Gopakumar said that ensuring fair play is one of the regulations that Arbiters need to follow.

"However, with the advancement of technology and the increased popularity of the game, there was a need for more specialised personnel to handle Fair Play matters, mainly focusing on preventing any possible cheating activity. The Fair Play team specialises in creating a safe environment for players, while Arbiters interpret the rules for the occurrences over the board. It’s a coordinated effort among all stakeholders, including Arbiters and the Fair Play team, to ensure a successful and smooth event,” Gopakumar explained.

"For the Budapest Olympiad, we have a team of three Fair Play Officers, and I am one of them. Along with us, there are another 10-15 Fair Play Experts (exact count yet to be known). This constitutes the Fair Play team for the Olympiad," Gopakumar remarked.

Gopakumar has worked with the Fair Play team of the Olympiad at Baku 2016 and Batumi 2018. He was the Chief Fair Play Officer for the World Chess Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana last year, World Team Chess Championship 2022 in Jerusalem, World Youth Chess Championship 2023 in Montesilvano, World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship 2021 in Warsaw, and World Junior Chess Championship 2024 in Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat, India.

Last year Gopakumar retired from IAF after 23 years of service to his beloved nation and is now fully concentrating on chess as Arbiter and Fair Play Officer.

In 2024 itself Gopakumar officiated at two world events; World Junior Championship in Gandhi Nagar as Fair Play Officer and Cadet World Cup in Batumi as Chief Arbiter.

Asked about his retired life, Gopakumar said he is enjoying it by focusing more on chess, spending time with his family (wife Divya and two young daughters Gauri and Gayathri) and finding opportunities to read extensively, especially law books, which is his other passion.

A Junior Warrant Officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Gopakumar is a no nonsense chess arbiter, a sense that he might have imbibed in the IAF, chess officials told IANS.

Gopakumar said the IAF discipline has helped him a lot in chess. Conversely chess has also helped him in his duty.

He got interested in chess when his father, the late Sudhakaran Nair brought a chess board home for his three sons to play. Curiously the three had wanted a carrom board.

Soon Gopakumar started playing in the junior tournaments and won the Kerala State Under 12 championship and has represented the Kerala State and the Services in many national championships.

He began chess arbitrating at the age of 15, when he had to step in and to the pairing in a local tournament organised by his father in 1996.

Couple of years later, he started focusing on chess arbitrating and started going forward from being a National Arbiter to FIDE Arbiter and International Arbiter in 2009.

Apart from chess, Gopakumar is a steeplechase and cross country runner and has won gold and silver medals while in the IAF.

However, this runner’s primary duty now is to put hurdles and barricades against chess game cheaters rather than chasing and catching them.