Umakant Sharma

Umakant Sharma, was born in the year 1982, and is a controversial Indian chess player who was forbidden from taking part in competitive chess for ten years due to cheating. He was caught red handed during the Subroto Mukherjee tournament in India in which he was detected receiving instruction from an accomplice, during the Subroto Mukherjee memorial international rating chess tourney at Subroto Park, using a chess computer via Bluetooth enabled device which had been sewn into his cap.

The collaborators he had been communicating with were located outside the playing area and were relaying moves for him to make from a computer simulation. Officials became doubtful after Umakant gained large amounts of rating points in the previous eighteen months, even qualifying for the national championships.

Suspicions on Umakant
The suspicion on Umakant started once his average rating gained from 1933 to 2484, in just 64 games. It was a massive jump of 500 points which greats like Viswanathan Anand did achieve such feat, at such fast speed. Officials became suspicious after getting multiple written complaints that Umakant`s moves were in same sequence suggested by the chess computer Pocket Fritz. After a body search was suggested in the 7th round by Indian Air Force official searched the players at the top eight boards with metal detector where it was found that Umakant was the only player who was using unfair means.

Punishment on Umakant
Following him getting caught, Umakant was banned from chess by the All Indian Chess Federation (AICF).

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