Jordanian chess player banned for cheating against Vietnam

Raya’s account on world number one chess site Chess.com has been locked for violating its Fair Play Policy.

She was reported to Chess.com, organizer of Asian Team Chess Championship 2020 by the Vietnamese chess team on Tuesday last week. Raya, with an Elo rating of 1,671, beat Vietnam’s Vo Thi Kim Phung (Elo 2,208) after 46 moves, with an accuracy rate over 99.4 percent.

Raya represented Jordan in all nine rounds of the tournament, scoring a total 7.5 points. In the process, she beat Phung and Australian Heather Richards, Elo ratings of over 2000 each. Four games saw Raya achieve an accuracy rating of over 99 percent, while she averaged above 97 percent in the others.

Alnaimat Raya's account on Chess.com has been locked for violating its Fair Play Policy.

Subsequently disqualified Jordan had initially ended the tournament first phase in 12th position. Vietnam placed fourth after nine rounds and advanced to the quarterfinals. Its most impressive player so far was Nguyen Thi Mai Hung who scored 7.5 points in eight matches.

In the quarterfinals Friday, the team will clash with Mongolia, who beat Vietnam in the first phase. Should it triumph over Mongolia, Vietnam could meet title contender India in the semifinals.

Asian Team Chess Championship is held online this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, from October 10 to 25, including both women’s and men’s categories.

The Vietnam men’s team did not take part in this competition since the schedule conflicted with the national chess tournament. The women’s category has 31 teams engaged in rapid chess games of nine rounds. The eight highest scoring teams will advance to the quarterfinals.

The prize pot is $20,000. Players have to turn on their webcams while competing and make a video call on Zoom, under referee supervision.