An appeal not to punish the entire 11-member Philippine chess team has been turned down by organizers of the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad after 13-year-old female player Jersey Marticio was sanctioned on Monday.
The plea came after the Team Philippines was disqualified from the Online Olympiad for violating rules of play.
Delegation head Jayson Gonzales said athis after he wrote a second letter of reconsideration to officials of the world chess body, FIDE.
“Hindi pabor sa atin ang desisyon. Ito ay suporta sa unang findings doon sa naunang desisyon ng panel na ang buong team ay disqualified kahit isa lang ang nagkasala,” said Gonzales.
Gonzales added in his letter to FIDE Global Strategy Commission Secretary Pavel Tregubov that the NCFP is “one with FIDE in dealing with this fair-play policy issue for online competition.”
“As explained in our previous letter, we have already sanctioned the player in stripping her title and disallowing her to play in our National Online events,” explained Gonzales to Tregbunov.
Marticio, a replacement player to junior girls’ division woodpusher Jerlyn San Diego, played in the last four rounds of the Philippines’ nine-round assignment in Division 2.
The kid, who is based in Cabuyao, Laguna, allegedly used a chess engine for her matches in the last four rounds in Pool B.
And officials believe that there may have been a lapse in supervision by arbiters using a video conference system involving two cameras positioned near the computer unit used by the player involved.
“The FPP (Fair Play Policy) decision cannot be revised and unfortunately, the Philippine team will not be able to continue the competition. But we sincerely hope that such strong measures will help all of us in fighting cheating in online as well as in OTB (over the board) events,” said Tregbunov in his reply to Gonzales.
During pool B play, the Philippines settled for second overall behind Indonesia with 39.5 points.
The top three finishers in the pool will advance to the Top Division.
Because of this Indonesia, and Shenzen, China advanced with Australia, which has 29 points in fourth place, taking the spot that was supposed to belong to the Philippines.
Ecuador in Pool E also did not qualify in the Top Division after the FIDE Fair Play committee also reported that they were found in breach of the rules of the tournament.
Marticio, in Gonzales’ letter to the organizers, has already been stripped of her National Master title and will be disallowed from joining national online tournaments that will be organized or sanctioned by the NCFP in the future.
Won games by Marticio when the Philippines played against Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan have been forfeited.
Gonzales said in his second letter of appeal to the FIDE that he was asking questions if an actual act of cheating did take place.
“Neither FIDE, nor Chess.com claims that the determination of a suspected fair-play violation is proof of actual cheating or an admission of guilt by the disqualified player,” wrote Gonzales.
“Therefore, is it fair to say that if there are no claims of determination of fair-play violators, why penalize and sanction the other 11 members of the Philippine Team? Since WNM Jersey Marticio’s account in chess.com was not closed nor given a red-tag remark, can we have the details of evidence from the Fair Play Panel as our National Chess Federation and Philippine Government are asking for it?” added Gonzales.