I hope none of you racist bastards play chess.

If you're getting a flurry of insults hurled at you and the guy moves a piece so that its slightly off the board it gives him an opportunity to move pieces where they shouldn't be. I don't have a video queued and ready but I've seen them move pieces extremely fast while someone is looking away. Obviously if you're aware the guy is hustling you and you stay focused you'll beat em 9 out of 10 times.

At higher levels of chess, it is futile to play games. The players know the position and where the pieces should be.

At lower levels, there can be cheating or uncaught mistakes at speed chess and sometimes ridiculous positions develop, such as a player having 2 bishops on the same colored square.

Any illegal move that is caught by the other player, while on their own time, results in a loss for the offender. Often there are on-lookers who are watching and have been known to comment when something is not right.
 
They're also legendary frauds. There's a ton of videos of these chess hustlers cheating. One of the more famous ways is piece swapping and touch moving. Piece swapping is obviously illegal (dropping a piece that wasn't on the board before) and touch moving is generally illegal in the USCF. Touch moving matters a TON in a game when you're down to the last 10 or so seconds.They also shit talk (talking is ultra frowned upon in most chess games and disqualifying in USCF games). It's all a distraction.

There are some legitimate IM level players that are chess hustlers but they are few and far between. Most of the swindlers you catch out in central park are masters of sleight of hand. I wouldn't play a game against any of them without a ref. Preferably a ref with USCF experience.

Their chess magic tricks are entertaining to watch if you've played even a few rated games though. None of it would fly against someone who's played competitive chess.


I can imagine but these guys were not hustlers as they were playing out in the open with many eyes watching and they were registered with the USCF, so no need to hustle, at least the guys I am referring to in Dupont Cirlce and definitely NOT the Black GM I saw a few times.

In this case no tricks, just straight up chess, many games were set at 5:5 minutes.
 
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