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Well now, since Tornelo tournaments are bringing competitive chess possible and getting popular, I want to know what are the anti cheating measures. I believe it is tech that enables cheats. For example, a spy spectacle that also has a bone conducting feature makes it easy to cheat with an accomplice help. Tornelo measures are having 2 webcams (front and side) as well as requiring audio to be on. My question is how do they deter the spectacle cheats ? 

This is only a hypothetical but a very possible one. Also I can think of many others but will not put in print here as it would just be a source of tips for other cheaters.

If Tornelo cannot deter cheating using tech devices like these, then I assume there must be many undetected cheating occurences. Of course there is also the engine detection method based on the user moves but even that can be circumvented with careful manipulation of the engine suggestions.

Correct me if I am wrong please because I have not personally experienced how a Tornelo tourney is run.

(The above illustrated spectacles cannot broadcast and only record but there are ones that look like authentic specs and do broadcast audio and video)

Ok this post is about my ignorance about things happening in the chess world today so please forgive me for this katak bawah tempurung post.

So why am I interested now?

Although I have all but given up playing chess competitively, I have not given up other aspects of chess like taking pictures, blogging about chess tournaments, chess broadcasting etc. I am also most interested in building online chess servers like Lichess where players can play on the web.  

Big market

Also, with the pandemic likely to last very long, normal OTB play is going to be pretty rare and if it comes back the numbers will be limited as well as so many stringent measures making it very different from what we are used to. This means the current certified OTB Arbiters are out of the job and Tornelo is the logical choice to level up and move on to for this group of people.

What I do know

From what I've heard and Googled about Tornelo, it's a platform for online tournaments. To be fair I did hear about Tornelo thru mentions in Facebook but I was put off by it because it also offered expensive courses to certify people who can run Tornelo tournaments. It felt like another for money fiasco to get certified by paying exhorbitant amounts but getting really poor qualified / trained people. But that's of course unfair to judge without evidence but it has happened too often where chess is concerned so I just assumed it is the same here.

Give Tornelo a chance?

So upon inspection I see that there is no evidence of any thing bad about Tornelo so I will give it the benefit of the doubt. 

What I like

is the platform and objectives of Tornelo. They are trying to make online play as close as possible to over the board play which is a huge undertaking and will be great if can be achieved seeing how cheating is a big problem in chess. Over the board chess cheating is a big problem even before the pandameic and the problem is multiplied by a huge factor via online play.

What I still don't like

is the exhorbitant fees charged for certification.

200 Euro (RM 980) just to be a certified Tornelo Arbiter ? Really ?

But if you come from the world of FIDE certification, this is the norm. I may hate it but the chess community seems to be ok with it.

More Questions

So who in Malaysia have organised tournaments using Tornelo? I am sure there is but I don't have a chess blog or website to refer to.

Of course this is the limited view of the ignorant frog in me so again I asked for forgiveness for mistakes made. If you have something to add please do. Also Tornelo is still relatively new, looks promising and maybe in time may prove itself to be a useful platform for online chess tournaments to take place.

Also besides pure online play, there is also the very interesting hybrid form of chess mixing online and in person play.