Former Ukrainian grandmaster stripped of title for fraud

Former Ukrainian chess player Kyrylo Shevchenko, who received Romanian sports citizenship, was stripped of his grandmaster title.

This is reported by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and Suspilne.

FIDEʼs Fair Play Commission has won an appeal against Shevchenkoʼs cheating case at a tournament in Spain. The organization has revoked his grandmaster title, which he had held since 2017.

In October 2024, Shevchenko was disqualified from the Spanish Chess Championship on suspicion of cheating. He hid his phone in the bathroom and opened the Lichess chess resource on it. During the investigation, the chess player admitted to hiding the phone, but denied cheating or that his actions affected the game.

In March 2025, Kyrylo was suspended from participating in chess tournaments and attending them for a period of three years (of which one year was suspended), after the case was considered by the FIDE Disciplinary and Ethics Committee.

The suspension is valid until October 18, 2026. The decision also states that the sanction is not intended to prevent Shevchenko from earning income as a personal coach, teacher or chess instructor, provided that he does not act as a captain or assist any player or team during official chess tournaments.

• Kyrylo Shevchenko was born in 2002 in Kyiv. He changed his Ukrainian sports citizenship to Romanian in 2023. Before his suspension, Shevchenko was ranked 69th in the FIDE world rankings and was the fifth highest-rated chess player in the Ukrainian national team.

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