<In the Spanish town of Oropesa del Mar, ten world championships were held together: for under ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen and eighteen, and all this both for girls and boys. The Dutch great hope was Daniel Stellwagen, twelve years old.

There was a tense situation before the last round in the under-12 section. Stellwagen was equal with the Chinese Wang with 8 out of 12. If both drew or both won, Stellwagen would be world champion on tie-break. He had to play with White against the Russian Tomashevsky; Wang was Black against his countryman Huang.

Black, white, green or red, it would really make no difference, because the Chinese have a reputation to be indecently helpful to each other if it suits the common cause. And so it happened. Stellwagen made a draw. The two Chinese had done little in their game, moving their pieces to and fro. Huang had been a bit better all the time, but during the last few moves the advantage had changed hands and now it was Wang who was a bit better. But in fact it made no difference at all who had the advantage.

Within a minute after Stellwagen had agreed the draw, Huang resigned his game. No question of time trouble - he had half an hour left for two moves in a drawn position. Wang was world champion.

Of course the Dutch delegation filed a protest. This was rejected, although the appeals committee went out of its way to show sympathy for the Dutch side, declaring that cases like this were unfortunately all too common but impossible to act against, because hard proof was always lacking. Yes indeed, it always is. Better proof than in this obvious case of cheating you will never get.

One cannot blame the Chinese boys. They are twelve years old or younger. No doubt they had older and more experienced attendants who had instructed them as to their duties to the Fatherland.>

Judge for yourself if the final position is resignable for White, even against the "brilliant Wang Yue".

Re: proof, I think Tim Krabbé put it best:

It is the last day of the World Championship double round robin tournament in Elista, Kalmykia, and the winner will be crowned the sole and undisputed Chess World Champion for the next five years (not to mention the winner-takes-all prize money of US$8,000,000.00). Sharing the lead, with nine points, are Wang Yue of China and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. In the event they remain tied at the end, a match will be played between the two. Wang is to play his last game with White against Daniel Stellwagen of the Netherlands, while Topalov has Black against his countryman Ivan Cheparinov.

Wang-Stellwagen is a balanced game and agreed drawn shortly after time control. Meanwhile, Cheparinov-Topalov has also reached a rather balanced position...

click for larger view

...both players having played nearly perfectly up to now, White to move with 58 minutes on the clock here unbelievably overlooks a mate in one: 42.Qe6?? Qh2#, handing Topalov the World Championship and eight million US dollars.

The Chinese file a protest, claiming that Cheparinov (whose only other loss in the tournament was also against Topalov) allowed the mate on purpose to let his friend Topalov win the Championship, also citing the timing of the event mere seconds after the draw agreement by Wang and Stellwagen. The Chief Arbiter, one Silvio Danailov, offers words of sympathy but notes that proof is sadly lacking. Wang is shattered and retires from chess.

Would you side with the Chinese or with Danailov?