An ex-Italian mayor was accused of using a hidden sunglass camera to cheat
One former Italian politician thought the best way to cheat at chess was using Bond-esque technology to give him hints on the correct move. Loris Cereda, who had once lorded over the Italian town of Buccinasco, had allegedly used dark-tinted glasses fitted with a miniature camera to send live images of his opponents moves to a chess program during a tournament in 2012.
Though the story gets even stranger. According to a 2013 article from The Independent, the Italian Chess Federation said the program dictated the correct move to an earpiece. The federation suspended Cereda, though the former mayor told a local paper “I’ve never been less than a good sport–and as someone who loves this sport, I could not, or even imagine doing such a thing.”
The accusation is pretty hard to believe for a number of reasons, not the least because such technology seems limited by a figure of Cereda’s means. That doesn’t mean people didn’t have reason to suspect the ex-mayor. At the time, Cereda was being investigated for allegations he had taken €10,000 ($9,775 in today’s money) in exchange for a shopping center contract. Reports from the time allege had been caught on CCTV being presented with a bag of money from the construction company in question then walking off with it.
