Father Daughter Scandal

      I came across this story yesterday. Recently two German players, Michael Stock (ELO 2275) and WGM Lara Stock (ELO 2346), entered an under 1700 tournament in New Zealand under false names, and Lara finished first and her father second. Between them they won $55 (about 40 Euros). They gave false names but were eventually caught when someone recognized them and contacted the organizer. Lara is 19 but was pretending she was under 18 and her ELO was under 1700. They had been traveling through Australia and New Zealand for a while and entered other weak tournaments, also under false names.

One German player has posted that Michael Stock had established a chess club because he wanted to be the President and that despite his ELO rating, his German rating is only 1950. He also wrote that in the early 90s Michael Stock went from ELO 2200 to 2400 after a tournament in Hungary and then he didn't play any rated tournaments for some years. He also stated Lara had trouble with the German chess federation some years ago but did not elaborate.

What I can’t figure out is why anyone would spend the money travelling from Europe to Australia to play in chess tournaments for lunch money. Some kind of twisted ego trip? Is Lara somehow psychologically under her father’s control? Weird.