Chess grandmaster banned in drug test row: Plus the Top 10 doping scandals

Chess, a sport usually associated with old, beady men, maverick Russians and super-computers, has hit the headlines this week after a top Ukrainian player got caught up in a doping scandal.

Professional chess player and grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk faces a two-year ban from the sport after refusing a drug test at Dresden's Chess Olympiad.

He declined to provide a urine sample after losing to American Gata Kamsky. It's an insult to his intelligence and honour, claims the chess community.

Ivanchuk may be the first chess player to be caught up in a doping row, but he's certainly not the first sports star to do so, as this rogue's gallery proves:

1) Rio Ferdinand
Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand was banned for eight months and fined £50,000 by the FA after missing a drugs test in 2003. The player, who missed Euro 2004 because of the punishment, claims he forgot about the test and went shopping instead.

2) Ben Johnson
No doping list would be complete without a mention of the godfather of sporting drug abuse. The Canadian sprinter will always be remembered for the spectacular fashion in which he won the 100-metre sprint at the 1988 Olympics then came tumbling back to reality when he tested positive for anabolic steroids. His contorted face, wild eyes and huge muscles were a bit of a giveaway.

3) Phil Tufnell
The Cat liked a smoke during his playing days - he was often found curled up in the England or Middlesex dressing room cradling a cigarette. During the 1996/97 tour of New Zealand he was accused of smoking cannabis in a Christchurch bar, but cleared by the England management. Later in 1997 he was given an 18-months suspended ban and a £1,000 fine after failing to provide a specimen for a random drugs test.

4) Mark Bosnich
The Australian keeper left Chelsea in spectacular fashion in 2002 when he failed a drugs test after traces of cocaine were found, and was subsequently sacked. He later admitted to a hefty cocaine habit and served a nine-month ban from football.

5) Marion Jones
The butter-wouldn't-melt American athlete had to hand back all her Sydney Olympic medals when she admitted to taking steroids last year. As a result of the admissions, Jones was suspended for two-years from track and field competition, and subsequently announced her retirement from the sport.

6) Dwain Chambers
British sprinting's biggest drugs cheat was banned from athletics for two years in 2003 after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug THG. He was also served with a lifetime suspension from the Olympics, which he unsuccessfully tried to overturn ahead of last summer's Beijing Games.

7) Dermott Browne
The former jockey turned trainer didn't take drugs himself, or give drugs to animals to make them go faster. Rather, he was a 'needle man', who doped horses with the tranquilliser acetylpromazine (ACP) so they didn't win races. Browne claims to have doped 23 horses in the space of a few weeks back in 1990, and was banned from British racecourses as a result.

8) Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif
The Pakistani fast bowling duo tested positive for nandrolone in 2006 and were handed two-year and one-year bans from the sport. On appeal, however, they were both acquitted with "exceptional circumstances" cited as a reason for the turnaround.

9) Shane Warne
Another cricketer banned for taking illegal substances is larger-than-life Aussie spinner Shane Warne. He tested positive for the diuretic drugs hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride just before the 2003 World Cup and was sent home and banned for one year.

10) Neil Foulds
Like chess, snooker isn't really a sport where you'd think illegal substances could enhance a player's performance, but during the early 1980s Neil Foulds was found to be taking beta blockers. The drugs are said to help steady the hand, which obviously helps with snooker. Foulds never recovered from the beta blockers scandal and dropped rapidly down the rankings.