'Concerning' steps taken by chess pro's alleged stalker

A cafe operator who denies stalking a young chess pro for years remains an unacceptable threat of harming her if released, a judge says.

Shumsheer Singh Ghumman, 47, was refused bail in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday after being charged with 35 offences.

It's alleged he stalked the professional chess player, aged in her 20s, between April 2024 and May 2026.

The woman obtained an intervention order against Ghumman in March 2025 but he allegedly continued to stalk her.

In refusing bail, Justice Amanda Fox said Ghumman had infiltrated the woman's life, finding out about her family, friends, addresses and even holiday plans.

"On the material I have, the offending is methodical and planned," the judge said.

During the bail application, police told the court Ghumman emailed officials in Qatar about the woman.

She was subsequently held in a jail cell after arriving at Doha International Airport, lead detective Senior Constable Ashley Hall said.

Ghumman is also alleged to have contacted the Icelandic Chess Federation and the woman was detained again.

The accused stalker also allegedly threatened to use artificial intelligence to surveil the woman and scrape her data from the dark web, Justice Fox noted.

He allegedly claimed to the woman that Claude - a reference to Anthropic's AI chatbot - would not get tired in his pursuit.

It's alleged Ghumman also tried to stop her from pursuing the criminal charges and also intimidated her parents and friends.

Ghumman was arrested at his Burnley cafe in Melbourne's east on May 1 and charged with 35 offences.

They included stalking, intimidation, attempting to pervert the course of justice and possessing a pair of nunchucks.