I think the whole chess game was a ruse. Like when you are playing Family Feud on Uproar and your boss walks by so you hit the panic button...except in reverse. The game was there to cover up the computer's real use? So Mikhail being a hostile/Other thought it was just a computer chess game? That may be why he didn't pay any nevermind to John messing around with it. And either John got lucky and entered in the right configuration (doubt it) or whoever was monitoring via that camera, let him 'win'