Chess scandals, how I love them... LOL
Sep. 7th, 2022 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellerSooo, the chess world has its newest scandal: a young player, GM Hans Niemann, is accused-but-not-quite-accused of cheating after winning against Magnus Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup. Magnus Carlsen rage-quit the tournament with vague insinuations but no direct accusation. This is understandable either way. If Carlsen seriously suspects cheating, he'd bring that up with the arbiter(s) of the tournament, but would not say anything in public: if the accusations can't be proven, there's a real risk he'd be sued for slander. His re-tweet of a certain Jose Mourinho statement is a pretty clear implication, though. Now, does he suspect slander or is he simply being a sore loser? Of course, without hard evidence, there's no way for me to tell. I'm just interestedly observing everyone's reactions. And I mean everyone's. Everyone is talking about this! (So am I. LOL)
The facts of the case:
- Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann in round 3 of the Sinquefield Cup, an on-the-board tournament.
- That was not a particularly good game by Carlsen's standards.
- It was an extremely good game by Niemann's standards. GM Niemann has "only" a rating of around 2700, which is GM level but not world-class GM level. However, he's also only 19 years old, improving fast, and may be a better player than his rating indicates. Anyway: he won against Carlsen. (For that matter: repeatedly.)
- Hans Niemann has apparently been previously suspended on chess.com, presumably for cheating in online games. (No details are known, but the 6-month ban is a fact, and difficult to explain otherwise.) This may explain why some well-known chess personalities are unwilling to give him the benefit of the doubt.
- After the game, GM Niemann gave an extremely weird interview, in which he a) came across as a complete a**hole (which is not the weird part but rather usual for chess grandmasters), and b) claimed to have looked at just that super rare opening just before the game (statistically very unlikely but not impossible) and had some weird mix-ups in his chess evaluation of the game.
- Carlsen did not show up for the next round of the tournament. He did show up on Twitter, though.
- World-class player and popular chess streamer GM Hikaru Nakamura also showed up. (It needs to be mentioned that Niemann is also a chess streamer.) I guess he simply enjoys the drama, as usual.
- A summary of what everyone tweeted can, e.g., be found here: https://worldchess.com/news/all/did-hans-niemann-actually-cheat-all-the-info-so-far/
What would potential cheating look like, anyway?
- Is it possible to cheat in on-the-board chess tournaments? Yes and no. I think I've written extensively about the instances of cheating I've observed during my time as a chess-obsessed teenager. I've also mentioned that chess players tend to have a tendency to cheat. Anyone who ever organizes a chess tournament, however, knows this. Chess arbiters are some of the smartest, toughest, and most paranoid people on this planet. To cheat at a high-level tournament is... Near-impossible, I'd say.
- The first way would be direct communication with someone. This... is difficult when everything is being filmed. (At the board, there are cameras on the players at all times. Even microexpressions are recorded. You can be sure that body language experts are now all over the Niemann game to see if there's anything suspicious showing up.)
- The second would be computer use. Preferably done in the toilet stall, which is the one place that's (hopefully) not being recorded on video. However, I believe, these days, it's the standard that players and visitors are searched and have to pass a metal detector before the enter the venue. Bringing an electronics device would take some serious subterfuge. (Recent incidents of suspected computer cheating included compression socks and a tube of lip gloss.)
- The third would be off-the-board cheating. This would be... the easiest to manage, and (because of the absence of arbiters) near-impossible to prove. Basically, this would involve stuff like hacking Carlsen's computer with his opening preparation (though I don't think any of the top GMs are stupid enough to have that on a device with internet access), having someone break into his apartment (though I'd think someone at that level has private security), or paying off someone on Carlsen's team. (Seconds-turned-traitors are a good old chess tradition, after all!)
My personal take on this:
- I'm not going to hazard a guess whether there was any cheating involved or not. I don't have any evidence either way.
- Yes, GM Niemann is assumed to have cheated before. However, I'm being cynical here: even if that's true, that doesn't mean he's more likely to cheat than other players. It just means he got caught. (Also, he was a kid at the time. Kids make mistakes.) If anything, it may even imply he's just not very good at cheating, and as a result, more honest than the average chess player. We don't know.
- Also, Carlsen is known to be a sore loser. Rage-quitting a tournament with vague statements that are not-quite-accusations seems just like his style, whether he has grounds for suspicion or not. After he's also refusing to defend his world championship title, there's, of course, a lot of speculation about his current attitude and whether he even wants to keep playing professional chess or not... Again: we don't know.
- There's no evidence of cheating.
- There are other, innocuous, explanations for the weird interview: like, say, a lot of stress after a difficult game. Getting the details of your own tournament preparation wrong is still somewhat unlikely, but not unthinkable. Also, you'd think that someone who just successfully cheated against the world champion would be careful not to comment the game on camera... Though, of course, weirder things than that have happened, too.
- Computer assistance would not just be difficult to pull off. If anything like that occurred, however, several top players have pointed out that Niemann's style during the game in question was "human", that is, he made weaker moves where humans generally go wrong compared to engines. That is: the player would have to be able to decide when not to accept the engine's suggestions... Which, at that level, would imply a level of play that makes engine use quite unnecessary.
- So, if there was any foul play involved, my guess is it was most likely off the board... Which will make an interesting chess story one day. Because, hey, chess players are highly paranoid individuals, and circumventing a world champion's personal security measures would take something. XD
- Carlsen suspecting someone in his inner circle to sabotage him would, of course, also be an excellent reason to quit a tournament...
The facts of the case:
- Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann in round 3 of the Sinquefield Cup, an on-the-board tournament.
- That was not a particularly good game by Carlsen's standards.
- It was an extremely good game by Niemann's standards. GM Niemann has "only" a rating of around 2700, which is GM level but not world-class GM level. However, he's also only 19 years old, improving fast, and may be a better player than his rating indicates. Anyway: he won against Carlsen. (For that matter: repeatedly.)
- Hans Niemann has apparently been previously suspended on chess.com, presumably for cheating in online games. (No details are known, but the 6-month ban is a fact, and difficult to explain otherwise.) This may explain why some well-known chess personalities are unwilling to give him the benefit of the doubt.
- After the game, GM Niemann gave an extremely weird interview, in which he a) came across as a complete a**hole (which is not the weird part but rather usual for chess grandmasters), and b) claimed to have looked at just that super rare opening just before the game (statistically very unlikely but not impossible) and had some weird mix-ups in his chess evaluation of the game.
- Carlsen did not show up for the next round of the tournament. He did show up on Twitter, though.
- World-class player and popular chess streamer GM Hikaru Nakamura also showed up. (It needs to be mentioned that Niemann is also a chess streamer.) I guess he simply enjoys the drama, as usual.
- A summary of what everyone tweeted can, e.g., be found here: https://worldchess.com/news/all/did-hans-niemann-actually-cheat-all-the-info-so-far/
What would potential cheating look like, anyway?
- Is it possible to cheat in on-the-board chess tournaments? Yes and no. I think I've written extensively about the instances of cheating I've observed during my time as a chess-obsessed teenager. I've also mentioned that chess players tend to have a tendency to cheat. Anyone who ever organizes a chess tournament, however, knows this. Chess arbiters are some of the smartest, toughest, and most paranoid people on this planet. To cheat at a high-level tournament is... Near-impossible, I'd say.
- The first way would be direct communication with someone. This... is difficult when everything is being filmed. (At the board, there are cameras on the players at all times. Even microexpressions are recorded. You can be sure that body language experts are now all over the Niemann game to see if there's anything suspicious showing up.)
- The second would be computer use. Preferably done in the toilet stall, which is the one place that's (hopefully) not being recorded on video. However, I believe, these days, it's the standard that players and visitors are searched and have to pass a metal detector before the enter the venue. Bringing an electronics device would take some serious subterfuge. (Recent incidents of suspected computer cheating included compression socks and a tube of lip gloss.)
- The third would be off-the-board cheating. This would be... the easiest to manage, and (because of the absence of arbiters) near-impossible to prove. Basically, this would involve stuff like hacking Carlsen's computer with his opening preparation (though I don't think any of the top GMs are stupid enough to have that on a device with internet access), having someone break into his apartment (though I'd think someone at that level has private security), or paying off someone on Carlsen's team. (Seconds-turned-traitors are a good old chess tradition, after all!)
My personal take on this:
- I'm not going to hazard a guess whether there was any cheating involved or not. I don't have any evidence either way.
- Yes, GM Niemann is assumed to have cheated before. However, I'm being cynical here: even if that's true, that doesn't mean he's more likely to cheat than other players. It just means he got caught. (Also, he was a kid at the time. Kids make mistakes.) If anything, it may even imply he's just not very good at cheating, and as a result, more honest than the average chess player. We don't know.
- Also, Carlsen is known to be a sore loser. Rage-quitting a tournament with vague statements that are not-quite-accusations seems just like his style, whether he has grounds for suspicion or not. After he's also refusing to defend his world championship title, there's, of course, a lot of speculation about his current attitude and whether he even wants to keep playing professional chess or not... Again: we don't know.
- There's no evidence of cheating.
- There are other, innocuous, explanations for the weird interview: like, say, a lot of stress after a difficult game. Getting the details of your own tournament preparation wrong is still somewhat unlikely, but not unthinkable. Also, you'd think that someone who just successfully cheated against the world champion would be careful not to comment the game on camera... Though, of course, weirder things than that have happened, too.
- Computer assistance would not just be difficult to pull off. If anything like that occurred, however, several top players have pointed out that Niemann's style during the game in question was "human", that is, he made weaker moves where humans generally go wrong compared to engines. That is: the player would have to be able to decide when not to accept the engine's suggestions... Which, at that level, would imply a level of play that makes engine use quite unnecessary.
- So, if there was any foul play involved, my guess is it was most likely off the board... Which will make an interesting chess story one day. Because, hey, chess players are highly paranoid individuals, and circumventing a world champion's personal security measures would take something. XD
- Carlsen suspecting someone in his inner circle to sabotage him would, of course, also be an excellent reason to quit a tournament...
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