New Delhi: An investigation by Chess.com, a renowned online platform where top players compete, has found that grandmaster Hans Niemann has likely cheated more than 100 times, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The chess world went into a frenzy last month when world champion Magnus Carlsen accused 19-year-old Niemann of cheating. Niemann had then denied the charges and accused Carlsen of conspiring to ruin his career. But he had also confessed to having cheated ‘only twice’, when he was 12 and 16 years old.
Chess.com Tuesday made public its 72-page report which states that “Niemann has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several prize-money events”.
The site, according to WSJ, “used a variety of cheating-detection tools, including analytics that compare moves to those recommended by chess engines, which are capable of beating even the greatest human players every time”.
The investigation conducted by Chess.com also found that Niemann had privately confessed to the cheating allegations and hence was banned from competing on the website in 2020 for a given amount of time.
Suspicions of cheating came to the fore when Niemann beat Carlsen and ended the world champion’s 53-game streak last month. Carlsen then abruptly withdrew from the tournament, and soon after, posted a tweet accusing Niemann of cheating.
“I believe that Niemann has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted,” he wrote.
Carlsen added, “His over-the-board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I only think a handful of players can do. This game contributed to changing my perspective,”
Niemann said that he had guessed his opponent’s move “by some ridiculous miracle”, an explanation with which the world champion was unsatisfied.
‘Statistical’ extraordinariness of Niemann’s games
According to the WSJ report, Chess.com head Danny Rensch told Niemann in a letter last month that his “suspicious moves coincided with moments when he had opened up a different screen on his computer”, alluding to the likelihood that he was consulting a separate chess-engine.
The Chess.com report also verifies the “statistical” extraordinariness of Niemann’s games and attests to what was initially just conjecture.
“Looking purely at rating, Niemann should be classified as a member of this group of top young players. While we don’t doubt that Niemann is a talented player, we note that his results are statistically extraordinary,” says the report, in reference to the grandmaster’s unusually erratic growth patterns.
According to protocols followed by the website, all bans against players are handled privately by it. But Chess.com deviated from this norm when Niemann publicly questioned the ban last month. The WSJ report says Chess.com then felt “compelled to share the basis” for its decisions.
Chess.com report also assesses Neimann’s post-game analysis which was “at odds with the level of preparation that he claimed was at play in the game and the level of analysis needed to defeat the World Chess Champion”.
Another revelation found in the Chess.com report is that “dozens” of grandmasters have been found cheating, all of whom have confessed.
Also read: ‘More and more recently’— Chess world champion Carlsen accuses American GM Niemann of cheating
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