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Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

wsj.com

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Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#21

Post by beardyw »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

Cheating at 3+2 games while streaming? How's it is even possible to input all moves/positions into a chess program in parallel too main game and also while commenting? IMO it is impossible without some very specialized software or external assistance who would do the clicks. And how does he cheat in over the board events?

It is very easy indeed. Stockfish would be an immense help. Best moves are calculated progressively, that is they are refined over a few seconds. Inexperienced players are given away by delaying over obvious moves waiting for the best move. It is definitely not rocket science. You can download and run Stockfish yourself. I think chess.com possibly runs it in the browser.

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#23

Post by energyy »

bluecalm wrote: post #16
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

Cheating at 3+2 games while streaming? How's it is even possible to input all moves/positions into a chess program in parallel too main game and also while commenting? IMO it is impossible without some very specialized software or external assistance who would do the clicks. And how does he cheat in over the board events?

3+2 is a lot of time to input the moves several times over and prepare coffee in the meantime. Seriously, it's not a slightest problem for a competent online blitz player. OTB cheating: there are many possible ways. The simplest one being having a script reading the moves from the live broadcast and feeding them to an engine and then sending the info to the player. Hans' strength magically decreased in the Sinquefiel…

> Hans' strength magically decreased in the Sinquefield cup once broadcast delay was introduced for example.

This might be the solution. But then on-site audience would need to be monitored as well.

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#24

Post by threatofrain »

fxtentacle wrote: post #15

I believe the critical aspect here is not the specific cheating that chess.com found, but that this appears to contain written statements by Niemann himself which contradict his public statement. And if it now turns out that he lied in his confession, too, then that's a really bad look w.r.t. his trustworthiness.

Confessions have an important role in forgiveness, but given that, the public arena is never the right place for confessions; i.e., do you expect someone to say "Actually, I also hit on another employee last May." That would get you nailed to a cross and no lawyer would ever advise that except on the calculus of further damage control.

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#25

Post by zqlamp »

The chess.com campaign continues. 100 games are nothing online, Carlsen/Firouzja play that in a single night. The headline is pure propaganda and omits the word "online".

In fact, the article tries to paint Niemann as a liar while the purported facts pretty much match what he admitted to. One cheating in a titled tournament at age 12 and multiple cheats at the beginning of 2020. He said he was 16, so he was barely 17 according to the article. That isn't a lie, that can easily happen in an interview.

If that is all that chess.com has, their behavior is extremely poor. Also, what about all those other cheating titled players who did not have the misfortune to win against multi-million asset Carlsen?

It is time for Europeans to send GDPR requests for cheating scores etc. and terminate their accounts. The risk is too great.

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#26

Post by [deleted] »

threatofrain wrote: post #24
fxtentacle wrote: post #15

I believe the critical aspect here is not the specific cheating that chess.com found, but that this appears to contain written statements by Niemann himself which contradict his public statement. And if it now turns out that he lied in his confession, too, then that's a really bad look w.r.t. his trustworthiness.

Confessions have an important role in forgiveness, but given that, the public arena is never the right place for confessions; i.e., do you expect someone to say "Actually, I also hit on another employee last May." That would get you nailed to a cross and no lawyer would ever advise that except on the calculus of further damage control.

[deleted]

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#29

Post by arecurrence »

Why don't cheaters just use two machines or even just their phone and a laptop? The evidence is often around other processes or browser tabs running on their device (and in this case also focus loss) but an immediate thought must be to simply use multiple devices.

Re: Chess Investigation Finds U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

#30

Post by jfghi »

rjj wrote: post #28

Just to make sure I read this right: he most likely cheated in 11 online tournaments from 2015 - 2020. Why not analyze his recent and over-the-board games?

I imagine everything is being analyzed but given that cheating in 11 online tournaments is enough to invalidate someone’s career it makes for an appropriate topic of article.
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