Live data from Hacker News

A recent chess controversy

chicagobooth.edu

21–30 of 127 posts

Re: A recent chess controversy

#21
post #2

It is well known that Kramnik baselessly accuses everyone. The article seems to be more about statistics than chess, and doesn’t make any accusations. Kind of a click bait title IMO.

I'm just trying to figure out how you even cheat on chess, the only thing that comes to mind is moving pieces, and sneaking new ones on the board, but if there's enough cameras, how do you get away with it, eventually someone WILL notice, highlight it, point it out, and you will be shamed.

Getting any kind of information from a chess engine would be sufficient to gain an edge for a good player. Even something as simple as a nudge that there is a high value move in a position with no information about what the actual move is could be enough. Big chess tournaments tightly control phones and other devices for this reason. That's on a single-match level. On a tournament level there have been allegations of collusion where players will intentionally arrange their own matches to either be quick draws (to get a break to focus on other matches) or to give points to a designated player to help them win the tourney, Fischer famously accused Soviet chess players of doing this.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#22
Kramnik has proven himself a troll and did a lot of damage to the reputation of honest and otherwise wholesome people and this without credible proof at all. That those allegations persist under the form of news article is very unfortunate to those victims of his smearing.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#23
While it is good to see some Bayesian statistics in use, I wouldn't in this case put so much emphasis on an exact calculated probability that he did or din not cheat, the prior in this case is simply too wishy-washy for that.

The sound conclusion is that this is not evidence of cheating, but it is not evidence of the contrary either.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#24
post #2

It is well known that Kramnik baselessly accuses everyone. The article seems to be more about statistics than chess, and doesn’t make any accusations. Kind of a click bait title IMO.

I'm just trying to figure out how you even cheat on chess, the only thing that comes to mind is moving pieces, and sneaking new ones on the board, but if there's enough cameras, how do you get away with it, eventually someone WILL notice, highlight it, point it out, and you will be shamed.

Getting tips from another person or a computer on what best move to make. This could be as simple as a compatriot in the audience giving you hand signals.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#27
post #2

It is well known that Kramnik baselessly accuses everyone. The article seems to be more about statistics than chess, and doesn’t make any accusations. Kind of a click bait title IMO.

I'm just trying to figure out how you even cheat on chess, the only thing that comes to mind is moving pieces, and sneaking new ones on the board, but if there's enough cameras, how do you get away with it, eventually someone WILL notice, highlight it, point it out, and you will be shamed.

[deleted]

Re: A recent chess controversy

#28
There is probably 1000 hours of videos online of Hikaru talking through games, literally exhibiting his skill in full transparency. Hard for me to even understand what it would mean for him to cheat, his brain at times feels like the cheat.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#29
post #2

It is well known that Kramnik baselessly accuses everyone. The article seems to be more about statistics than chess, and doesn’t make any accusations. Kind of a click bait title IMO.

I'm just trying to figure out how you even cheat on chess, the only thing that comes to mind is moving pieces, and sneaking new ones on the board, but if there's enough cameras, how do you get away with it, eventually someone WILL notice, highlight it, point it out, and you will be shamed.

> I'm just trying to figure out how you even cheat on chess,

You use a chess engine to tell you the best move - you can run a chess engine on a modern phone that will easily best the world's top human chess players.

The simplest forms of this are things like: "play online, chess engine open in another window", "use your phone hiding in a bathroom cubicle" and "member of the audience follows your game with a chess engine and signals you somehow"

There are also rumoured to be very subtle ways of doing this - like playing unassisted for most of the game, but an engine providing 'flashes of genius' at one or two crucial moves of the game.

Major competitions have things like metal detectors and time-delay video feeds hoping to make cheating harder.

Re: A recent chess controversy

#30
post #7
post #2

It is well known that Kramnik baselessly accuses everyone. The article seems to be more about statistics than chess, and doesn’t make any accusations. Kind of a click bait title IMO.

The title is “Did a US Chess Champion Cheat?” and the text of the article uses statistical analysis to show that the person most likely did not cheat. What would you consider to be misleading between the title and the article?

The headline also complies with Betteridge's Law of Headlines. It's entirely legal.
Post reply on HN