International chess federation sanctions Kramnik • Hacker News Board

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#81

Post by IAmGraydon » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:33 AM UTC

kelipso wrote: post #71

IncreasePosts wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people imagine chess players to he smart, but there's a video of asking grandmasters very simple (imho) general knowledge questions that they did absolutely abysmally at. It's probably safe to assume that someone who is really good at chess is actually bad at anything that isn't chess

A big percentage of the top grandmasters skip high school and almost none of them have went to college. They are “smart” in that they have the potential intelligence to learn that stuff, as demonstrated by them having learned chess, but they have basically no knowledge of statistics, mathematics, plenty of other general knowledge topics. From that point of view, you should really consider them to be as knowledgeable…

>A big percentage of the top grandmasters skip high school and almost none of them have went to college. They are “smart” in that they have the potential intelligence to learn that stuff, as demonstrated by them having learned chess, but they have basically no knowledge of statistics, mathematics, plenty of other general knowledge topics.

Source?

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#82

Post by IAmGraydon » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

alex1138 wrote: post #75

matheusmoreira wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. > The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.

- Paul Morphy, lawyer (I think). One of... well. Greatest of all time discussions are hard (times evolve) but he murdered his competition relative to his time

Morphy was certainly a freak of nature, sort of like Elizabeth in Queen's Gambit. Sadly, he lost his mind and died in his 40s.

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#83

Post by BetterThanSober » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:55 AM UTC

kriro wrote: post #35

Arainach wrote: post #2

For those who don't follow chess, what were the allegations? This article is intentionally vague on all the details.

He basically accused many players of cheating without any real evidence. His proofs are notoriously bad. The most notable examples are Daniel Naroditsky who was under immense psychological stress due to the allegations and died due to an accidental kratom overdose (kratom is used to self-medicate anxiety). Another prominent example are his allegations against Jose Martinez (aka Jospem) which resulted in them playing…

> accidental kratom overdose

You cannot overdose on plain leaf kratom

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#84

Post by traes » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:20 AM UTC

kelipso wrote: post #71

IncreasePosts wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people imagine chess players to he smart, but there's a video of asking grandmasters very simple (imho) general knowledge questions that they did absolutely abysmally at. It's probably safe to assume that someone who is really good at chess is actually bad at anything that isn't chess

A big percentage of the top grandmasters skip high school and almost none of them have went to college. They are “smart” in that they have the potential intelligence to learn that stuff, as demonstrated by them having learned chess, but they have basically no knowledge of statistics, mathematics, plenty of other general knowledge topics. From that point of view, you should really consider them to be as knowledgeable…

A lot of players actually do go to college, although likely a minority. I know that Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in particular has a math degree. Ding Liren has a law degree. Daniel Naroditsky himself, while not quite a top grandmaster by the typical definition, had a bachelors in history.

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#85

Post by daft_pink » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

Is there a summary of what he actually did? Since I didn’t follow the initial news item I feel like we are seeing the result before understanding the problem.

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#86

Post by largbae » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:23 AM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #70

IncreasePosts wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people imagine chess players to he smart, but there's a video of asking grandmasters very simple (imho) general knowledge questions that they did absolutely abysmally at. It's probably safe to assume that someone who is really good at chess is actually bad at anything that isn't chess

I would call chess players smart in the abstract sense. Playing chess requires both good "compute power", working memory, and long-term memorization. But to become grandmaster you have to dedicate a lot of your life to chess. It's not that these people couldn't know general knowledge or do higher math, they are simply not exposed to it. They are not smart in the sense of a universal genius, because that would require…

Kasparov seems to show that there is room for more than moves in a great chess mind.

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#87

Post by traes » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:25 AM UTC

IAmGraydon wrote: post #81

kelipso wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big percentage of the top grandmasters skip high school and almost none of them have went to college. They are “smart” in that they have the potential intelligence to learn that stuff, as demonstrated by them having learned chess, but they have basically no knowledge of statistics, mathematics, plenty of other general knowledge topics. From that point of view, you should really consider them to be as knowledgeable…

>A big percentage of the top grandmasters skip high school and almost none of them have went to college. They are “smart” in that they have the potential intelligence to learn that stuff, as demonstrated by them having learned chess, but they have basically no knowledge of statistics, mathematics, plenty of other general knowledge topics. Source?

Regarding general knowledge, it's a pretty well known phenomena within the community. Here's a video with the three players who spent the longest time at #2 in the world (see [0]) behind Magnus Carlsen answering basic trivia questions[1].

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1uk3wa3/world_no_2s_...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXyLJaaLEpE

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#88

Post by traes » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:31 AM UTC

rendall wrote: post #33

moomin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not a follower either, but inference from the article tells me: Krammik has come up with some sort of cheat detection method, has loudly accused some others of cheating, and FIDE are both unconvinced of the truth of the allegations and very unhappy he didn’t do this through proper channels. He also doesn’t appear to have co-operated with the investigation.

His "cheat detection method" mostly consisted of playing someone online and then reporting them for cheating if he lost.

Here's a fun compilation of him getting cooked by 12 year olds and then immediately reporting them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg5LSOoYoPs

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#89

Post by traes » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:36 AM UTC

WJW wrote: post #53

g42gregory wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of us who have no idea who this guy is and what he said, what did he do? Did he say something unapproved?

Do you mean Kramnik or Hans Niemann? Kramnik ((ab)using his status as a former world champion) accused several other top level players to the point that one of them committed suicide. Niemann allegedly cheated (In my personal opinion as a decently rated but certainly not elite chess player, he probably did cheat in this particular game, though proof was never given and probably never will) at a high level chess tourn…

> he probably did cheat in this particular game

I have no idea why this continues to be a popular opinion among laypeople. Even at the time actual cheating experts using computer analysis determined it to be likely fair play. His accuracy was rather pedestrian, Magnus just had on off day and played terribly. There is no proposed mechanism for how he could even HAVE cheated. He has continued to perform at a similar level under much tighter security enforcement. The primary accusation seems to be that he's poor at explaining the reasoning behind his moves, but anyone who's ever watched a Hans stream can tell you that the man simply cannot speak.

Re: International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

#90

Post by traes » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:38 AM UTC

zmgsabst wrote: post #31

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #17

Kramnik is an asshole and this action is far too little far too late. His actions have possibly already led to the loss of a life. At the same time, FIDE also needs to look back at the behavior of some of the most powerful people in the sport in the whole Hans saga. What Hans was put through was ridiculous even if all the allegations were true, given how many actions were simply the result of the most powerful player…

Hans did plenty to damage his own career - eg, his 2024 ban for trashing a hotel room.

This is true, but the crushing response to this scandal is clearly disproportionate. Millions of views on videos making crude sexual jokes about a 19 year old is already an incredibly unfortunate situation, and his career got completely halted for years due to (what are now clearly) false accusations.