Posted on 10/04/2022 9:29:58 PM PDT by texas booster
We appreciate your patience over the last several weeks as we have been working on a comprehensive report on Hans Niemann and the events following Magnus’ resignation in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. We know many of you have been eager to hear from Chess.com, and while there is more we want to research around the topic, we present to you this report on our findings so far.
Our report was first referenced by the Wall Street Journal article published on October 4 2022.
We know that while we are answering some questions here, more questions will surface, and we look forward to answering all of them soon.
- Erik and Danny
TL:DR - implicates Neimann in cheating in over 100 online games through 2020.
Neimann has had a spectacular rise in the rankings of chess players.
In fact, so spectacular that he has improvement is better than Bobby Fisher, Karpov or Carlson.
Please note that there is NO discussion of his OTB classic games in this report.
Thank you for the link.
I didn’t link to the WSJ since it is behind a paywall.
I found another article on a site called Kotaku that went into more detail. Apparently this is about on-line chess?
Soit’s obviously different from playing in person where I would think cheating would be impossible (unless it was taking adderall or something like that?)
But still can’t find HOW somebody cheats at online chess.
Once computers started making better moves than masters in short periods of time, it was inevitable. If you are online, all you need is another computer feeding you moves. The in-person cheats have to do with having a secret way to get the computer’s moves to the player.
Ah!
The worst part of it was posting reactions of other players who beat Magnus and comparing it with Hans’ non-reaction, as if that’s evidence of anything.
That proves nothing and is evidence of nothing.
This smells too much like a hit job.
Maybe he cheats in online chess, but there’s no evidence of anything other than he beat Magnus straight up over the board.
My suspicion is that the chess world doesn’t want to see Hans as the new king. He’s not photogenic or charismatic. He’s a weirdo who locked himself in hotel rooms for over a year and did nothing but study chess.
Looking at the report, he definitely cheats on online chess, including against highly rated players which he streamed online—obviously to get reputational points. It appears he has been cheating as recently as 2020.
It would be pretty convenient if he went from cheating in online games against grandmasters to becoming a real grandmaster within just a year by locking himself into hotel rooms.
XI. Conclusion
After Hans beat Magnus and Magnus withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup, we removed Hans
from Chess.com’s upcoming GCC and withdrew his access to the site until we could conduct further
review. And while Magnus’ actions prompted us to reassess the situation, Magnus did not talk with us in
advance about our decisions or ask for, or directly influence, those decisions at all. Magnus was, and is,
operating entirely under his own direction, as is Chess.com. However, given the circumstances, which
included a player who had a significant and admitted history of cheating, the World Chess Champion
making the loudest statement in chess history, and an invitational event starting in a matter of days, we
felt we had to act. We communicated privately with Hans via email. We never wanted or intended to
have a public discussion about these decisions, and, frankly, we believe we could have resolved things
privately.
We understand that the timing of our email, and Hans’ publicizing of it, may have led a number of people
in the chess community to believe that Chess.com “knew” Hans was cheating over the board, or was under
pressure from Magnus, or had some new evidence indicating that Hans was cheating over the board. The
much less interesting truth is that none of this is true. While there are many remarkable signals and unusual
patterns in Hans’ path as a player, and while some games, behaviors, and actions are hard to understand,
Chess.com is unaware of any concrete evidence proving that Hans is cheating over the board or has ever
Hans Report – 20
cheated over the board. Chess.com has historically not been involved in OTB or classical chess fair play
decisions, as we do not run OTB or classical chess events.
Our investigation has revealed that while there has been some noteworthy online play that has caught our
attention as suspicious since August 2020, we are unaware of any evidence that Hans has engaged in
online cheating since then. Our investigation has concluded that he did, however, cheat much more than
he has publicly admitted to, including in many prize events, at least 25 streamed games, and 100+ rated
games on Chess.com, as recently as when he was 17 years old.
We believe Hans is an incredibly strong player and a talented individual. That said, given his history on
our site, we did not believe we could ensure that he would play fairly in our online events until we could
re-evaluate the evidence and our protocols. Nevertheless, and to be clear, it is not our position that Hans
should be limited or banned from OTB chess. Hans’ online and OTB behaviors may be completely
different, and that should be taken into consideration. We have shared our findings with FIDE and will
cooperate with any investigation or requests they pursue.
It is our belief that OTB event organizers should be taking much stronger precautions against cheating by
all players to ensure fair play. To keep the game fair, all players should be playing under the same
conditions, and checked before, during, and after matches using the appropriate technologies and methods
to counter any outside assistance.
We reiterate our message of September 8th, 2022: that we would like to have a conversation with Hans to
“provide an explanation and response with the hope of finding a resolution where Hans can again
participate on Chess.com.”28
We want the best for Hans. We want the best for Magnus. We want the best for chess. We want stability,
fairness, and joy in the chess community, not turbulence, conspiracy, and accusations. We have a role to
play in this, and we acknowledge that we can do better in our transparency, timing, and messaging moving
forward and look forward to cooperating with FIDE and others in the chess community to serve the game.
– Erik, Danny, and the Fair Play Team at Chess.com
To cheat in OTB games requires preparation and (sometimes) an assistant.
Recent methods include hiding a phone in the bathroom and checking it while taking a break. There have been instances where an audience member has provided signals based upon the “best” move available.
At least one former GM was accused of wearing a hearing aid that could somehow “hear” outside signals from a partner. I don’t think that she even plays chess anymore.
High level classical chess games take hours, and the players get up to walk around, stretch, take bio breaks and eat.
Plenty of opportunity to get outside influence if one wanted to.
There is Niemann's Sept. 6 admission after Round 5 of the Sinquefield Cup that he cheated online at ages 12 and 16.
The rest is "likely cheated," "appears to have cheated," and "suspect games". No evidence whatever of cheating over the board at any time has been alleged. It was alleged that he "likely" cheated online up to 42 days after his 17th birthday. No allegation of cheating as an adult was alleged.
Please note that there is NO discussion of his OTB classic games in this report. Report at 3: "Despite the public speculation on these questions, in our view, there is no direct evidence that proves Hans cheated at the September 4, 2022 game with Magnus, or proves that he has cheated in other OTB games in the past."
Report at 19-20: "Chess.com is unaware of any concrete evidence proving that Hans is cheating over the board or has ever cheated over the board."
The suspicions of Chess.com about Neimann’s cheating in online games (which also raise his ELO score) have to do with the use of multiple monitors while playing the games.
No issues with the use of multiple monitors - many GMs routinely play simultaneous games.
But they stated that his head movements checking other monitors coincided with the playing of the “best move”, which is where they came up with the suspicion.
No concrete suspicions since they were not videotaping his online setup, but it fit the pattern of their cheat detection algorithms.
Neimann may be clean as the driven snow but enough GMs feel that he is playing outside of the boundaries of chess, to make them feel uncomfortable.
Which they do not sense from any of the new young GMs from India, for instance.
Several days later after returning to Norway, Magnus shared in a private conversation that his experience in playing Hans was “unlike a game he’s ever had.” He emphasized that he has competed against numerous prodigies and players who “exert” themselves and show great effort throughout a long, difficult fight like this game. He described Hans’ level of exertion as “effortless” and felt he never had a chance to get back in the game, which was extremely unusual for Magnus who is known for his resourcefulness. Hans’ lack of emotion or excitement about the result was also noted by several others.
It is hard to understate the respect that the chess world has for Magnus, which has been earned over the last decade. The report notes compares the emotion for five players that have beaten Magnus, including Hans. His emotional response is not like the other players ...
Chess.com is set up to catch online cheaters, especially in speed chess. They readily admit that they do not police OTB games, since they are not the organizers of these tournaments. In this case they did apply the same anti-cheating rules that they use in other online games, and found suspicious activity.
Hans Neimann is the approximate Donald Trump of chess. Why would Neimann have to look nervous? He had beaten Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces just a few weeks before on 16 August 2022 Round 2 FTX Crypto Cup, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and was in the process of beating him again. Niemann's response was that "It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me. I feel bad for him."
How many players have three tournament wins over Magnus in about a month? The last one was two moves long.
Magnus did not do himself any favors with his act at the Candidate's tournament when he said he was undecided whether he would defend his championship or not. And he said he likely would not unless the challenger were Alireza Firouzja. Carlsen was not playing but he showed up and waited until just after the tournament finished to announce that he would not play in the championship match. Players had to go for broke to be first because they did not know if second was meaningful or not. It affected the play of the tournament.
Carlsen lost to Niemann and waited until after Niemann went through the enhanced security check and tested clean. Then he tweeted from someplace that he was withdrawing, leaving his opponent to sit at the table waiting for the clock to run down ten minutes before the official declared the game forfeit. A player does not drop out of a round robin without just cause, defined as ilness or force majeure. He had played three games, less than half of those scheduled, so they were all nullified for the tournament standings. Of course, a round robin with an odd number of players leaves someone each round with no opponent.
Then Carlsen went to the Generations Cup and resigned his game with Niemann after making one move, and continued to play in that tournament which was a round robin in the preliminary rounds. He affected the standings and pairings in the elimination rounds.
The situation is about the conduct of Magnus Carlsen, not what Hans Niemann did years ago as a minor. Carlsen needs to justify what he did to FIDE. It is not like the grandmaster community just woke up and discovered Niemann had years ago been banned by Chess.com. It was talked about almost immediately by GM Hikaru Nakamura and his guests. Chess.com is simply running interference for a very big corporate asset.
The Chess.com reports on 26 grandmasters alleged to have been determined to have violated their fair play standards. They provide a list with all the names removed except for Niemann. They relate that one of those banned by Chess.com was in the FIDE top 10 in the world.
In this case they did apply the same anti-cheating rules that they use in other online games, and found suspicious activity.
This case is about over the board play. Magnus Carlsen quit a tournament in 2020, it was September 2022, not years ago when Niemann was a minor.
Chess.com Report at 3: "Despite the public speculation on these questions, in our view, there is no direct evidence that proves Hans cheated at the September 4, 2022 game with Magnus, or proves that he has cheated in other OTB games in the past."
Chess.com Report at 19-20: "Chess.com is unaware of any concrete evidence proving that Hans is cheating over the board or has ever cheated over the board."
I don't believe Niemann played any online games under FIDE.
I don't know about an accusation of two monitors, but they can detect when the user opens another tab on the same computer. It is called toggling. It raises a different screen on the same computer. They can correlate when tabs open in relation to play improvement.
Niemann may be cheating over the board but, if so, he has not been caught. Chess.com found him to be clean online and over the board since 2020. What Chess.com published in the Wall Street Journal will not be considered by FIDE because FIDE must meet scientific and legal standards, and Chess.com refuses to submit its system to peer review. Until they have their system verified, it will never meet the legal and scientific standards required by FIDE.
Until someone comes up with actual proof, there is no justification to drop out of round robin tournaments or throw games in tournaments.
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