World champion Magnus Carlsen abruptly resigned after making a single move in his highly anticipated rematch with Hans Niemann. Calls have increased for an investigation.
What is the scandal? That he admitted to cheating when he was younger playing online chess? Did he cheat against Carlson? NPR does a fantastic job of not flushing out what exactly the beef is
Basically the best ranked player in the world thinks that this guy was playing way above a reasonable human capability. It's a bit hard to explain exactly why he believes that and what criteria is even used to judge how you might see that without being into chess. (I hardly understand it this is mostly secondhand info from my friend) Ultimately there isn't hard evidence, but it's unprecedented for Carlson to leave and simply not play because he might lose.
Civility seems to have a better grasp of it than me. Just read their comment.
The game Niemann won against him as black, Niemann would not have won if Carlsen was having a good day. Niemann played slightly above his usual standard, but not statistically significantly so (less than 2 standard deviations), and seeing as Niemann as young and improving, playing slightly above his standard is even less unusual. Carlsen played significantly below (more than 2.5 std deviations) his usual standard. Niemann's game had a lot of crucial errors, 99.999999% of humanity would have lost to him, but Magnus at his usual standard, most world top 10 grand masters on a good day, and any half decent chess AI, could have taken one of the opportunities he left open to turn the game around and at the very least make a draw.
The only suspicious part of that game, aside from the upset outcome was that Niemann claimed to have prepped the first 20 odd moves he played, despite Carlsen having never played an opening that could go into that line before. Grandmasters at Niemann and Carlsen's level don't compete alone. They have teams of other grandmasters whose fulltime job is to train with them and help them prepare for their games. Exactly who is on these teams, and the methods and details of their preparation is a closely guarded secret. While Carlsen had never played the line he used against Niemann when he lost with black before, a grandmaster who has been revealed to be on his team was playing a lot of it online in the months leading up to the game. Niemann's team could have noticed this (correctly) assumed it was a line being prepared for Carlsen, and prepared a counter line.
Niemann has admitted to cheating on Chess.com as a child (which wasn't that long ago, given that he's now only 19). Over the past few weeks, as a result of Carlsen's behaviour, his play in the past two years has came under extensive scrutiny, and no evidence has been found he's cheated since coming of age either online or over the board.
Complicating things further, Magnus Carlsen isn't just (arguably the best) chess player alive, he's also a brand and a business. Losing as black to a cocky junior, and handling the loss poorly could be very damaging to him. Carlsen's brand is currently undergoing a merger with Chess.com, the largest for profit chess website. Immediately after Carlsen's withdrawal from the Sinquefield cup, Chess.com publicised Niemann's childhood cheating and subsequently banned him from their platform, and Chess.com affiliated influencers have spent a lot of time using their platforms to call Niemann a cheater.
Niemann has admitted to cheating on Chess.com as a child (which wasn’t that long ago, given that he’s now only 19). Over the past few weeks, as a result of Carlsen’s behaviour, his play in the past two years has came under extensive scrutiny, and no evidence has been found he’s cheated since coming of age either online or over the board.
There is no "coming of age" thing when it comes to chess. We have the current youngest GM is just over 12, they are kids and as good as the adults.
Second you forgot to mention the Chess.com statement which pretty much decisively proved not only he cheated but he lied on his little confession interview. He not only cheated but he cheated A LOT.
Hans was a kid yes technically, but also an International Master(IM) which is the second highest Fide title. In fact some of his suspected OTB cheating may have happened when he was getting his GM norms.
Basically the guy was already not only a pro, but like on the top 5% or even 1% of the world chess player population.
The problem here is that cheating in chess is such a novelty when as I said multiple times in many other e-sports he would have already been banned and this wouldn't be a news story. This isn't a random use an engine once out of curiosity but a pretty consistent pattern of behavior while he was growing up and already a pro.
This person has no business being a professional in any sport period.
Absolutely nobody should be stanning for this idiot honestly.
The solution moving forward is complete integration between online and OTB chess to stop this from happening in the future.
The solution moving forward is complete integration between online and OTB chess to stop this from happening in the future.
That is the TL;DR. It is quite stupid that someone can cheat online for years and then FIDE pretends it doesn't matter because otb is different, in a rational system he wouldn't even be allowed to be a pro in the first place.
Whether he cheated otb against Magnus is irrelevant at this point, and yes he probably didn't.
he was a teen, playing stakeless online games lol.
i'd wager this happens all the time. nakamura traded wins to inflate ELO when he was young. should he face consequences too?
What is the scandal? That he admitted to cheating when he was younger playing online chess? Did he cheat against Carlson? NPR does a fantastic job of not flushing out what exactly the beef is
Basically the best ranked player in the world thinks that this guy was playing way above a reasonable human capability. It's a bit hard to explain exactly why he believes that and what criteria is even used to judge how you might see that without being into chess. (I hardly understand it this is mostly secondhand info from my friend) Ultimately there isn't hard evidence, but it's unprecedented for Carlson to leave and simply not play because he might lose.
Civility seems to have a better grasp of it than me. Just read their comment.
Carlsen's being extremely immature.
The game Niemann won against him as black, Niemann would not have won if Carlsen was having a good day. Niemann played slightly above his usual standard, but not statistically significantly so (less than 2 standard deviations), and seeing as Niemann as young and improving, playing slightly above his standard is even less unusual. Carlsen played significantly below (more than 2.5 std deviations) his usual standard. Niemann's game had a lot of crucial errors, 99.999999% of humanity would have lost to him, but Magnus at his usual standard, most world top 10 grand masters on a good day, and any half decent chess AI, could have taken one of the opportunities he left open to turn the game around and at the very least make a draw.
The only suspicious part of that game, aside from the upset outcome was that Niemann claimed to have prepped the first 20 odd moves he played, despite Carlsen having never played an opening that could go into that line before. Grandmasters at Niemann and Carlsen's level don't compete alone. They have teams of other grandmasters whose fulltime job is to train with them and help them prepare for their games. Exactly who is on these teams, and the methods and details of their preparation is a closely guarded secret. While Carlsen had never played the line he used against Niemann when he lost with black before, a grandmaster who has been revealed to be on his team was playing a lot of it online in the months leading up to the game. Niemann's team could have noticed this (correctly) assumed it was a line being prepared for Carlsen, and prepared a counter line.
Niemann has admitted to cheating on Chess.com as a child (which wasn't that long ago, given that he's now only 19). Over the past few weeks, as a result of Carlsen's behaviour, his play in the past two years has came under extensive scrutiny, and no evidence has been found he's cheated since coming of age either online or over the board.
Complicating things further, Magnus Carlsen isn't just (arguably the best) chess player alive, he's also a brand and a business. Losing as black to a cocky junior, and handling the loss poorly could be very damaging to him. Carlsen's brand is currently undergoing a merger with Chess.com, the largest for profit chess website. Immediately after Carlsen's withdrawal from the Sinquefield cup, Chess.com publicised Niemann's childhood cheating and subsequently banned him from their platform, and Chess.com affiliated influencers have spent a lot of time using their platforms to call Niemann a cheater.
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There is no "coming of age" thing when it comes to chess. We have the current youngest GM is just over 12, they are kids and as good as the adults.
Second you forgot to mention the Chess.com statement which pretty much decisively proved not only he cheated but he lied on his little confession interview. He not only cheated but he cheated A LOT.
Hans was a kid yes technically, but also an International Master(IM) which is the second highest Fide title. In fact some of his suspected OTB cheating may have happened when he was getting his GM norms.
Basically the guy was already not only a pro, but like on the top 5% or even 1% of the world chess player population. The problem here is that cheating in chess is such a novelty when as I said multiple times in many other e-sports he would have already been banned and this wouldn't be a news story. This isn't a random use an engine once out of curiosity but a pretty consistent pattern of behavior while he was growing up and already a pro.
This person has no business being a professional in any sport period.
Absolutely nobody should be stanning for this idiot honestly. The solution moving forward is complete integration between online and OTB chess to stop this from happening in the future.
lmao carlsen fans reeling
That is the TL;DR. It is quite stupid that someone can cheat online for years and then FIDE pretends it doesn't matter because otb is different, in a rational system he wouldn't even be allowed to be a pro in the first place.
Whether he cheated otb against Magnus is irrelevant at this point, and yes he probably didn't.
Yeah like I said, I was mostly going of second hand information from a while back. This seems like a better rundown of thesituation.
:rat-salute-2:
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he was a teen, playing stakeless online games lol. i'd wager this happens all the time. nakamura traded wins to inflate ELO when he was young. should he face consequences too?
Lmfao I didn't realize you could smurf in Chess.