Sports! Chess Cheating Scandal

[Husky_Khan]

A Nineteen year old American Chessmaster named Hans Niemann has been accused of cheating at Chesst (in official online matches) over a hundred times. And despite being such a young lad, only born in 2003, this is apparently isn't the first time he's cheated as well. As of last month, he was ranked as the 6th highest junior player in the world and 45th overall.

The whole thing is a mess of accusations, denials, and arrant nonsense (such as the claim any cheating somehow involves vibrating anal beads). At the heart of it is Chess.com, which is distinct from the game's governing body FIDE, but is one of the largest chess platforms in the world and a major organising force. Following the blowup with Carlsen, it made an early decision to suspend Niemann, saying only that it had provided him with the proof as to why.

Now, it has published the evidence: and while there's no smoking gun about the Carlsen match, the general picture it paints is damning of Niemann. The report claims Niemann "likely cheated online much more than his public statements suggest. However, while Hans has had a record-setting and remarkable rise in rating and strength, in our view there is a lack of concrete statistical evidence that he cheated in his game with Magnus or in any other over-the-board ('OTB')—ie, in-person—games."

The full report can be read here(opens in new tab). It goes into some depth, including long lists of matches and explains the statistical analysis applied to Niemann's games. Here we'll focus on the conclusions it draws and what it reveals about Niemann's past record.

Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen publicly refused to face Hans Niemann in matches earlier, accusing him of cheating in various online tournaments but until Chess.com published its report (independent of any accusations) any actual evidence of cheating was vague. The investigation led to the belief that Hans Niemann was using a 'chess engine' during online play and was able to cover up said cheating because he is a really good chess player. So it required extensive statistical analysis of his games to reveal that he seemed to be really successful at chess in a manner that was statistically improbable. Along with machine analysis, manual cheat analysis was performed as well, studying many of his previous games.

However there was still no 'smoking gun' or clear evidence he cheated in his games as a much as an implication from the report that his performances have been 'statistically extraodinary.'

https://www.pcgamer.com/chess-scandal-re-erupts-as-investigation-finds-the-accused-cheated-in-over-100-online-games/