Express News Service
The cheating scandal surrounding Hans Niemann refuses to die. On Tuesday, the investigations on the American Grandmaster, conducted by Chess.com, contradicted Niemann’s claims. The website, in a 72-page document that was published late on Tuesday, held that the 19-year-old Niemann “appears to have cheated against multiple opponents in Chess.com prize events (beyond the Titled Tuesday event that Hans admitted to having cheated in when he was 12), Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers, and the PRO Chess League. We also have evidence that he appears to have cheated in sets of rated games on Chess.com against highly-rated, well-known figures in the chess community, some of which he streamed online”.
They go further in alleging that Niemann, who has acknowledged two separate acts of cheating including one when he was a 12-year-old, has “has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several prize money events.” They also noted that Niemann is “the fastest rising top player in classical OTB chess in modern history”.
However, the report didn’t have any evidence to suggest that Niemann indulged in foul play in over-the-board (OTB) games, including against Magnus Carlsen at the recently held Sinquefield Cup. The whole furore began when Carlsen lost to Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup before withdrawing from the tournament a day later. It led to wild speculation, something that the Norwegian inadvertently promoted as he stayed mum on the matter. In a statement he published a few weeks later, he confirmed that speculation saying he believed that Niemann has ‘cheated more’ than he has admitted.
How did Chess.com arrive at the findings? Here’s their explanation. “Other players, especially those that play at Hans’ level, are much more sophisticated, and engage in “selective cheating,” using a chess engine to give advice only in key moments and often intentionally making sub-par moves to mask their engine use.
“At the higher echelons of competitive chess, many games are won or lost in a critical moment, and having any sort of assistance during those moments can turn the outcome of the game. Indeed, many top players have expressed that using a chess engine in just a handful of key moments can add hundreds of Elo in strength.
“To detect such “selective cheating,” Chess.com utilizes sophisticated statistical methods that dig deep into the probability that any individual player could have achieved their results based on past performance. Our detection system requires robust methodologies beyond simply looking at best moves, player rating, and centipawn loss. To effectively identify the vast majority of cheating, Chess.com computes an aggregate Strength Score. A strength score is a measurement of the similarity between the moves made by the player, and the moves suggested as “strongest moves” by the chess engine. In a sense, it is a measure of the accuracy of play.
“For players of Hans Niemann’s calibre, the Strength Score also serves as an internal warning sign, which indicates to us that further analysis and review of gameplay is needed. For cases that involve high profile players such as Hans, Chess.com employs a team of dedicated analysts who pore over the details of individual cases and take deep dives into the content of the player’s games.”
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) will of course conduct their own internal investigation. For the time being, though, this is a big blow to Niemann’s aspirations of coming out clean.
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