ChessUp staff exhibit their firm’s chessboard with a built-in chess teacher earlier than the CES tech present, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. When gamers contact a bit, the board lights up potential strikes. Ellen Schmidt, Related Press
Chess.com, one of many largest governing our bodies inside the sport, has developed a few of the most superior anti-cheating detection strategies in fashionable chess. The group launched a 72-page report outlining the proof towards 19-year-old grandmaster Hans Niemann in his on-line chess matches, and an evaluation of his over-the-board gameplay to supply extra readability on the latest controversy.
What are the conclusions of the report?
One of many bombshells, echoing the idea of Magnus Carlsen, is that there's vital proof that “Hans doubtless cheated on-line rather more than his public statements recommend.”
He has acknowledged beforehand “Aside from after I was 12 years outdated, I've by no means, ever, ever — and I might by no means do this, that's the worst factor that I might ever do — cheat in a event with prize cash.”
He additionally claimed that when he was 16 years outdated, he cheated in random video games to assist his ranking, however by no means cheated whereas streaming
The report discovered that “Hans has doubtless cheated in additional than 100 on-line chess video games, together with a number of prize cash occasions. He was already 17 when he doubtless cheated in a few of these matches and video games. He was additionally streaming in 25 of those video games.”
In 2020, the CCO of Chess.com Danny Rensch had a non-public name with Niemann, the place the younger participant confessed to those offenses.
Has Niemann cheated in over-the-board video games?
The report states that “Hans is the quickest rising prime participant in Classical OTB chess in fashionable historical past.”
Utilizing statistical evaluation, they group in contrast his two-year enhance in ranking to different chess prodigies, searching for anomalous patterns. Chess.com discovered none, although it doesn't have entry to the identical high quality of information that it usually makes use of in on-line sport evaluation, particularly the time between every participant’s strikes.
The report admitted “whereas we can not definitively show that Hans’ rise in energy is fully ‘pure,’ we have now additionally discovered no indications within the sport information to recommend in any other case. saying “there's nothing in our statistical investigation to boost any crimson flags concerning Hans’ (over-the-board) play and rise.”
There are notable “overperformances” which were steered as deserving of additional handbook investigation.
Did Hans Niemann cheat in his sport towards Magnus Carlsen?
The report says “there isn't any direct proof that proves Hans cheated on the September 4, 2022 sport with Magnus, or proves that he has cheated in different OTB video games prior to now.”
Carlsen beforehand commented on numerous unusual occurrences throughout the sport, noting that Niemann appeared to play effortlessly, whereas prior to now his opponents needed to exert an excessive amount of power and focus to carry out properly. Moreover, in after-game interviews, Niemann spoke as if he didn't absolutely perceive the strategic positions all through the sport.
Nonetheless, no onerous proof was discovered and Chess.com stated “we're at the moment unaware of any proof that Hans cheated on this sport, and we don't advocate for any conclusions concerning dishonest being made based mostly on this one encounter.”
Has Niemann performed an unusually excessive variety of ‘near-perfect’ video games?
An excessive amount of novice statistical evaluation was utilized by the chess group to dig into Niemann’s previous video games this final month. One of the outstanding conclusions was that Niemann performed a major variety of video games that correlated nearly completely with pc algorithms.
The instrument used was not meant to detect dishonest, and Chess.com stated “Now we have concluded that the methodology and the underlying instruments utilized in these analyses don't meet our commonplace.”
Niemann responds to the allegations
Wednesday, after defeating 15-year-old Christopher Yoo within the first spherical of the U.S. Chess Championships, he addressed the controversy with out admitting any wrongdoing: “I believe this sport spoke for itself and confirmed the chess participant that I'm. It additionally confirmed that I’m not going to again down, and I’m going to play my greatest chess right here, whatever the strain that I’m underneath.”