Ian Nepomniachtchi explains what could be considered evidence of cheating in chess
After 19-year-old American grandmaster Hans Niemann defeated Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, the World Chess Champion decided to withdraw from the event. Rumors that Magnus Carlsen suspected Niemann was cheating started spreading over social medias and the “Carlsen – Niemann” controversy is the top news in mass medias ever since. It seems that the chess world got polarized into two groups, one supporting Magnus, and one supporting Hans.
Ian Nepomniachtchi recently shared his thoughts on the Carlsen – Niemann case as he shared an extensive video on his youtube channel. Nepo said that he wasn’t happy to hear Hans Niemann will replace Richard Rapport in the Sinquefield Cup 2022, and that he asked the organizers to take extra anti-cheating measures: “I asked the organizers for some extra measures to be taken to make the tournament more safe and clean, but none of this was done until this sad case of Magnus’s withdrawal“.
Following the trending topic of cheating in chess, Nepo yesterday published a post on his Telegram channel explaining what can be considered evidence of cheating. Nepomniachtchi prepared a compilation of cheaters’ excuses in different situations, such as:
“- I was well prepared in the opening and carefully analyzed this variation (the day before);
– I had a good day, played with the mood and in general I was lucky;
– The opponent played worse than usual, made my task easier, and my moves are not so difficult, everyone would play like that;
⁃ I work hard on chess, hard work pays off!;
⁃ I had a good year, I play with the mood, I guess the openings and in general I’m lucky!;
⁃ Does this surprise anyone? Ha! I will tell you this: this is just the beginning, just wait, soon I will beat everyone!”
To conclude, Nepomniachtchi explained that catching cheaters red-handed is not easy, except for the cases when amateurs start easily defeating grandmasters; or when player’s earphone falls on the board; or some device is found around. He added that statistical evidence can be highly effective only for blitz games, while all the other evidences and claims look at least indirect and come to the “word against word” principle.
What is interesting is that the “cheaters’ excuses” from Nepo’s text are almost the same as Hans Niemann’s words from the Sinquefield Cup. After scoring his first victory over a super-grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Niemann said that it’s not a surprise he defeats top players: “The thing is that in these first two games I know that my opponents are playing terribly, and I am like, what are these guys doing, they’re supposed to be the top players. So I am trying to punish. (…) It’s not a surprise to me that I am beating these (top-level) players. I have improved quite a lot lately“.
After defeating World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the event, Niemann started his interview saying that he was prepared for the game: “I was very fortunate that this opening came on the board, I looked at this today“.
Faced with social media rumors and cheating allegations, Hans Niemann confessed after the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup that he was cheating in online random games on chess.com. He said that cheating online was the biggest mistake in his life and that he dedicated himself to chess trying to make up for that mistake: “For the last two years, I have lived in a suitcase, traveling around Europe, playing chess non-stop. I spent so much time working on chess. (…) After not playing the chess.com events, I went to over the board tournaments and I said to myself that only way to make up for my mistake was to prove to myself and prove to others that I could win myself.“.
The timetable of events related to the Carlsen – Niemann case: