Hans Niemann, who kindled the internet favourite Anal ball meme last month after defeating world chess champion Magnus Carlsen in a breathtaking frenzy, he is now accused of cheating in over 100 online matches, according to a new unprecedented 72-page report from Chess.com. The world’s most popular website for online chess announced it The Wall Street Journaland calls for some personal games, including Niemann’s win over Carlsen, to be further investigated as well.
Niemann had previously admitted to cheating in online matches twice, once when he was 14 and once when he was 16. The Wall Street Journal reports now that the 19-year-old grandmaster actually cheated a lot more often, including in prize tournaments where real money was at stake, according to Chess.com’s findings. According to the Chess.com report, Niemann confessed to the allegations privately as early as 2020.
“Purely in terms of rating, Hans can be classified in this group of young top players.” The Wall Street Journal Quotations from the report. “While we have no doubt that Hans is a talented player, we note that his results are statistically exceptional.”
Chess.com cheat detection uses an algorithm to calculate how likely someone is to cheat based on things like the speed they’re moving, how high the train is rated by a computer, how often they “switch” between screens on their computer ‘ and his past history as a player on the site. It’s all aimed at finding out if someone is using a chess engine to give them the best moves in a given situation.
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Its algorithm isn’t designed to determine how likely it is that Niemann cheated in over-the-board matches like the now infamous early September vs. Carlsen. Nonetheless, the report calls for further investigation of this game as well as some others, particularly because of Niemann’s “uncharacteristically erratic growth” in his player ratings at various points in his career.
While this all explains Niemann’s recent ban from Chess.com, it only becomes so fuel speculation about his over-the-board win over Carlsen. It didn’t help that the world champion was eliminated from a tournament after just one move, leading many to see this as a protest against cheating methods. The evidence supporting the allegations at the time was so thin that Twitch chess pundits and Reddit posters joked that they must have been anal bead supercomputers vibrate in specific patterns based on what the best move is.
When Carlsen finally broke his silence, his only real objection was that he felt bad about Niemann while the two were playing. The 19-year-old didn’t seem “tense” or “focused” enough, the world champion argued in a written statement. If this seems like an odd statement, based too much on some amorphous sentiment, know that chess players can burn thousands of calories just by sitting there. At a high level, professional players can even lose pounds during matches. And so it seemed suspicious that a competitor could appear so at ease when playing against the world elite, is the basic argument.
While others have criticized Niemann’s post-game analysis of his win for sounding superficial and unconvincing, no one has yet spotted a smoking weapon like an earplug discovered in the bathroom or a mole that claimed to have leaked Carlen’s pre-game strategy. No anal beads either, but no more convincing explanation of how Niemann could have personally cheated either.
FIDE, the world federation of chess, is still in the midst of its own investigation, but while Chess.com’s findings only pertain to past online cheating, it’s sure to send the chess world into another frenzy. While there is no reason to doubt Chess.com’s report, many in the community are now urging the organization to release its results so that they can also review the games in question. It’s also worth noting that the online chess company is currently willing to buy Carlsen’s chess app for $83 million, although Chess.com said so The Wall Street Journal that Carlsen was not involved in the report and in no way influenced its publication.
A spokesman for Chess.com said my box The full 72-page report will be published online Tuesday evening but declined to answer further questions. Niemann and Carlsen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
