“We have four or five people at Chess.com who are engaged in full-time cheating on the site,” Doggers told RTL Nieuws. “It comes to light in 0.14 percent of the games. On the whole, that’s not too bad, you might say, but hundreds of thousands of games are played every day and sometimes a lot of money is involved. There is now a new competition where you can win a million dollars. So the temptation to cheat is growing.”
Break through at lightning speed
Some of Niemann’s moves were remarkable, Doggers says. “Also how he reacted to it immediately after the game.” Still, Chess.com didn’t want to draw any conclusions from that. “But we did indicate that a number of things are suspicious.”
There was also something special in the development of Niemann. “Most super talents are grandmasters at the age of fourteen. He is only when he is seventeen. And then he has gone through to the world top in a year and a half. That has never happened before.”
An unusual pattern was visible in the games he played through Chess.com. “Simply put: he has shown too high a level in too many matches,” says Doggers. “In too many matches he played above his own level. If that happens a few times, you think: he is in shape. But if that happens too often, the probability calculation shows that it is not right.”
Chess federation investigation
Chess.com’s research is limited to the games Niemann played on the leading chess site, which has more than 90 million members worldwide. Niemann’s ‘physical games’ are a matter for FIDE, the international chess federation. In the meantime, it has announced its own investigation.
Niemann had already been removed from the site once and lost his membership again last month. “Normally we don’t come out with that,” says Doggers. “We wanted to handle this privately, he could start with a clean slate. But suddenly he started talking about it himself in an interview. That he was no longer allowed to participate and that it made no sense.”
For Chess.com, that was the time to respond. “He was downplaying it. He said it had happened twice, when we knew it had happened a lot more often. Then we realized: we have to go out with this. We might not be able to prove it really hard, but we could I can say, statistically, there’s a very high chance that he’s cheating.”
More openness?
The Chess.com researchers substantiate this in their report not only with an analysis of the parties. They also indicate what else they are looking at: how does a player use his web browser, where does his mouse go, how much time does he need to think? “We have never told you how we work. Maybe we should adjust our policy. In the future, give more openness when we catch players.”
Ultimately, most chess players admit to cheating, Doggers says. Chess.com then gives them a new account. “Most of the time they have learned their lesson.”
