The American grandmaster Hans Niemann “probably cheated” more than a hundred times according to data revealed by the platform Chess.comthe most followed in chess on the internet, as a result of the controversy caused by the accusations of the world champion, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, after losing, in a face-to-face game, against the North American last month in the Sinquefield Cup in San Luis (EE .USA).
That defeat, and the suspicions about his rival on the board, induced Carlsen to withdraw from said tournament after three rounds and a few days later to abandon, in just two moves, his game against the same opponent in the Julius Baer online tournament.
Niemann, 19, confessed, after the first incident, that he had cheated in online games when he was 12 and 16 years oldbut denied that he had ever done them on the face-to-face board.
The Chess.com platform reveals, on the contrary, that Niemann cheated more times and more recently than he admitted: in more than a hundred games played on that portal, including some in tournaments with prize money at stake and until the year 2020 inclusivealthough a 72-page report acknowledges that it has “no concrete statistical data that Niemann cheated in the game he won against Carlsen, nor in any other game in chess on the board.”
Chess.com, which is in negotiations to buy the world champion’s Play Magnus Group company, claims that he has not received any pressure from the Norwegian and that he did not anticipate any of his decisionsin addition to specifying that Carlsen was not aware of the suspensions imposed by the platform on Niemann until he himself publicly confessed them.
The portal, which claims to have 90 million users, uses various methods to detect illegal external help in its games, analyzing, among other things, the coincidences of the movements made by a player with those recommended by the computer modules, currently unbeatable for any human.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has, for its part, an investigation, in charge of a panel of three expertsabout the controversy sparked by Magnus Carlsen’s accusations against Niemann.
The FIDE Fair Play Commission, chaired by Lithuanian Salomeja Zaksaite, decided to act ex officio in the case, which has sparked great controversy in the world of chess and its investigation is expected to conclude within three months.
Prior to the Chess.com report and the FIDE investigation, Carlsen had issued a statement stating that Niemann “He has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted”.
In a letter to his “dear chess world”, Carlsen wrote: “At the Sinquefield Cup 2022 I made the unprecedented professional decision to withdraw from the tournament after my third round game against Hans Niemann. One week later, during the Champions Chess Tour, I quit against Hans Niemann after playing only one move.”
The world champion thinks that “cheating in chess they are a huge problem and an existential threat to the game” and believes that “chess organizers and everyone who cares about the purity of the game should seriously consider increasing security measures and cheat detection methods.”
“I think Niemann has cheated more – and more recently – than he has admitted. His progress on the board has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he was not tense or even fully focused. in the game in critical positions while outplaying me with black in a way that I think only a handful of players can do. That game helped change my perspective”, explained the Norwegian, who has not presented concrete evidence against the American.
Niemann, number 49 in the world chess ranking, defeated Carlsen in San Luis with black, ending the streak of games without losing that the world champion had prolonged until 53.
