Niemann last month questioned why he was banned from the Global Championship, a million-dollar prize event. The report also includes screenshots of subsequent Slack messages between the two in which they discuss a possible return to the site, which is permitted for players who admit their wrongdoing. Niemann in 2020 confessed to the allegations in a phone call with the platform’s chief chess officer, Danny Rensch, the report says. A letter sent to Niemann included in the report notes “blatant cheating” to improve his rating in various games, including in one against Russian chess star Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen’s most recent challenger for the World Chess Championship. It adds that he was 17 years old during the most recent violations, which subsequently led to close his account. It says several prize-money events are included in the 100-plus suspect games and that he was live-streaming the contests during 25 of them. The report contradicts those statements. “I would never, could even fathom doing it, in a real game,” he said. He also said he never cheated while live-streaming a game. He said he later cheated as a 16-year-old, in “random games,” and that they were the biggest mistakes of his life. “His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.” When Niemann addressed the suspicions last month, he said the only instance in which he cheated in an event with prize money was when he was 12. “I believe that Niemann has cheated more-and more recently-than he has publicly admitted,” Carlsen wrote in his first public statement on the matter on Sept. 1 publicly confirmed his suspicions of Niemann. The pair met again in an online event weeks later, and Carlsen quit their game after making just one move. Though the Norwegian didn’t accuse Niemann of impropriety at the time, the chess community interpreted his action as a protest. Carlsen then abruptly quit the tournament. Louis, where Niemann upset Carlsen while playing with the black pieces, which is a disadvantage. The controversy erupted in early September at the prestigious Sinquefield Cup in St. When he addressed the controversy last month, he said that he had dedicated himself to over-the-board chess after he was caught cheating, in order to prove himself as a player. Niemann didn’t respond to requests for comment. Hans had the fastest and biggest increase in his score over time in comparison to his peers and other notable players, when considering all of their known Classical OTB games played from age 11-19.PHOTO: CHESS.COM It has more than 90 million members and also hosts big tournaments for elite players with lucrative prize money. While we don’t doubt that Hans is a talented player, we note that his results are statistically extraordinary.”Ĭ, which is in the process of buying Carlsen’s Play Magnus app, is a popular platform for both casual players and grandmasters alike. “Looking purely at rating, Hans should be classified as a member of this group of top young players. “Outside his online play, Hans is the fastest rising top player in Classical chess in modern history,” the report says, while comparing his progress to the game’s brightest rising stars. Still, it pointed to several of Niemann’s strongest events, which it believes “merit further investigation based on the data.” FIDE, chess’s world governing body, is conducting its own investigation into the Niemann-Carlsen affair. It highlights “many remarkable signals and unusual patterns in Hans’ path as a player.” While it says Niemann’s improvement has been “statistically extraordinary.” noted that it hasn’t historically been involved with cheat detection for classical over-the-board chess, and it stopped short of any conclusive statements about whether he has cheated in person. The 72-page report also flagged what it described as irregularities in Niemann’s rise through the elite ranks of competitive, in-person chess. The report states that Niemann privately confessed to the allegations, and that he was subsequently banned from the site for a period of time. The site uses a variety of cheating-detection tools, including analytics that compare moves to those recommended by chess engines, which are capable of beating even the greatest human players every time. Those matches included contests in which prize money was on the line. The report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleges that Niemann likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, as recently as 2020.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |