The ‘cheating’ scandal tearing the chess community apart, explained

Magnus Carlsen was the current world champion in chess. However, he made one move against Hans Niemann (American grandmaster) and then decided to resign. This sent the chess world spiraling into panic at the growing scandal that seems impossible to resolve.

Carlsen essentially refusing to play against Niemann heightens speculation about Carlsen’s abrupt withdrawal from a tournament in St. Louis after losing to Niemann in early September, and whether he thinks Niemann is cheating. Carlsen did not explain his behavior in St. Louis, nor the resignation, which has resulted in tensions that have led to divisions in the chess industry.

Carlsen, a five-time champion of the world and perhaps the greatest chess player in history is undoubtedly Carlsen. For more than a decade, the 31-year old Norwegian was the number-one player in the world. His highest Elo rating (a measure that determines relative strength between players) is 2882. This makes him the greatest ever.

Niemann, a 19 year-old American, has seen his Elo rating explode since the pandemic. It went from 248 in January 2021 and was 2484 at the start of September. Now it is 2688. This remarkable rise in chess has astonished and amazed the world and raised suspicions about foul play.

In round 6, the Julius Baer Generation Cup was scheduled for Carlsen to face Niemann. This would have marked their first encounter since Niemann defeated him earlier in this month. Carlsen instead of playing, he moved his knight then resigned. This shocked live commentators, and set off a Twitter frenzy.

“This is unprecedented. I just I can’t believe it,” live commentator Tania Sachdev said. “Magnus just refusing to play against Hans. He will play the tournament, but he is saying, ‘I will not play the game against him.’ That’s making a very big statement.”

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Carlsen withdrew before round 4, the day after Niemann had defeated Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup, St. Louis. tweeted an infamous clip of Portuguese soccer manager José Mourinho saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble.”

Mourinho claims that the loss is due to foul play. Many saw the reference as a suggestion that Niemann had cheated against Carlsen. The withdrawal was Carlsen’s first from a major event and a highly unusual move from an elite player.

Hikaru Nakamura (popular chess streamer) also spoke out and said that Niemann had been unable to compete in prize money tournaments for Chess.com for more than six months. That fact, paired with his unusual rise over the past year and half, led Nakamura to believe that Carlsen’s actions were related to a distrust of Niemann’s competitive integrity.

“Am I suggesting that something happened? I’m saying that Magnus is suspicious,” Nakamura said.

A few days later, Niemann decided to “say his truth” and defend himself from his critics. Although he admitted that he had cheated online at Chess.com when a youngster, despite not having ever cheated on over-the-board matches, il Niemann said that if questioned, he would admit to cheating. He was vociferous in his denial of any accusation of cheating during his match with Carlsen, even offering to play naked to prove that he didn’t have any device providing him with outside assistance during the match.

Chess.com, The largest online chess portal came out with a statement two days later on Sept. 8, stating that they decided to remove Niemann from Chess.com and from competing in future events on their platform due to their belief that Niemann’s public statement misrepresented the “amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com.”

The back-and-forth has led to many theories, including those that Niemann may have cheated or Carlsen was just paranoid from losing. There are many theories. HowNiemann might have cheated. Given Niemann’s willingness to play naked, some even joked that Niemann had discovered and stolen Carlsen’s method of cheating using anal beads to receive outside communication.

This is what it means for the future development of chess.

Improved chess engines, which far surpass human chess players, have made it easier to cheat at chess, and there aren’t yet clear ways to prevent or moderate such cheating.

Chess engines are AI software that analyze the board’s possibilities and relay moves that provide the best outcomes, and since 2017, they’ve become incredibly sophisticated. The Atlantic reports that chess engines have become superhuman and can now achieve Elo ratings of 3000s. Stockfish is a freely available chess tool that can be used to analyse potential moves and has an Elo rating exceeding 3500.

It is very easy to play chess online. All you need to do to make moves is to use the chess engine. In person, at over-the-board tournaments, however, it’s more difficult. Some players have used their smartphones to consult while in the toilet, or even carried devices that could communicate with a chess engine.

If a player is overperforming statistically, it’s easy to spot cheaters in chess. High-level players in chess know the best moves, and only have to refer to a chess engine once or twice to win a game. As a result, it’s difficult to determine if a player is cheating, bar catching the player red-handed.

Niemann wasn’t caught cheating during an over-the board match and there is no evidence that Niemann cheated against Magnus Carlsen on Sept. 4. Although much has been made of Carlsen’s actions and what they mean, he has yet to explain explicitly if he thinks Hans Niemann is currently cheating and why.

The perception of cheating can change the way an opponent plays. Stockfish and other chess engines will show moves that might seem unusual for human players. When you play against an AI-aided player, you have to question the reason behind such a bad or unforeseen move.

It also highlights the ethical difficulties involved with accusation. Because Carlsen hasn’t clarified his actions and because Niemann hasn’t been caught or proven cheating, the chess world’s opinions on both are in limbo. Carlsen essentially refusing to play another high-level player threatens both Niemann’s career but also Carlsen’s reputation as well. Do you think Carlsen has a duty to publicly declare his belief that Niemann is cheating? Should a track record of cheating preclude Niemann from opportunities to play against the world’s best?

“A man’s career, a man’s mental health is at risk. At risk is the legacy of the world champion in chess and undoubtedly the greatest player, Levy “GothamChess” Rozman. The state of chess is at risk,” Levy “GothamChess” Rozman said.

Due to the inane nature of online discourse, many in the chess community have already taken sides, either dismissing Carlsen as a sore loser intent on ruining a young man’s career or demanding Niemann stop competing because of his history of cheating.

“The truth or the lack thereof needs to be shown,” Rozman said. “We gotta get a move on, folks; time is running out.”

However, a resolution doesn’t seem on the horizon; if anything the scandal could get worse with the possibility of Niemann and Carlsen meeting again in the knockout stages of the Generation Cup or in future tournaments.