On Monday, world chess champion Magnus Carlsen took just one move against his rival, American grandmaster Hans Niemann, and then resigned, leaving the chess world in panic about a growing scandal with no solution.
Carlsen essentially refused to play against Niemann, and after losing to Nieman in early September, speculation intensified about Carlsen’s sudden withdrawal from a tournament in St. Used to be. Carlsen has not explained his actions in St. Louis or the resignation this week, and as a result, tensions have drawn snowfall and division in the chess world.
Carlsen is a five-time world champion and arguably the best chess player of all time. The 31-year-old Norwegian has been world number one for more than a decade, and his Elo rating of 2882 (a scale used to determine the relative strength of players) is the best in history.
Nieman is a 19-year-old American whose Elo rating has exploded since the pandemic from 2484 in January 2021 to 2688 in early September. His meteoric rise has surprised and impressed the chess world, and in turn added to the suspicion of foul play.
During Round 6 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, Carlsen was to take on the role of Neiman, which would be his first meeting since he was defeated by Neiman earlier this month. But instead of playing, Carlson transferred his knack and then resigned and turned off his camera, silencing live commentators and sparking a storm of opinion on Twitter.
“It’s phenomenal. I just can’t believe it,” said live commentator Tania Sachdev. “Magnus refused to play against Hans. He will play the tournament, but he is saying, ‘I will not play the game against him.’ It’s making a huge statement.”
How did we reach this moment?
The day after Niemann defeated Carlsen in the third round at the Sinckfield Cup in St. Louis, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament before the fourth round and tweeted An infamous clip of Portuguese football manager Jose Mourinho saying, “I really don’t like to speak. If I speak up, I’m in big trouble.”
In the clip, Mourinho explained that a defeat was the result of foul play. Many took the cryptic reference as an objection that Carlsen feels that Neiman cheated when playing against him. The return was Carlsen’s first from a major incident and a highly unusual move by an elite player.
Other chess figures weighed in, including popular chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura, who reacted live and revealed that there was a period of more than six months in which Neiman was not able to participate in any prize money tournaments on Chess.com. This fact, combined with his unusual growth over the past year and a half, led Nakamura to believe that Carlson’s actions were related to Neiman’s distrust of competitive integrity.
“Am I suggesting that something happened? I’m saying Magnus is suspicious,” Nakamura said.
A few days later, Neiman decided to “tell his truth” and defend himself from his critics. He said he had actually cheated in online matches on Chess.com at the ages of 12 and 16, but denied ever cheating in over-the-board tournaments. He was vocal in denying any allegations of cheating during his match with Carlsen, even offering to play naked to prove that he had any outside assisting devices during the match. was not.
Chess.com, the largest online chess platform came out with a statement Two days later on September 8, saying that he decided to remove Neiman from Chess.com and compete in future events on his platform, due to his belief that Neiman’s public statement “demonstrated his fraud on Chess.com”. The quantity and severity” was misrepresented. ,
In the absence of clear evidence, the back and forth has prompted all kinds of theories as to whether Niemann cheated or if Carlsen is going insane after losing. theory has blossomed How Neiman could have cheated. Given Niemann’s desire to play naked, some even jokingly state that Nieman discovered and plagiarized Carlson’s method of cheating by using anal beads to obtain external communications.
What does this mean for the future of chess?
Improved chess engines, which are far ahead of human chess players, have made it easier to cheat in chess, and there are not yet clear ways to prevent or control such cheating.
Chess engines are AI software that analyze board probabilities and relay moves that provide the best results, and since 2017, they have become incredibly sophisticated. According to The Atlantic, chess engines became supernatural, gaining Elo ratings in the 3000s. Stockfish, a publicly available chess engine often used in chess commentary to analyze possible moves, has an Elo rating of over 3500.
Chess online cheating is incredibly simple; One only has to use a chess engine to guide the moves. Individually, in over-the-board tournaments, however, it is more difficult. Players consult smartphones in the bathroom or hold devices on their person that communicate input to the chess engine.
To catch cheating in chess at a lower level, one only needs to find a player who outperforms to a statistically impossible degree. But high-level chess players already know the most optimal moves and will only need to consult a chess engine once or twice to turn the game around. As a result, it is difficult to determine whether a player is cheating, with the bar catching the player red handed.
In this case, Neiman was not caught cheating in an over-the-board match, and there is no concrete evidence that he cheated on 4 September against Magnus Carlsen. Although much has been done about Carlsen’s actions and their meanings, he has not yet clearly stated whether he thinks Hans Niemann is currently cheating and why.
Even the perception that someone is cheating changes, which changes the way the opponent plays. Chess engines like Stockfish will suggest moves that seem out of the ordinary to a human player, and playing against someone you’re assisted by an AI means you question whether an unexpected or Why is clearly a bad move made.
The scandal also points to the moral difficulty of making allegations. The chess world’s opinion is limited, both because Carlsen has not clarified his actions and because Niemann has not been caught or proven to have cheated. Carlsen essentially refused to play another high-level player, threatening Neiman’s career as well as Carlsen’s reputation. Is it the responsibility of Carlson to directly say that he thinks Niemann is cheating and prove it? Will a track record of cheating deprive Neiman of opportunities to play against the best players in the world?
“One man’s career, one man’s mental health is at risk. The legacy of the world chess champion and arguably the best player of all time is in danger. The status quo of chess is at risk,” said Levy “Gotham Chess” Rosman.
Due to the absurd nature of online discourse, many in the chess community have already taken sides, either dismissing Carlsen as a loser intent on ruining a young man’s career or Niemann as a fraud. Demanded to stop the competition because of its history.
“The truth or lack thereof needs to be shown,” Rosman said. “We have to move on, guys; time is running out.”
However, a resolution doesn’t seem to be on the horizon; The scandal could worsen if anything with the prospect of Neiman and Carlsen meeting again in the knockout stages of the Generation Cup or in future tournaments.
