Malcolm Pein editorial: Rear-ended

by Malcolm Pein
9/28/2022 – When chess gets featured extensively in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and even VICE, while Elon Musk also weighs in and when it’s the subject of sketches by Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert in the same week, you’d normally think this was good. This time round, in his editorial in the October issue of CHESS Magazine, Malcolm Pein is not totally sure.
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Of course, I am talking about the scandal surrounding the apparent implication by Magnus Carlsen that Hans Niemann, his opponent in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup at Saint Louis, had been cheating. Carlsen withdrew from the tournament after losing a somewhat unremarkable game to Niemann. This ended a 53-game unbeaten streak and it must have been particularly galling as Niemann was a wild card to the Grand Chess Tour and is just 19 years old. Carlsen issued this tweet, followed by a link to a video clip:

For American readers not familiar with football, the then manager of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, José Mourinho says in the clip: “If I speak, I am big trouble,” referring to possible criticism of the referee.

Needless to say, this tweet led to wild speculation about how Niemann could possibly have secured outside assistance and in the complete absence of any evidence, it didn’t take long before some smart arse – if you’ll forgive the expression – came up with the idea that Niemann had some sensory device up his backside.

The Internet and Twittersphere duly exploded.

Niemann was interviewed on the Sinquefield Cup broadcast after Carlsen had withdrawn and defended himself vigorously, while admitting he had cheated online as a 12-year-old and again at the start of the pandemic when 16. He received support from an unexpected source, as shown in the picture:

Soon after, Chess.com issued this statement claiming that their cheating algorithm had found more recent instances of alleged cheating by Niemann online. Of course, they will not make public their evidence. Chess.com never do.

Dear Chess Community, the last few days have been tumultuous for many in the chess community. At this time, we have reached out to Hans Niemann to explain our decision to privately remove him from Chess.com and our events. We have shared detailed evidence with him concerning our decision, including information that contradicts his statements regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com. We have invited Hans to provide an explanation and response with the hope of finding a resolution where Hans can again participate on Chess.com. We want nothing more than to see the best chess players in the world succeed in the greatest events. We will always try to protect the integrity of the game that we all love.

This came just weeks after the deal that sees the possible extinguishing of the Play Magnus Group by Chess.com in an $82 million deal. While I am not remotely suggesting that Magnus requested such a statement or that there was pressure from anybody in his camp, the visuals are just awful. It looks like the chess establishment ganging up on Niemann.

There are two issues: Carlsen’s action and behaviour, and the wider implications for the game. I believe his withdrawal was unjustified, petulant at best, and a lesser player might be sanctioned for it. In the absence of any evidence that Niemann was receiving assistance, Carlsen should either provide that evidence if he holds it or explain his actions. As Garry Kasparov said, and he knows a bit about being world champion:

In the last few days, the chess world has become the center of controversy and spectacle, and for none of the right reasons. Still just a few days removed from the initial news, I will not talk about the dirty rumors, but I will say that Carlsen’s withdrawal was a blow to chess fans, his colleagues at the tournament, the organizers, and, as the rumors and negative publicity swirl in a vacuum, to the game. The world title has its responsibilities, and a public statement is the least of them here.

While the oxygen of publicity is something that can be enjoyed momentarily or in the short term, it’s the long-term impact that worries me. Having the credibility of the game dragged into the gutter and paraded for all to see is in my view potentially damaging. I hope that I’m wrong, but speaking as an organiser who’s done a lot of work with sponsors, I’m in complete agreement with Kasparov:

Creating public factions based on pure speculation is damaging to the game. Social media might enjoy the toxic environment, but sponsors and organizers hate it. These players, especially the world champion, should realize that.

My heart sank when I read – in VICE, where else? – that a porn streaming site, Stripchat, had reportedly offered Niemann $1,000,000 to broadcast himself playing chess naked. The purported objective being to help him prove he did not cheat.

This story has a long way to run I fear. It was initially encouraging to see that Niemann was allowed to play in the Julius Baer Generation Cup, which is taking place on Chess24 as I write. Indeed, Magnus was also taking part and he was playing well, leading the field after the first day.

Magnus’s sixth round game against Niemann was widely promoted on Chess24 and eagerly awaited by chess fans. Clearly, the Chess24 management were unaware of what was about to happen. We all tuned in to see Niemann play 1 d4 and after 1...Ìf6 2 c4 Magnus disconnected. If his withdrawal at Saint Louis was petulant, this was scandalous. Magnus has always suited himself, done what he likes, but this is surely too much, destroying the integrity of an event in a way that must have been premeditated.

Carlsen’s former second, Jon Ludwig Hammer, criticised him on Norwegian TV, saying he should be sanctioned: “It’s completely unacceptable behaviour to lose on purpose. It’s the most unsportsmanlike you can do in a competitive sport.”

At some point this must end: either Magnus declares what evidence he has, or he puts up. If Niemann has cheated in online competitive games at a high level and this can be proved then he must be sanctioned for it, but the principle of innocent until proven guilty must be sacrosanct or else we have madness. This cannot be good for the game; short-term notoriety will be outweighed by long-term damage, particularly to Magnus’s brand.

If Carlsen objects to playing Niemann as a matter of principle, he should express himself in a principled manner. This should still be possible without exposing himself legally, which I assume is a major consideration.

The Julius Baer Generation Cup is run by Chess24 which is part of the Play Magnus Group and prior to the event the Director of the Meltwater Tour, Arne Horvei, confirmed on the live broadcast that they had no evidence of Niemann cheating and so there had been no reason to revoke his invitation. Horvei commented: “We have been closely analysing many games in the Tour so far and there has been no indication in his games that he has been involved in any cheating”.

Niemann took part on the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami in August and after defeating Magnus in the first game of four, he created quite a stir by brusquely turning down the possibility of a post-game interview with the words: “The chess speaks for itself.” This spawned a thousand memes and I just wonder if it didn’t rile Carlsen, even though he then defeated Niemann three times in a row.

We now have the bizarre spectacle of two chess companies, reportedly about to be merged, with one banning Niemann from its tournaments, the other welcoming him.

The best spin I can put on this is that Magnus has decided there is a huge issue with cheating and with cheat detection, or with Hans Niemann in particular, and is deliberately provoking a crisis to try and change the paradigm, while trying to avoid getting himself sued.

Here is the game that apparently triggered the original furore. Much was made of the fact that Niemann said he was prepared for the variation that appeared on the board as it is a rare one, but that’s because people tend not to understand the nature of transpositions most of the time.

Consider these moves: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 b6 was Le Quang Liem against Niemann from the FTX Crypto Cup just weeks before the Sinquefield Cup. Now if 5 g3 0-0 6.Bg2 d5 is a decent reply, so it’s not ridiculous for Niemann to have considered this position or 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 g3 0-0 5 Bg2 d5 6 d4 dxc4 7 0-0, which was Carlsen-Adams, Turin Olympiad 2006, and is very similar. Indeed, Magnus could have transposed back to that game had he preferred 6 Nf3 against Niemann. There’s also the Catalan move order 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 g3 Bb4+ when 5 Nc3 has been quite topical of late and now 5...0-0 6 a3 Nxc3+ 7 bxc3 dxc4 8 Bg2 has been played at GM level and leads us straight back into Carlsen-Niemann. Here my full annotations.

Note that you can click on the moves to follow the game on a pop-up chessboard. and can click on the engine button (fan) for computer assistance. Clicking on the book icon below the board will give you an alternate display that you might find more convenient.

 

The above editorial was reproduced from Chess Magazine Octobber 2022, with kind permission. 

CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read.

The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic. CHESS is mailed to subscribers in over 50 countries.

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Malcolm Pein is the CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, organiser of the London Chess Classic, Managing Director of Chess and Bridge Ltd, the publisher of CHESS Magazine, and chess correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

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tauno tauno 10/2/2022 07:49
@Frits Fritschy. Unfortunately, this time Carlsen did not do what you are trying to do now.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 10/1/2022 11:18
Vipiu,
Me and several others did in the Ivanov case the same thing as what I try do this time: uphold decent procedures instead of condemning someone based on insufficiently substantiated opinions.
lajosarpad lajosarpad 10/1/2022 05:17
@Vipiu he refused to take off his shoes. Niemann is willing to take off everything. Is this sufficient difference for you?
vipiu vipiu 9/30/2022 05:34
Interesting how much social mindset evolved since Borislav Ivanov's chess case.
At that time none was trying to defend Ivanov, even the cheating evidence was also not clear...
Just google his name to find out details about that old case.
arzi arzi 9/30/2022 01:34
Agree, mc1483.
mc1483 mc1483 9/30/2022 01:23
@arzi. There's no evidence. I just pointed out to clkauto that things may be much simpler than what he thinks.
arzi arzi 9/30/2022 12:56
It also protects us humans, the Universe, by broken time, that yesterday, the present and the tomorrow don't get mixed up. Entropy only flows in one direction.
lajosarpad lajosarpad 9/30/2022 12:36
All the conspiracy theories about how Niemann might have cheated (if plausible) only proves that he might (!) have cheated. Which was always treated as a possibility. But no hard evidence was provided so far and this is why we should treat Niemann as innocent in the Sinqeufield Cup game. It is not about protecting Niemann, it is about protecting the principle of innocent until proven guilty.
arzi arzi 9/30/2022 06:26
mc1483:"Much simpler: HN needs not to communicate with the device..."

Where are the evidences in Carlsen-Niemann -case? Or is this just "BELIEF" -thing? Get the facts on the table.
Zagliveri_chess Zagliveri_chess 9/29/2022 11:03
@arzi: 'Maybe yes, but where is the parallel to Carlsen in that same case?'

I did not want to bother international contributors to this discussion with US politics. Since you asked, though, here it is:

The parallel to Carlsen is a handful of US senators, closely affiliated with the previous administration, lobbying hard to remove lucrative government contracts from Intel to AMD, where they, and they families, hold a lot of shares. The only justification they used in support of their lobbying efforts was that "... the company [Intel] is run by a bunch of little Indians who cheated their school exams in their s***hole of a country (expression favored by the previous President) and are now here [in the US]". They cited no evidence of any unlawful or unethical activity by the 'little Indians'. They implied cheating, offered no evidence. Exactly as Carlsen did. Hence the parallel. And, btw, I am not Indian.
Jacob woge Jacob woge 9/29/2022 07:34
Watch the 20 seconds from 0:55 to 1:15.

https://youtu.be/-zoQ9jvhNzk

If that isn’t scandalous cheating on Carlsen’s behalf, I don’t know what is. Having Alireza not only suggest, but actually play out a move for him is downright despicable behaviour. And instead of resigning on the spot, Carlsen plays on and eventually wins the game. His opponent apparently too awe-struck to claim his right.

I haven’t even mentioned the prizes. I don’t know for sure - but in all likelihood quite a bit of cash was at stake. Why else all the fuss?

This may not be the worst cheating Carlsen has perpetrated - but it is definitely in the top 1.
tauno tauno 9/29/2022 07:14
@TimoKrogh. We’ve seen him several times in this position, but that doesn’t have to mean he’s cheating. Shame on you! I believe he just takes a break in the middle of a game and enjoys the vibrations in some part of his body to relax. (There is more I’d like to say but unfortunately I cannot speak openly without explicit permission from Magnus.)
Zanoni Zanoni 9/29/2022 06:29
Twenty years ago two young scientists proved the concept of an "Audio Tooth Implant" and presented a prototype at the Royal College of Art's annual summer exhibition.

BBC's corresponding news item is still available and very readable even for non-tech people such as me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2055654.stm

A gadget like this could well be used for traditional cheating by whispering.
Pemoe6 Pemoe6 9/29/2022 05:50
Very instructive video, unfortunately no one here focuses on the actual thing Hikaru wants to convey: mathematical models, statistics, centipawn losses and all that are of course no clear proof, but it is undoubtedly a measure of correlation with computer moves. And above all, there is a matter of comparability. The top players of our time, as well as Bobby and Gary (both of then at the peak of their performance) - all have one thing in common in this respect: The correlation reflects (very roughly, of course) their playing strength, their ELO. Hans Niemann (at least with a view to these five tournaments played in a row) is one or two classes above ALL THE OTHERS. That's what Carlsen wanted to get out in the open, I suppose, with his lost game against Hans possibly just a pretext.
mc1483 mc1483 9/29/2022 05:34
@clkauto. Much simpler: HN needs not to communicate with the device. An accomplice watches the game, computes the two best moves - one for winning, another one for just drawing - then send them to the vibrating device implanted inside HN's body. Not even all moves, just the critical moments. HN does the rest. Maybe an implanted device is not even necessary. An electronic watch could be easily modified in order to possibily vibrating when needed, with anyone else not noticing (no buzzing). Only problem, the accomplice must always be able to watch the game in realtime. But if you remember, HN's performance in the Sinquefield dropped from 3071 to 2645 after the 15 minutes' delay (and from 68 to 52 in the let's check analysis) , so it's likely the accomplice is simply looking at the broadcast while staying at home.
TimoKrogh TimoKrogh 9/29/2022 05:18
¨Carlsen caught at cheating¨
https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary.htm
tauno tauno 9/29/2022 02:42
”Tolkien, while denying that absolute evil could exist, stated that Sauron came as near to a wholly evil will as was possible.” - Wiki

”Starting to realize that I am the only person who is going to be able to stop Sauron in the context of chess history.” - Nakamura.

- I believe Nakamura has realized that he can't stop Sauron and has therefore become his friend and ally.
clkauto clkauto 9/29/2022 01:37
Part 4/4:

In any case:
1. Analyzing the games by checking the match of the moves against the engine preferred moves will never yield any tangible results.
2. Using data science algorithms to get a better analysis is possible, but you would need to have millions and millions of games that Niemann has played at that level with super GMs, that will not happen either.
3. Review cameras and get experts to find the evidence.
There is nothing else to do, find the evidence. Do not use the analysis of the games to get the circumstantial evidence, if there is no hard proof that he is off the hook.
Having said that, if I were in Hans'es shoes I would have flatly sued him for defamation, and if he does not do that I think that he maybe has secrets on his own as well. Magnus'es behavior still is despicable: online cheating, cheating in OTB games when he tried to retract the moves, losing against Karjakin and then running over that poor woman in the playing hole, not appearing in the aftermath analysis because he was in his room for crying, this last thing when he played a move and resign, really pathetic.
clkauto clkauto 9/29/2022 01:36
Part 3/4:

Ok....now let's say everything works as he and/or his accomplices are electrical geniuses. How do you enter the moves? The way to communicate with an engine is UCI protocol...so you have to issue a nubmer of command to set the options for the engine (see here: http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/UCIProtocol.html). Let's even say he can pre-execute these in his room before appearing in the playing hole, so that he just start with moves. How to enter moves....you can do Morse code, or something simple which is not much longer to click on the switch one has implanted...for isntance, your opponent plays 1. d4, so you translate it to d2-d4, you go this:
tap tap tap tap (break or long press) tap tap (break or long press) tap tap tap tap (break or long press) tap tap tap tap.
Or use click instead of tap, depending whether you are clicking or tapping on the input device. Then the engine finds a move, and spits it out...you need a program, something you coded, to translate the move into the long notation, then find the buzzer or vibrating output you use, and reproduce the move by encoding it to a sequence of vibrations that you can feel but are not detectable from the outside. And yes, you also need to keep the whole game in that interface program, because the engine does not play a game at all, one needs to send all the moves to the engine that were played from the beginning of the game, and only then it starts calculating further.
Probably many more challenges in devising such cunning deception plan, if one were to embark on it.
clkauto clkauto 9/29/2022 01:36
Part 2/4

Or you have access to military (or CIA/NSA) grade equipment, and then you can go for much smaller devices. Or, you go something like Michigan Micro Mote (M3) that is a half centimenter in diameter. Let's say you can do that. Then you need the power, and extremely small battery to power it on. Then you need a very small Faraday's Cage to mount it in. The cage itself consists of various conductive materials that capture the magnetic field from the outside and thus cancel the field so it does not reach the interior of the cage.
This is very hard to make, and even more so if needs to be very small. Also, the cage can have variations due to the changing of the frequency of the external waves, their distance and power.
The let's say this is all done and he can load the engine in it and implant it in the body somewhere (!). Then he need a way to communicate with it. Wiring him up with wires under the skin? Bluetooth or low energy wireless communication? This would not work because the device is in the Faraday's cage, right? So he needs wires from his, let's say, palms or feet or something so that he can Morese code or press some sort of switch to send the sequence to the device that would be translated to the inputed move. But the wires are sort of copper, and that would be detected by metal detectors. So what...there are carbon wires, so maybe he would wire himself up in carbon wires?
clkauto clkauto 9/29/2022 01:35
Part 1/4:

Things started to unravel, and I am personally surprised with how much business interests Magnus has, had no idea about all of this. This may as well all be about the money in the end, which would be the most logical explanation for all of this.
Magnus seems to have a bad personality, but that was obvious to me for years and I am not surprised with this. I am much more interested in the actual way Neimann could have cheated. Technically, it would be very very hard to achieve. With metal detectors and cameras everywhere around in the playing hole, how he could have possibly cheated?
I read one of the post here where a guy explained how he implanted the chip inside him, and does not need to communicate to the outside, and the chio is enveloped inside the Faraday's cage so cannot be detected from the outside. It then communicates the moves to Niemann by vibrating from the part of his body where it was implanted.
Let's analyze this a bit.
One obviously needs to use an engine, and engines are usually written in C and are very small when compiled. They would be from several hundred Kb to several Mb, but can also be much bigger. For instance, Stockfish 15 compiled for 64-bit processors is around 40 Mb. Still pretty small file. Now you need to run in somewhere, like deploy it and load it up. You cannot just load it to a chip....you need memory and some board circuitry, because you need to eventually communicate with it somehow. So we are talking about very small computers, or something some genius would whip out in his basement, but still this would be like 8x5 cm or something - how do you implant that in your body? You can put it instead of one of your kindnies, but I mean come on. Saying this just because the guy who initally posted this suggested that was how it was done and that Neimann is practically a cyborg now, with parts of his body changed and re-wired.
TimoKrogh TimoKrogh 9/29/2022 01:24
Empty statement, Mr. Carlsen.
You believe... but this is about knowing.
Present your evidence, or leave the boy alone.
DuxCarnorum DuxCarnorum 9/29/2022 12:43
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmfMNsZhB0
arzi arzi 9/29/2022 11:12
Cheating. Is there a limit when cheating is no longer cheating but so-called "action done by mistake"? Every person in the world, absolutely everyone, has cheated at some point in their life. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Wait a minute, isn't lying also cheating? What if I steal cigarettes or candy from a neighbor without him noticing. What's the harm about this little scam. He didn't need it. Yes, Niemann made the same mistake that each of us has made at some point in our lives. He also got caught and confessed, which many people don't agree to do even if they get caught with their hand in the candy bag.

Carlsen has also cheated, maybe in a smaller matter than Niemann, but cheated anyway, fact. Maybe it was an accidental mistake, who knows? We all do mistakes. It is a human thing to do. We might be lying a little when we advertise the product we sell with features it doesn't actually have. It depends on how well we know how to set our words. Sometimes we lie straight to your face when competing for an open job, without any pangs of conscience. Once the milk is spilled, it's usually too late to fix it. Who cares?
arzi arzi 9/29/2022 10:32
Zagliveri_chess:"The parallels to Niemann are I think obvious."

Maybe yes, but where is the parallel to Carlsen in that same case?
arzi arzi 9/29/2022 09:46
In fact, Niemann's history of cheating at chess has done LESS harm than Carlsen's beliefs about a cheating incident that never even happened. I don't understand the some people who don't understand this little thing. Do these people live in a democratic society? This is not a matter of opinion, it is about fairness and legality. Everyone has the right to an opinion, as long as it is not FALSE and at the same time causes harm to the subject. Simple.

Besides, this whole incident is related to the Sinquefield Cup and the events after it, not Niemann's history before that. Time moves forward in the macro world, only in the micro world it moves backwards at moments.
Zagliveri_chess Zagliveri_chess 9/29/2022 08:29
My 2 cents.

Two of my acquaintances (our wives are coworkers) are Research Fellows in Intel, the company that makes computer chips and software. A Fellow is as high as you can get in Intel R&D as is the salary. Both were born, raised, and educated (Bachelor of Science) in India. Came to the US for graduate studies sponsored by US universities and stayed.

Both have admitted publicly (e.g. keynote presentations in international conferences) that they had systematically cheated in grade and high school exams in India. BBC had a article a few years back showing parents and relatives climbing school walls to give their students test answers.

I asked one of them this past summer why the cheating. My thought was if you are so good as to work in elite US universities with world-class professors as supervisors day and night for years, and then in the extremely competitive world of tech R&D, apparently you are very disciplined and wickedly smart. Implying that both would have succeeded without any cheating. The response I got was "... as I [he] was born in a low caste, it was the only way to escape obscurity and get a chance to show my [his] potential. Had I [he] not cheated, I would still be in my village working very long hours and making under 3,000 dollars a year" This is my best recollection of his response, the statement is not verbatim.

These two guys make business recommendations and decisions worth tens of millions of dollars every year. And a good percentage of the funds comes from US taxpayers. They are Fellows because they are the best of the best. Shall decisions they made in their youth, allegedly because the field they were playing in was anything but plain, be held against for the rest of their lives? If yes, Intel R&D would have lost two brilliant minds and the rest of us the value of their contributions to technology.

The parallels to Niemann are I think obvious.
Marseille07 Marseille07 9/29/2022 07:41
@Based If Hans is cheating, he's already causing harm because other players are suspicious and play badly, like Aronian and possibly Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup. And you say convicting and banning him sounds easy; it's anything but easy, just look at the current events. We have some suspicious data but nothing conclusive to ban him, and we might not catch anything for years to come, unless he fesses up and confirms cheating.
Magic_Knight Magic_Knight 9/29/2022 05:12
I'm sure he has no qualms about playing naked......but, does he have to win the game too? LOL
IntensityInsanity IntensityInsanity 9/29/2022 02:32
Well said lajosarpad.
shivasundar shivasundar 9/29/2022 02:17
Malcolm's article was probably not proofread properly by CB when posting: "and now 5...0-0 6 a3 Nxc3+ 7 bxc3" should be: "and now 5...0-0 6 a3 *Bxc3+* 7 bxc3"... no knight to give check there.
lajosarpad lajosarpad 9/29/2022 12:13
@Midas

"Another example and then I call it a day: imagine you found out your girlfriend cheated on you during two different periods in the past. Now say on top of that you get various signals that she is doing it again. Would you feel obliged to stay?"

False analogy. When you accuse someone, you want to convince others that your allegations are correct. This is the precise reason due to which you need evidence. On the other hand, in your personal relations your feelings are adequate reasons to make your decisions. Carlsen can decide not to play at tournament where Niemann plays. But strongly suggesting, insinuating and then openly accusing the other guy of cheating should be backed up with hard evidence if possible.

@calvinamari

"I am bemused by talk of burden of proof."

Luckily chess players tend to be thinkers. The mere fact that Niemann cheated in the past when he was 12 and 16 years old respectively does not prove that he cheated against Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup in 2022.
Based Based 9/28/2022 11:39
I understand that Hans past and his prior cheating as well as his rapid rating increase makes a lot of players uneasy. But there are certain achievements of civilization when it comes to dealing with certain situations. And not accusing someone without "two or three witnesses" is one of them.

Imagine Hans is cheating. What is the harm? A few rating points here and there and maybe a few $$$ here and there. Until he is convicted and banned.
Imagine Hans is not cheating. What is the harm? The life of an innocent person may be completely destroyed. Plus the collateral damage, one being that the World Champion is completely discredited.

@midas: Just imagine how stupid it would be to confront your gf and others with your suspicion if indeed she had been faithful and the "various signals" you allegedly get are a product of your imagination and the result of you projecting your fears into everything she does. How immature and childish your breakup and explanation would sound. An no, not she is the cause of the breakup, unless you have evidence of her cheating again.
rassalas rassalas 9/28/2022 11:21
Did I mention the Chess Engine via Anal Beads? I can't imagine anyone defending Nieman
midas midas 9/28/2022 11:12
Another example and then I call it a day: imagine you found out your girlfriend cheated on you during two different periods in the past. Now say on top of that you get various signals that she is doing it again. Would you feel obliged to stay? Because you can't present hard evidence that she is indeed doing it for a third time (and she is telling you she doesn't)? My guess is you would probably break up, because trust and credibility are totally gone (if only because she cheated two times already).
Now what if you would explain your break up to others: should they get angry? Because you tell that you can't trust her anymore, but you cannot totally prove she is indeed not to be trusted at this very moment? No of course not. Everyone would understand. Maybe some people choose to believe she has bettered her life, but no one can blame you you don't.
(and of course that can impact her life, because she cannot go to the parties of your friends anymore, and it negatively impacts her reputation (but you cannot be expected to lie about the reason for your break up can you?). She herself is the cause of this, by putting your trust at stake with cheating).
Now, I think the parallels with the Carlsen - Niemann case are quite obvious, although they are far less intimately related.
midas midas 9/28/2022 09:43
@Ajeeb007: I think you missed my point. Nowhere in my argument I speak of computer or statistical analytics. So I don't understand the comparison with Ken Regan. Even stronger: I think statistical analytics can only help to a limited extent: only to catch the less intelligent cheaters. Someone who is intelligent makes sure to use the computer but to choose second or third best options and even to combine it with some errors now and then. Same with cheating on high school when you knew the test and answers beforehand. The ones to make the test completely flawless were not that smart. The ones deliberately putting in some errors were far less suspicious.
In this regard, I think in a way Ken Regan overestimates himself. If he detects cheating it very probably is. He indeed has that expertise. But it's not the other way around: if he doesn't detect cheating, it doesn't tell us that most probably no cheating was going on. A smart person can easily cheat in a way that will not be detected by statistical analysis. (and about my credentials if that's important: I did study mathematics at university, specifically statistics).
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 9/28/2022 09:14
I hope no one is going to argue with someone whose former user name was 'with_jews_you_lose'.
tauno tauno 9/28/2022 08:55
“I think people thought there was going to be like a smoking gun here, did we miss something?”
– Whoopi Goldberg
casperradil casperradil 9/28/2022 08:36
Mr 100%!
Jacob woge Jacob woge 9/28/2022 08:35
“The question should be how is he getting chess engine assistance in over the board tournaments.”

Yes, that should be the question, and until now nobody has been able to come up with anything resembling an adequate answer. Juvenile giggles seems to be as far as anybody has come.

https://youtu.be/86Y6UVIKcQk

Very different from the Ivanov case. It did not take more than the threat of a thorough search to make that player up and leave, never(?) to be seen again in chess circles. (The question mark indicates I seem to remember a second apperance, or was that Rausis?)

The next question is, what to do if no other proof than statistical ever appears.

Bridge (the card game) has its own scandals, I would say at least an order of magnitude worse than chess when it comes to transfer of illicit information. There has been cast doubt on world championships going back to the 1950’ies. Statistical detection initiates a search for the actual method. This search has been succesful on a number of occasions.

The statistics alone has not been enough to condemn for over-the-board games. This differs from on-line bridge, where the cheating methods are rather obvious: You peek. Here, statistics is enough, and the time-limited ban imposed due to on-line cheating may apply to bridge in real life as well.

If we transfer this to chess, online cheating would be punishable in real life, which it isn’t today. The punishment would be a time limited ban. For cheating over the board to be punishable, you would have to actually get caught.

And we have gotten no further on that than a** talk.
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