I've gotten a lot of texts about anal beads recently. No, I didn't start an OnlyFans. It's the recent chess cheating scandal.
This sounds random but it's not. I played chess competitively growing up for a decade. While I haven't played competitively in a long time, I've stayed pretty close to the game & community.
The *scandal* has unfolded pretty quickly and it's been hard to keep up. Quick timeline and thoughts. But first.. a quick tactic to start. White to move and win.
Who are these people...
Magnus Carlsen, 31, has been the reigning chess world champion since 2013. He's been on a 53 game winning streak since 2020.
His peak chess rating (2882) is the highest in chess history. He's a genius even though he hates the term. Magnus solved 50 piece puzzles at age two. He's a merciless machine. He's also hot (my DMs are open).
A few weeks ago, Magnus lost.
Hans Niemann, 19, was the lowest rated player in the tournament. He's American (the USA really can't catch a break this year).
Over the last 12 months, Hans has had a massive run up. His rating jumped from ~2450 to ~2700. He skyrocketed from the top~800 to the top 50 in the world.
No one expected Hans to win.
So, what happened?
Final position from the game —
After Magnus resigned, he abruptly pulled out of the tournament.
He also posted a cryptic tweet alluding to cheating.
The tournament immediately announced additional anti-cheating precautions: 15-minute delay in the broadcast of the moves and radio-frequency checks.
From there, the cheating rumors spread like wildfire.
Chess.com banned him for cheating when he was 12 and 16. The anal bead conspiracy theory on Reddit picked up a lot of momentum. Elon posted a meme about it on Twitter. To be fair, I think that it could theoretically work if you mapped buzzes to notation.
Two weeks later, Hans and Magnus were matched in another tournament. #Awkward. Magnus resigned after 1 move in protest.
"If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it" - Niemann
Chess is not usually salacious which is maybe why this story took off. We hear about politicians, athletes, financiers. Lots of sex scandals. Not many board game scandals.
Believe it or not, cheating in chess is actually a big thing and it isn't siloed to top players. Cheating is a problem at junior levels a well. Cheating precautions in tournaments are pretty intense:
- Parents and coaches are not allowed in the playing halls.
- Phones are not allowed in the playing hall.
- Players are not allowed electronic devices.
- Bags and clothing can be searched.
- Concerns are raised to tournament directors mid-game.
- Tournament games submitted for screening.
Seems fun right?
To compound the cheating issue, online tournaments became the new normal during Covid. Playing online obviously makes it much easier to cheat.
Fair play algorithms have become the new line of defense. Improving and scaling the use of these fair play algorithms is the only real solution that I see going forward. N.B. Ken Regan, who is a world renowned analyst in this space, reviewed the Carlsen-Niemann game and did not find any conclusive evidence.
"Toiletgate"
Despite precautions, cheating happens.
In 2006, Topalov accused Kramnik of visiting his bathroom to presumably use a computer to cheat. The incident became known as toiletgate. Toiletgate remains an unsolved mystery.
In 2015, Gaioz Nigalidze was caught cheating with a smartphone hidden in a toilet.
In 2015, another player was caught cheating using a pretty elaborate set up. No toilets involved. Dhruv Kakkar had strapped two phones to his body. One phone him share his opponent's moves by tapping his foot. The other phone linked to an earpiece and his accomplice feed him computer generated moves. He was caught. Pictures of the devices below.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, five minutes to ruin it."
So where does that leave us?
I don't know whether Hans cheated. It seems crazy that Magnus would risk his reputation unless he was absolutely certain. That said, it's a bit of a stalemate. If Niemann cheated, his GM title may be stripped and his career is over. If Niemann didn't cheat, I don't know how you escape this blemish.
Magnus is supposed to make a statement in the coming days.
Until then, I'll hopefully get less texts about anal beads.