US Grandmaster Hans Niemann, accused of cheating by world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, “probably cheated over 100 times” in online games, chess platform chess.com claims in a report.
“Overall, we found that Hans [Niemann] probably cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several monetary prize events,” writes the world’s leading online chess platform in the 20-page report—plus 50 more appendices—published Tuesday evening.
Chess.com banned the 19-year-old player on September 5, shortly after the first accusations were first made, but the platform is defending itself against any pressure from the Norwegian world champion, whose Play company it is in the process of buying. Magnus.
The famous platform says it is “extremely confident” in its means of detecting cheating, for which it reveals to use Grand Masters – the highest rank of chess players -, in addition to an analysis of moves made by tools automated.
In real life too?
The suspicions of the platform go beyond the framework of the Internet: it also devotes part of the report to the spectacular progression on the chessboard of the 19-year-old American.
“While we have no doubt that Hans is a talented player, we find that his results are statistically extraordinary”, with the fastest progression between the high level and the very high level of chess, the report states with great graphics.
His progress is the most spectacular of other young talents of the moment such as the French Alireza Firouzja, also author of a breakthrough at the highest level, until reaching the 2nd world rank, in 2021.
However, “our statistical investigation revealed nothing particular concerning the parts or the progression” in the parts in front of a chessboard of Hans Niemann, recognizes chess.com.
This precision applies to the famous victory of the American against Magnus Carlsen at the beginning of September in Saint-Louis, although “the part”, “the behavior” and “the explanations” of Niemann are “weird”.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced Thursday, September 29 the opening of an investigation into these accusations of cheating.
If he admitted to having cheated in the past on chess.com, when he was between 12 and 16 years old, Hans Niemann denies the most recent accusations, claiming to be “ready to play naked” if necessary.