Teenage chess grandmaster Hans Niemann “likely cheated” in more than 100 online matches, including ones with prize money involved.
Hans Niemann : cheating | How did cheat | Report
Hans Moke Niemann is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He was awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE on January 22, 2021.
In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. Niemann first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019.
As of September 2022, he is the 6th highest-rated Junior in the world and 45th overall.
On October 4, 2022, Chess.com issued a report which concluded that Niemann had likely cheated in over 100 online games to date.
However, the report stated that chess.com believes that there “is a lack of concrete statistical evidence” that he cheated over the board.
Hans niemann cheating
Though Niemann has admitted to cheating in the past, when he was 12 and 16, the 72-page report alleges that he cheated far more frequently than previously disclosed.
In the latest episode of a series of events that are rocking the foundation of the chess world, an investigation by Chess.com has found that 19-year-old American GM Hans Niemann “likely cheated” in more than 100 online games.
Though Niemann has admitted to cheating in the past, when he was 12 and 16, the 72-page report alleges that he cheated far more frequently than previously disclosed.
And that isn’t all. The investigation has made no conclusions regarding Niemann’s over-the-board games (including the one where he beat world champion Magnus Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup in early September while playing with the black pieces), but flagged a few other such contests that “merit further investigation based on the data”.
“We present evidence in this report that Hans likely cheated online much more than his public statements suggest,” the report says.
“Consistent with the letter we sent Hans privately on September 8, 2022, we are prepared to show within this report that he, in fact, appears to have cheated against multiple opponents in Chess.com prize events, Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers, and the PRO Chess League.
Hans niemann how did cheat
On Sept. 6, Niemann publicly admitted using electronic devices to cheat — but he insisted he only did so when he was 12 and 16 years old. In the first instance, Niemann said, he was “just a child.”
The entire fiasco started when Niemann, a 19-year-old who has made a meteoric ascent into the world’s top 50 over the past four years, shocked Carlsen while playing with the black pieces at the Sinquefield Cup.
Carlsen then abruptly quit the tournament. Though Carlsen refused to divulge the reason he quit the tournament, apart from a cryptic Twitter post, the chess community interpreted his action as a protest.
The shocking defeat and Carlsen’s withdrawal ignited a maelstrom of comments and allegations that Niemann was cheating. The most vocal voice was Hikaru Nakamura, the American grandmaster once ranked No 2 in the world.
Report
A 72-page report, filed by Chess.com, a website where top players compete, has found that American Grandmaster Hans Niemann has likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, and as recently as 2020.
Called the “Hans Niemann Report” (available here), it consists of 20 pages of text. In total, it has 72 pages including appendices and exhibits. In it, Chess.com and its Fair Play Team give answers to questions such as why Niemann was removed from the Global Chess Championship, to what extent he cheated on the site, and what can be said about his over-the-board (OTB) play.
First, Chess.com explains its decision to remove Niemann from Chess.com and from the Global Chess Championship on September 5, the day after he beat GM Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup. After making clear that there was no communication involved between Chess.com and Carlsen, the decision was laid out as follows:
We based this decision on several factors. First, as detailed in this report, Hans admitted to cheating in chess games on our site as recently as 2020 after our cheating-detection software and team uncovered suspicious play. Second, we had suspicions about Hans’ play against Magnus at the Sinquefield Cup, which were intensified by the public fallout from the event. Third, we had concerns about the steep, inconsistent rise in Hans’ rank—set out in Section VII of this report—like others in the broader chess community. Finally, we faced a critical decision point at an unfortunate time:
Could we ensure the integrity of the CGC, which was scheduled to start a few days after the Sinquefield Cup on September 14th, 2022, for all participants, if Hans took part in that event? After extensive deliberation, we believed the answer was no.