The Niemann & Kramnik Controversy

Just one year ago, Hans Niemann defeated Magnus Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup which stirred up controversy in the chess world. When Carlsen accused Hans of cheating, it shed light on Hans's dark past, his reputation was questioned by many grandmasters across the world. Recently, Hans Niemann has found himself in another controversy with the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. In this blog, we will discuss how this feud came to be, and my final thoughts.

How It Started

During one of Hans Niemann's streams, Hans decided to challenge one of his chess idols, Vladimir Kramnik in a 3+2 game on chess.com. Once Kramnik had accepted the challenge, Hans was extremely surprised and decided to play the Berlin opening. Here's how his game went: 

As you can see, Hans managed to outplay Kramnik in a complicated and high-level endgame. Following the victory, Hans decided to send a rematch, and Kramnik accepted. After seeing the first extremely high-level game, let's see what Kramnik had in store for Hans in the rematch. 

Hans's Response

Kramnik playing the moves f6 and g5 seemed like he was calling out Hans for cheating, Hans responded to these unspoken allegations with a response on Twitter, asking for his chess skills to be examined at an in-person training session with the former world champion.

My proposition to Vladimir Kramnik pic.twitter.com/D81vpzL39Z

— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) September 12, 2023

However, later in an interview between Hans Niemann and Piers Morgan, Hans stated that Kramnik had personally told him that he did not have a problem with Hans, but he was rather worried about the cheating online altogether. 

The Bigger Picture

The Niemann controversy has resurfaced, but Kramnik's concern isn't so much about Niemann himself. He's more worried about the widespread cheating in online tournaments, especially the 'Titled Tuesday' series on chess.com. Kramnik has had intense discussions about this issue on his chess.com profile, and he's not alone in his suspicions. Other top players believe many participants are using underhanded tactics in online tournaments, but they keep it hush-hush to avoid trouble and legal complications.

Kramnik recently spoke in detail on the C-Squared video podcast, presenting arguments for his viewpoint. He pointed out a striking pattern where his online opponents achieved extremely high accuracy rates, well above 90%, in their games against him, which was significantly different from their games against renowned players like Carlsen, Nakamura, or Caruana. Against Carlsen, opponents displayed such precision in only 3 out of 100 games, while against Kramnik, this happened in 27 out of 100 games, which seemed statistically unlikely.

Kramnik concluded that opponents might avoid cheating against Carlsen due to fear of getting caught, while they did it more frequently against him, offering an explanation for the accuracy gap. He also recounted instances of rivals swinging between low-accuracy games and subsequent high-accuracy games, which he saw as clear cheating, even though the alleged cheater continued without repercussions for over a year. Kramnik firmly believes that the cheating problem in online chess is much more extensive than initially thought, estimating that around 20% of 'Titled Tuesday' participants resort to computer assistance. He calls for stricter measures against cheaters, even in cases with less concrete evidence, advocating for their disqualification.

MVL's Thoughts

In a Twitter thread, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave stated his opinion on the topic, along with further reinforcements to eliminate online cheating.

1. While it is absolutely not ok to accuse individuals without proof and should lead to further investigations, I do agree in the magnitude order of titled players having already cheated mentioned in the latest CSquared podcast with Vladimir Kramnik, for reference around 20%

2. For online tournaments with prize money, the absolute minimum should be turning on a camera (why not directly from the chess platform if possible). For the most prestigious online events, playing from one or more physical locations is necessary and can attract a live audience!

3. You could imagine a timeout system: if a player is strongly suspected but without enough proof for a ban, you give that player an opportunity to prove himself by playing from a live location with a neutral equipment, without having to give names.

4. For players that are eventually banned because the evidence is so strong, it should ideally lead to a ban over the board. I believe that is the one deterrent strong enough to help getting rid of this plague.

5. Like in every sport, it’s an endless fight with new means to cheat always available: there should be more direct and coordinated dialogues between Fide,  platforms and chess players.

6. There is obviously more to say and do but I do hope it gives some leads on how to act, even if some of the measures I mentioned are not immediately enforceable - especially the ban online = ban over the board. But we should start planning ahead!

- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave via Twitter.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I believe that Hans has learned from his mistakes and has played completely honestly since his cheating incident when he was 16 years old. I do believe that there should be more cheating reinforcement in chess.com prize money events and no cheaters should be allowed on chess.com. Unfortunately, due to competitive nature, cheating will continue to happen and we can only try to eliminate as much unfair play. Anyways, thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

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