Paranoia Is Changing The Way We Play Chess
Greetings! Welcome back to the Hornet Editorial.
Since the dawn of the modern chess era, players have increasingly tried to eliminate uncertainty from the game. We study openings to avoid surprises, analyze our losses to remove weaknesses, and lean on preparation to quiet doubt. But what if doubt is louder than ever? What if it isn’t the complexity of the game that unsettles us, but something closer to home?
In the past ten years alone, chess has become sharper, faster, and more precise. Yet beneath all the precision and the new ways to play there's a growing fracture. Paranoia is shaping how we continue to play chess, how we think during it, and how we feel long after it’s over. It’s not visible on the board, but it influences what we see there. The rules haven’t changed, but the world we play in certainly has.
So, today I'm going to talk about how paranoia has changed the way we look at our opponents and most importantly the game of chess itself. Later in the post, I'll also share some words from friends who have experienced this dilemma first-hand.
Enjoy!
Table of Contents
How Paranoia Affects The Brain
How Paranoia Affects The Brain
Before we talk about how paranoia has changed how we play chess, we need to understand what it does to us. Some believe paranoia is simply just “overthinking”, but in reality, it involves real changes in how the brain processes threat, trust, and uncertainty. One of the key players here is the amygdala, our brain’s alarm center.
When the brain perceives danger, the amygdala activates your "survival mode". With paranoia, this system becomes hyperactive, even when there’s no real threat. To equivalate, it would be like having a smoke detector that goes off when you make toast. Over time, prolonged paranoia can affect brain areas like the hippocampus (memory processing) and prefrontal cortex (reasoning and decision-making) by making them more likely to remember negative experiences and jump to irrational conclusions.
Another important part of this that I'm sure we all recognize is dopamine. For those who don't know what dopamine is, essentially, it's a brain chemical that helps drive motivation, pleasure, and the ability to notice patterns. What research suggests is that dysregulated dopamine signaling can cause the brain to assign excessive meaning to ordinary events. Meaning, dysregulated dopamine could cause someone to overreact in a perfectly normal situation.
All these things put together sooner or later will also end up having an effect on your body. Paranoia keeps our bodies stress hormone, cortisol high. This can lead to a wide-ranging list of symptoms including rapid heartbeat, shallow or fast breathing, muscle tension, and difficulty sleeping. On top of all that, one study found long-term stress can actually weaken your immune system.
If paranoia is sustained it could even mean long-term consequences down the road as well. For example:
- A shift in a person's thinking pattern.
- Decision making may become more defensive. Rather than asking, “What opportunities are available here?”, the question becomes, “What could go wrong?”.
- Trust becomes harder to extend, and actions from others may be viewed skeptically. This doesn’t necessarily stem from irrationality because it often feels internally logical to the person.
Over time if there is no change this pattern will reinforce itself, doing innumerable damage to your body and psyche. And If paranoia can change how we perceive threats and interpret actions, it also can reshape how we respond to competition. And if paranoia can change how we respond to competition, it can also change the way we play chess.
When it comes to paranoia in chess, there are many different types and they're usually specific to the person. If I talked about all the different types of paranoias there are to have in chess, this blog would be wayyy too long. So, I'll be mainly discussing the two most underlying paranoias changing chess today. In addition, three of my friends who are on Chess.com will give their thoughts on said paranoias. I hope you learn something from their input 
.
As someone who used to play chess way too much, I can relate to this paranoia very deeply. Day after day I was worried about losing rating. Years later I wondered why I even cared so much. Nowadays, I see rating as just a number beside my username. I don't mean to say it doesn't mean anything, but it certainly isn't everything when I sit down for a game of chess, at least not anymore.
When I was researching for this blog, I wondered how far deep the rating paranoia problem really went. I surprised myself, and that doesn't happen too often. It turns out that masters as well as amateurs can be prone to irrationally worrying about their rating. It didn't take me long to find blogs on chess.com written by grandmasters describing their own experiences with their obsession.
The most notable post I found was written by GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan. In his blog he talks about his student's obsession with rating as well as his own. It was an interesting read, but I still wondered why I or other amateurs would be so beholden to a number. After I'd thought about it for a while I came to my conclusion.
People equate losing rating with losing social status.
It seems silly, but if you're higher rated on this site you receive a lot more attention. Most men and women like being noticed and acknowledged. It's part of who we are. Our brains treat inclusion as a form of safety, so by losing rating in online or in-person games your brain thinks you're losing that belonging. You're no longer part of the club.
To counter this, players have developed some strange ways to keep themselves from losing rating. The most popular way being playing less when rating peaks. This is very counter intuitive because the only way to gain rating is to play more. And even when playing chess ends up happening the other thing paranoid players are doing is avoiding stronger opponents.
Since Chess.com kindly allows you to select your opponent if you so wish, why would someone afraid of losing their rating ever leave their opponent up to chance. Admittedly it's something I'm guilty of, but I used to pick weaker opponents so I could gain easy rating. You don't really gain a lot of rating from weaker opponents, but over time your gains will accumulate.
To further understand this paranoia, I enlisted the help of three friends of mine who play chess on this site. At their request, they will remain anonymous. I asked them to provide their perspective on rating obsession and their proposed solution
Personally, I think there's too much emphasis placed on rating. I think it's important to keep track of progress and such, but I think bullet, blitz and puzzle duel have made chess less of an exercise and more of just a game. I'd love for there to be a solution, but I think we're too far gone in 2026.
- Friend #1
I don't know about "too far gone" but I do agree that there is a generation being raised too much on bullet.
Yeahhh, I kinda hate when people think they're better than me just because they have a higher rating. It's kinda obnoxious to be honest. I try and focus more on actual progress in my game and ignore my number as much as I can. I think the solution is for people to just have fun again. Chess is fun and we should have fun doing it. It's just a game after all.
- Friend #2
Fortunately, I've never run into the obnoxious type but they're around for sure. I try and have fun with whatever chess related thing I do. I think that's great advice.
I actually don't think rating obsession is a bad thing per se. I think if you let it interfere with your life and it's constantly on your mind, then no it's probably not good for you. I believe a healthy amount of competition is good, at least in my experience.
- Friend #3
I agree in a way, but there's a fine line between healthy competition and obsession. Interesting input though.
While rating paranoia tends to make a person fixate on their own performance, there’s another type of paranoia that can be given and received: the suspicion of others. Suddenly, the focus isn’t on the game, but on whether a performance your opponent has is legitimate. A subtle doubt such as that can turn into something much larger if nothing is done about it.
I wouldn't go as far as saying that cheating paranoia is more widespread than the rating loss paranoia, but it certainly has grown fast in the 2020s and especially after the whole Carlsen-Niemann drama. In this post I won't be going into the background about either the Carlsen-Niemann scandal or the Naroditsky situation. Frankly, both events have been wrung dry by a plethora of writers across the internet, and if you haven't heard or read about either of them by now, I credit you for being blissfully unaware of the noise. However, I will gloss over some of the particulars of each scandal in this section.
As I said previously, cheating paranoia can go both ways. I'd be a liar if I said there was never a time I was suspicious of someone I had played. Chess has become an environment of distrust. Nothing can be certain anymore with all the technology we've been given that was supposed to make our civilization "better". Specifically, we can't know for sure if a player online is cheating or not. I know you're probably thinking "Hornet, Chess.com has some of the best cheating detection methods in the world". I'm in complete agreement, but Chess.com isn't recording anyone's screens. What Chess.com can see is:
- How long you are taking to make moves.
- When and how often you are switching tabs on your phone/pc in-game.
- If/when you are having a spike in performance during a game.
Those three things combined alone help Chess.com accurately determine who is cheating, but does Chess.com get it right 100% of the time? Absolutely not. Members getting unfairly closed for fair play violations happen a lot more than you think. I don't mean to discredit Chess.com in any way. Their work to keep games fair is phenomenal, but those who think all closed players are cheaters and all open accounts are fair players are simply living in the dark.
If you take the Carlsen-Niemann drama for example, Magnus never provided any proof of Hans cheating at the Sinquefield Cup. Chess.com found Niemann had cheated in at least 100 games online, but that was as far as that ever got. To this day, no one knows for sure what happened. Magnus and Hans settled out of court and that was that.
Even I at an amateur's level have seen cheating accusations made, even one time at a U12 tournament no less. So, what drives someone to level a cheating accusation only based on assumption? I've seen the predominant answer happen for some time now and it's quite obvious. It's usually all about ego. "They couldn't have beaten me without help" is an extremely common deflection I'm sure some of you have heard before. When you have a big ego, you expect things to go your way, and when they don't it can't be your fault, otherwise your whole world would just come crashing down.
This is especially visible in younger players. If a child believes they are “the best,” or “Chess is their thing,” then a loss threatens more than just a result, it threatens how they see themselves. Without the emotional maturity to process that, suspicion becomes a good answer to their problems.
At the same though, there's a flip side to that coin. While cheating accusations can be made, they can just as easily be received. Earlier in this post, I talked about how the brain reacts to threats. Like physical danger, the amygdala activates if your brain detects a "social threat". Accusations today rarely rely on facts. With social media, rhetoric and misleading claims can often win over the truth. If you take the Naroditsky-Kramnik drama, there were many people who flocked to Kramnik's side just because they were friends. It exposed a deep flaw within the chess community. When unfounded accusations are made rarely do people think of the implications. How do accusations affect the mental health of a person? We found out.
Daniel Naroditsky is unfortunately a good example of this. Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin said the continuing accusations by Kramnik caused Danya "immense pressure and pain". I've never been accused of cheating in chess or any other sport, so I turned to my friends to see if I could find any answers.
In all the years I've played chess, I have never been accused of cheating, or any other rule violation for that matter. I did have a friend though who was accused of cheating at a school chess tournament we both went to. It was some really cocky kid who hadn't liked the result of their match. I don't really remember the specifics of the kid's beef, but he made a scene in front of the entire hall. Luckily, the arbiters weren't buying any of his claims and he was told to be quiet. Afterwards, my friend slowly stopped coming to tournaments, then chess club, and soon he wasn't playing anymore at all. It was really sad because he was a bright player.
- Friend #1
I saw something similar happen to a random kid, and it wasn't pretty. It’s awful that one unnecessary scene was enough to push a talented player away from something he clearly loved.
I've never been accused of cheating, but a friend of mine got accused by a bunch of people in one of the online clubs here. They threatened to report him unless he confessed and weird messages like that. My friend didn't apologize of course (good for him yo), but I started noticing he was playing differently. He played a lot more safely than he used to. When I asked him why, he said he was making a mistake on purpose every few moves just so no one would harass him. I didn't do anything about it at the time , but I wish I had.
- Friend #2
That’s really sad. No one should feel pressured to deliberately weaken their own play just to avoid harassment. You were in a tough spot, and it makes sense you wish you’d stepped in, but the blame belongs to the people who bullied him, not you.
Believe it or not, but I actually have accused people of cheating before. First time I did I was 14 and I lost to a much lower rated 12-year-old at a local youth tournament. I dumped the board and slammed the table and accused the kid of cheating right to his face. Obviously, I didn't think he was, but there was no way in my mind that I had just lost. I was ejected from the tournament, and I got in huge trouble at home. Second time around, I was 16, and I noticed my opponent was taking very frequent breaks from the table and leaving the room to go elsewhere. I quietly told the arbiter in my section and he confronted my opponent. When he got pulled aside, he admitted to using his phone to look up moves. Good on him for confessing. It was a good learning experience for me and fortunately I haven't had to take something up with the arbiters since.
- Friend #3
I actually didn't know that lol, but those are really good stories. I wish everyone could handle suspicions that way...
As a conclusion to this section, everything I mentioned above is how paranoia is changing how we play chess. We have stopped enjoying the game and started constantly guarding against imaginary threats, turning results into those driven more by fear than by skill. A problem commonly seen that's rarely addressed. It's time to stop letting paranoia take over our game, but how do we it?
The solution for paranoia in chess is neither a clear or simple one. There will always be something or someone that vexes you, but that's life. We are never more strong than when we are tested. It's how we handle life's challenges that defines us.
As I said previously, there are many different types of paranoia and they're usually specific to the person. While there isn't a simple "cure" to paranoia, there are ways to change your mindset and to retain your resolve when situations get complicated.
1. Remove your identity from the game.
I think some people fail to remember that playing chess doesn't mean you have intellectual superiority over someone else. The same goes the other way. If you aren't good at chess, it doesn't mean you're not smart, it just means you aren't good at chess. No one is perfect, not even masters. The great thing is that you can change that by applying yourself to learning.
The other important thing is not to get too invested in chess. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but unless you're a prodigy of some sort, having a high rating on Chess.com won't matter in the long run and will not land you a job. Once I began treating chess as a mental exercise again, I felt a lot better about my playing than before.
2. If you're honest you don't have to worry about what other people say.
This one is self-explanatory, but accusations don't have to worry you if you are honest. Keeping a cool head when under fire can go a lot farther than exploding under pressure. The noise makers will always make noise, but noise fades when it isn’t fed. Let your composure and transparency do the talking.
3. Have a life outside of chess
Invest in hobbies and relationships that exist beyond chess. Real connections and fulfilling activities keep your mind and body healthy. A well-rounded life will strengthen your game indirectly, because a rested, happy mind thinks more clearly and faster.
Paranoia in chess may never disappear entirely, but it doesn’t have to control you. The goal isn’t being able to have perfect play, because no one can! It’s about learning to play with confidence despite uncertainty. Embrace each challenge as a chance to grow, and you’ll find that the game becomes less about fear and more about discovery, where every move teaches you something new about the game and about yourself.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you were able to learn something from it. As always, if you have a question please leave it in the comments below. Whether you agree or disagree, if you'd like to discuss the post further with me personally, I am always open to DMs.
If you found this post valuable, please consider sharing it with someone who might benefit from it. I look forward to continuing the conversation in the comments! My next blog will probably be out in 2-3 weeks. I hope to see you all then. For now though, Hornet's out.
Here are the sources used by me for writing this blog:
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- Balcerowska, M., & Kwaśnik, P. (2025). The multifaceted impact of stress on immune function. Molecular Biology Reports, 52(1), 1008
- The Rating Obsession: Why It's Ruining Your Progress - By Hovhannes Gabuzyan
- Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290–292.
- Blair, K., Geraci, M., Devido, J., McCaffrey, D., Chen, G., Vythilingam, M., et al. (2008). Neural response to self- and other-referential praise and criticism in generalized social phobia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(10), 1176–1184
- https://www.chess.com/blog/FairPlay/fair-play-update-january-2026
- Marton, T., Samuels, J., Nestadt, P., Krasnow, J., Wang, Y., Shuler, M., Kamath, V., Chib, V. S., Bakker, A., & Nestadt, G. (2019). Validating a dimension of doubt in decision‑making: A proposed endophenotype for obsessive‑compulsive disorder. PLoS One, 14(6), e0218182
- @HornetCruise
