Achievement Unlocked: got a GM to accuse me of cheating

...just in case you weren't aware of what lovely material Chess.com's official streamers like to share.

I wasn't sure if it was worth bringing attention to a ridiculous accusation that people might not actually care about or even see, in a space that people might not care about or see. But this is a terrible thing to say as a (supposed) ambassador for Chess.com and the chess community in general. One's reputation for integrity and sportsmanship is far more important than any other standing in the chess community, so Jesse's accusation is highly unfortunate on a conceptual, logical, and personal level.

Since I haven't been on the chess trail much lately (dabbling in poker is an interesting change of scenery), this just happens to be about the last game I posted here from... just over 4 months ago. Yes, I'm shocked too.

Saying someone is a cheater, especially when you are a prominent and influential player, is very different from criticizing them in almost any other way. Once people think of you as a cheater, they likely won't take it back.

I'm not railing against the mere speculation of cheating. Almost every player has been suspicious of another player at least once in their life. Many people gossip about unproven cheating accusations. Many people (myself included, once in a semi-official capacity) sometimes make inappropriate comments in the heat of the moment about the integrity of others. But none of the talk I've ever seen remotely matches streaming publicly for 45 minutes on behalf of Chess.com about how one's opponent could only play the game because he was cheating. So if he can spend 45 minutes accusing me of cheating, I guess I should be willing to spend 45 minutes saying otherwise.

It is technically true that GM Kraai does not literally state that he believes beyond a reasonable doubt that I cheated against him in the first round of the 2019 Cherry Blossom Classic (in particular, he claims to avoid using my name directly since he is not 100% sure). This is nothing more than a cheap way to downplay the fact that he is making a very serious accusation while doing so anyway, because :

• It takes like 15 seconds and 20 brain cells to find out exactly where/when/who played this game (fun fact: one of his viewers actually commented having seen my blog post on this game, so it's probably even easier than I think). So not saying my name doesn't make this any less of an accusation.
• No one would say they "strongly suspect [me] of cheating", describe how traumatized they were 4 months after the game, and rant for 45 minutes about my play and behavior without being convinced that they had been cheated. (If you're still unconvinced, consider whether Jesse would have made the same kind of public accusation against another grandmaster he viewed with the same level of suspicion. I'm pretty sure the answer is no.)
• GM Kraai cleverly explains (using the example of a former teammate) that I only needed to cheat a few times (at most 3) during the game. This is an attempt to deflect from his obvious opinion that I was cheating, but he kind of loses it when he muses about how the game would have gone "without [me] using a computer" on move 17 (and at least one other occasion that I can't remember).
• So basically, I don't care that GM Kraai started out by saying "I'm just going through my thought process, I'm not making an accusation" because everything else he said clearly means otherwise.

The totally objective and classy GM ends his stream by announcing a poll asking viewers if they think I cheated. In case you haven't guessed yet, the answer is "no," but for fairness, let's look over some of the factors that deluded GM Kraai into making this accusation. First, the chess ones:

Some comments on everything else that was said on stream:

• Basically, GM Kraai strongly suspected I was cheating because the times I got up from the board the longest strongly coincided with the three most suspicious moves of the game. Since I've already explained (quite simply) my thought process behind all three moves, my conclusion is that the GM just didn't realize that decent but not great masters are capable of making decent moves in complex positions from time to time. (This is understandable; everyone underestimates their opponents at some point. But it's not a good reason to publicly accuse someone of cheating.)
• The GM says (almost verbatim) that "lower rated players don't know the etiquette that it's basically unacceptable to leave the board." Apparently, higher rated player don't know either, because (surprise!) many of them, like me, like to walk around the room, check out the other games and the wallcharts. Though he also says you're supposed to tell the organizer when you go to the restroom, which I've literally never seen anyone do in my life.
• The GM also says (almost verbatim) that "once you get to GM level tournaments you simply aren't allowed to leave the board." This is definitely not true. What kind of GM tournaments is he watching?
• GM Kraai says that a small (1-5%) of the chess population cheating has the potential to ruin the experience because it's hard to play a game knowing your opponent might be cheating. As someone that doesn't play for a living or anything, I don't know that I can agree. What I know is that in poker, it's not healthy to base big decisions completely on fear of particular hand combinations that only happen 1-5% of the time. The reality is that the vast majority of the time there's no legitimate reason (outside of factors that distinguish a cheater at a statistically significant level) to suspect your opponent of cheating in chess. And if you make a bunch of overly paranoid reads of normal behavior, that's your fault, not mine.
• GM Kraai is totally overthinking why he lost the game, because as I predicted above, playing 21...Bc6 instead of just sacrificing the Exchange for no compensation probably would have won. (GM Kraai really doesn't spend a lot of time talking about this compared to my so many "suspicious" moves.) Also, I don't imagine that a GM can basically expect to have a winning position against every decent but not world-class player by move 20. (I assume there's more to it because most people don't get to GM thinking like this, but I don't see it.)

I'm aware that posting this might be overkill because I'm not sure how many people actually pay attention to the blogosphere or Jesse's streams. But I think it's important for people to be aware that even those who are supposed to be ambassadors of the game are willing to make excuses for themselves by slandering others. This accusation is so completely out of line on many levels, and I don't feel like taking the risk of having anyone who listens to this stream giving the benefit of the doubt to a meritless cheating accusation. It's shameful that Chess.com allows GM Kraai to use such a promising and lucrative platform to slander other people's reputations on false grounds, rather than for the good of the chess community.