Blitz Players Lose Their Identity

At a news conference today, Chess.com admitted that its fair-play technology failed to protect users from identity theft on March 31. “The investigation is still ongoing, but one of the major symptoms was excessive screen lag in Blitz,” noted Erik Allebest, the current CEO of Chess.com. The company’s internal review indicates that a network of hackers from Europe, India, and Brazil successfully bypassed authentication settings and targeted users. All affected users were playing games under faster time controls (bullet and ultrabullet) between 7:00 and 8:00 UTC (2:00 to 3:00 AM EST).

YouTube streamer Levy Rozman was among the players impacted by the attack. “I noticed the screen lag, but it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary. It happens a lot.”

Chief chess officer Daniel "Danny" Rensch said the company is considering a system-wide pause on blitz games. “I know how fun it can be to play blitz, but for some reason, the faster speeds create security vulnerabilities that we don’t fully understand. Playing slowly is always better, and it's definitely more secure.”

Rozman added, “I probably shouldn’t have been playing so many blitz games. We all know it’s bad for you. But to lose my identity while playing blitz, I never thought anything like that could happen.”

Allebest indicated that concerned players should contact the Chess.com help desk.  He also suggested that players may want to avoid faster time controls for the next few weeks. “Until we know more about the attackers, playing fewer blitz games may be the best course of action.”

“We’re very concerned about players that may have had their identity stolen while they played under faster time controls late at night,” Allebest noted. “We want them to know we are here for you and are offering free identity protection to players that were involved.”