The Cheating Gambit - Extract from MARCA press
Those were happy days and the chess bible, New in Chess, dedicated its front page to the young American talent Hans Moke Niemann. The fourth number of 2022, of the eight that the company publishes annually, of which the norwegian Magnus Carlsen, world champion, was the greatest shareholder, presented a young elegant man, of short hair, a beard project, an infinite look in his eyes and a seductive half smile. A winner aged only 19 who had just won the Malmö tournament and from which Nils Grandelius, the grandmaster who signed the article, commented in the headline with an almost prophetic character: "He fears no one". After praising his ambition, he highlighted that in the last 20 months he had played 327 games and went up 191 elo, going from world rank #1011 to #90. An incredible progression -Carlsen did something similar in 2006 and 2007- after his games were stalled from December 2018 to October 2020. "Niemann is rarely out of time and he is very imaginative both in the good positions and in the bad ones", said Grandelius. Some words of recognition to a boy born in San Francisco, son of mormon parents of Danish and Hawaiian origins, who emigrated to the Netherlands with their son and enrolled him in a school for gifted people in which chess was included in the study plan.
Everything was wonderful and far it seemed then what in a few months later would capture the attention of the international media: the serious accusations to Niemann, #37 of the world, of having cheated with the help of informatic programs in face-to-face games, but above all in online tournaments. Up to 100 games, according to chess.com, although he confirmed that he made them when he was aged 12 and 16.
The triggering scandal was his victory over Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup in early September. The sixth sense of the Norwegian player seemed to indicate him that his defeat was not normal, and that Niemann's attitude during the game was totally different to what normally happens between professionals, with an absence of tension and lack of concentration in the decisive moments. Carlsen's insinuations in Twitter were revealed a few days after in the game of the Julius Baer in internet. Carlsen resigned in protest after he made the first move, arguing about not wanting to play against cheaters for whatever they can do in the future.
At the sight of the analysis of Niemann's games, and how Francisco Vallejo, Spain's number one, confirmed to MARCA press, we are "either before a genius and an international reference or a great cheater". The geniality is evident in many of his games, and for the fraud there are some clues, not proofs, which invites us to think about this topic.
Starting from the base that Niemann is a player of great level and talent, although irregular according to Jacob Aagard -his trainer in some sessions-, the analysis of the American's face-to-face games indicates that in 10 of them his moves match almost 100% the chess programs and in 23 games they match in 90%. No champion has similar records.
Oblivious to the public analysis
A very striking attitude in Niemann is that he never analysis in public his moves. Is it fear that it will be discovered that he does not have the level that he theoretically has? Could it be that Carlsen saw some of this when they were friendly discussing on the beaches of Miami before the Sinquefield Cup?
If Niemann is a cheater today he should have the most sophisticated technology at the reach of very few. Science fiction, paranoia, conspiracy theories? Time will clarify this story.
My word
This was an article written by Jesús J. Boyero for the MARCA press. In the normal papers you'll rarely see chess content, so I thought this was worth translating and posting. But frankly, I was astounded of how late they published it (9 October), I thought this piece of news should have been bound to appear sooner.
Maybe a lot of you are tired of this topic. I, myself, am, for in the last few weeks you could not find an article which didn't contain the word Niemann (except perhaps the Martin bot ones).
In the same weekend, the magazine XLSemanal published an interview with Judit Polgar. I started reading it eagerly, but I wasn't amused after I finished. The interview basically went about how Magnus Carlsen and Kasparov were bad losers and how they were upset in their lost games with Polgar though couldn't take it to heart because cameras were recording. Don't get me wrong, I praise Polgar for beating the world champions, but for the only chess content in ages they could have printed something more positive.
Well, see you in the next post!
