Top 5 Grandmaster Cheating Scandals You Must Know!
Welcome, my dear readers, to this blog. According to you, Chess is a game of kings, blunders and questionable tactics, right? But, even in the super-serious world of grandmasters, things can get a little absurd. We're talking about whispers, accusations, and the kind of drama that would make a pawn promotion seem boring. We’ve all heard rumors about match-fixing in soccer, basketball bribes, and even baseball tampering. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that chess is no exception and has its share of scandals and controversies.
Hence, we decided to look into some of the most infamous chess grandmaster cheating scandals and their ultimate outcomes. So, let's dive into the weird and wild world of chess cheating and controversy, where brains and, well, maybe a little something extra, clash on the 64 squares.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Hans Niemann vs. Magnus Carlsen (2022)
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
- Sophocles
Cheating in chess happens when someone decides that they do not want to play using their own brain, and they turn to using help from a friend or a chess engine to find better moves. This is obviously unfair to the other player, and ruins the experience of the game. It's a selfish and thoughtless thing to do. Fortunately, a research by Chess.com shows that fewer than 0.2% of players cheat in online chess, so it is much less common than some people think.
You might think that cheating during a chess match sounds impossible. Get ready because you’re in for a ride- from strange chess cheating theories, multi million-dollar lawsuits, and even grandmasters going to prison; we have it all for you. So, let’s look into five chess grandmaster cheating scandals without further ado.
Hans Niemann vs. Magnus Carlsen (2022)
The Niemann vs. Carlsen is arguably the most controversial and popular chess scandal that shook the entire community. This scandal gained widespread attention because it involved the World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and his highly publicized accusation against Hans Niemann.
The controversy started in 2022. Niemann, at that time, the lowest-ranked player in the tournament, shockingly broke Carlsen’s 53-game unbeaten streak using the Nimzo-Indian defense. The defeat led to Carlsen withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup in September 2022 without any explanation.
Soon, Carlsen would publish a confusing tweet, which naturally led people to believe that he was accusing Niemann of cheating. After the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup, Niemann gave a lengthy interview addressing the controversy, in which he admitted to cheating in online chess in the past, but denied cheating in the game with Carlsen or in any over-the-board game.
The rumors spread like wildfire, with popular media outlets, like the Independent, calling it “The biggest scandal in chess history,”. Tournament organizers were quick to increase their anti-cheating measures, but the damage was done. Three weeks later, Carlsen released a statement saying that Niemann's behavior during their Sinquefield Cup game, taken together with earlier suspicions, had persuaded him to withdraw from the tournament. Carlsen expressed the belief that Niemann had cheated more often and more recently than he had admitted.
Niemann boldly proclaimed that he was willing to play naked to prove his innocence in an interview. Grandmaster and streamer Hikaru Nakamura said he believed Carlsen had likely suspected Niemann of cheating, claiming that Niemann had previously been banned from Chess.com for cheating in online chess games.
Carlsen soon released a statement in which he acknowledged that Niemann’s performance during the tournament raised suspicion. Carlsen was convinced Niemann cheated often and recently, as opposed to his statement. People online, especially the chess community, were not happy with this statement as Carlsen had provided no proof of cheating.
The story doesn’t end there because soon after, there was an incident between the two during the Julius Baer Generation Cup, when Magnus Carlsen resigned after making just one move against Niemann, further igniting the flames of speculation and controversy.
In October 2022, Niemann filed a lawsuit against Carlsen, his company Play Magnus Group, Chess.com, Chess.com's Chief Chess Officer Daniel Rensch, and the grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura for defamation and unlawful collusion. The two parties settled the lawsuit privately, and they agreed to move forward without any further legal actions or threats.
Gaioz Nigalidze, the Georgian chess grandmaster, thought he could cheat during a tournament by hiding his phone in a lavatory - under toilet paper. The scandal erupted during the 2015 Dubai Open, where Gaioz Nigalidze was up against Tigran L. Petrosian, who found Nigalidze’s frequent lavatory visits strange and suspicious.
Tigran L. Petrosian, his opponent in the 6th round, promptly voiced his concerns to the Chief Arbiter Mahdi Abdul Rahim that it was unusual as he was always going to the same toilet, and the toilet was subject to a search, a smartphone as well as a headset was found hidden behind a pan and beneath some toilet paper.
Although Nigalidze denied ownership of the phone, officials found a social media app registered to him on the device. One of the chess applications on the device was analyzing the game, and he used that to make his next moves.
He was expelled from the tournament. He was subsequently banned for 3 years (until September 2018) and his grandmaster title was revoked. His previous tournaments were also investigated.
Just a few years after the Gaioz Nigalidze case, another chess grandmaster cheating scandal made the headlines in Strasbourg, France.
Igors' strategy was to choose weak events and play against players who were rated more than 400 points below him and gain 0.8 Elo points per game. In this way he had gained 17.3 Elo points in the last month and moved from 2669 to 2686.
However, at the 10th Strasbourg summer festival that is being held in France from the 10th to the 14th of July 2019, Rausis allegedly did something which no rule book would approve of. The first prize was just EUR €1000 and there were no GMs taking part in the tournament apart from Rausis. In fact, he was the top seed by 320 Elo points.
It was clear that Rausis was following his strategy of facing weak opponents and gaining 0.8 Elo points from every game. But things didn't reach this stage. Rausis was caught cheating when his mobile phone was found in the toilet by the team of Fair Play Commission headed by Yuri Garrett, working in concert with the tournament's arbiters. The tournament officials were suspicious of Rausis’s frequent lavatory visits, and upon investigation, they found him on his phone with a running chess analysis software.
When confronted, Rausis didn’t deny the allegations and was banned from the game for six years. He later expressed his regret and resigned from professional chess soon after. FIDE stripped him of his Grandmaster title in 2019 but it didn’t stop people from wondering about the extent of his cheating as he had garnered a lot of trust in the community.
Igor Rausis passed away in March 2024, never playing competitive chess again.
Sébastien Feller, who became a grandmaster in 2007 at the age of 17, faced cheating accusations during the 2010 Chess Olympiad.
In October 2010, Feller scored 6/9 during the 39th Chess Olympiad and won the Gold medal for best individual performance on board 5. However, the FFE accused Feller, along with French players GM Arnaud Hauchard and IM Cyril Marzolo, of cheating during the Olympiad.
Their strategy was simple yet clever. While Feller was in the playing hall, Marzolo was in France where he checked the best moves with a chess computer. Marzolo then reportedly sent the move in coded pairs of numbers by text message to Hauchard. Once Hauchard had the suggested move, he would position himself in the hall behind one of the other players’ tables in a predefined coded system, where each table represented a move to play.
A total of 200 text messages were found during the tournament. But Feller was quick to deny any cheating allegations and released a statement to defend himself. Sadly, for Feller, FIDE took severe disciplinary actions, and he lost his GM title as punishment. Furthermore, he received a three year ban from all FIDE Tournaments.
In 2019, the correctional tribune of Thionville sentenced Feller to six months in prison for cheating at the Chess Olympiad. As of now, he has completed his sentence and has returned to playing chess.
For our final chess grandmaster cheating scandal, we have to talk about Tigran L. Petrosian – does the name sound familiar?
Petrosian is the one who suspected Gaioz Nigalidze was cheating during their chess match in 2015. When the Nigalidze frequently went to the toilet to cheat. So, it was pretty shocking when he was subject to the same accusations. A mere five years later, during an online PRO chess game.
At the time Petrosian, was one of the highest-ranked grandmasters in the world. That did not stop him from being caught cheating during his match with Wesley So.
On 1 October 2020, Wesley So, the eighth highest-rated grandmaster in the world at the time, accused Petrosian of cheating in his semi-final and final games during the online Chess.com 2020 PRO Chess League. Petrosian responded to So with a long, insulting message on the Chess.com forum, including the comments, "You are a biggest looser i ever seen in my life ! You was doing PIPI in your pampers when i was beating players much more stronger then you!".
The anti-cheating systems detected an unusually high accuracy rate in his moves. The system also monitored his behavior closely and discovered that he was using a computer to make his next moves. Chess.com subsequently determined that Petrosian had violated fair play regulations, consequently, his team the Armenia Eagles, was disqualified and So's Saint Louis Arch Bishops were crowned champions. Chess.com and the PRO Chess League both issued lifetime bans to Petrosian.
You cannot succeed in one department of life while cheating on another, life is an indivisible whole.
-Mahatma Gandhi
So, my dear readers, we have reached the end of the blog. These were some of the most infamous chess grandmaster cheating scandals that shook the chess community. It is shocking that so many top players have been overwhelmed to temptation and crossed the fairness line. It makes us wonder how many elite chess players may be getting away with this regularly. And how tournaments should implement stricter anti-cheating policies.
So, next time you watch a chess tournament, grab some popcorn. You're not just watching a game, maybe you are watching a drama unfold. And if you see someone making suspiciously perfect moves? Just whisper, "Is your phone giving you tips?" and watch the chaos happen. Just kidding! (Mostly). Don't forget to share your opinions about the blog in the comments, it means a lot, and to tell which is your favorite chess controversy.
Thanks for reading!
See you in the next blog. Till then goodbye, keep playing and stay happy!
