Chess.com finally admits Niemann did not cheat against Carlsen OTB at 2022 Sinquefield Cup

Chess.com finally released their Hans Niemann Report report (https://www.chess.com/blog/CHESScom/hans-niemann-report) and confirmed that Niemann did not cheat against Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.

"However, while Hans has had a record-setting and remarkable rise in rating and strength, in our view there is a lack of concrete statistical evidence that he cheated in his game with Magnus or in any other over-the-board (“OTB”)—i.e., in-person—games."

The report details 15 games on chess.com (all of them over 2 years ago... one of them over 7 years ago) where Niemann likely cheated (based on statistical analysis).

Although Chess.com claims not to have discussed the decision to ban Niemann, the timing of the ban (and waiting over 2 years to take action) is only after Carlsen insinuated Niemann cheated in their OTB game AND Chess.com buying the Magnus brand for $82m.  Chess.com and Magnus Carlsen have a very close relationship (i.e. Chess.com acquired Play Magnus for $82m only a few weeks earlier) and I find it unlikely someone would not have shared this information with Magnus previously (and might explain why Magnus acted the way he did when he lost over the board).

Makes me wonder if chess.com is doing this to protect the Magnus brand they just bought for $82m.

Pretty poor wording by you as they obviously can't admit that Niemann didn't cheat in that specific game because they don't know. What they do "admit" is that their tools and analysis are not ideal for cheat detection in otb classical games and that they didn't make findings to support that Niemann cheated.

chesspep1,

You are incorrect. The Hans Report did NOT "confirm...  that Niemann did not cheat against Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup."

Rather, it said, "there is no direct evidence that proves Hans cheated at the September 4, 2022 game with Magnus."

Not proving that Hans cheated is not the same is confirming he did not cheat.

Indeed, the Report said, "we believe certain aspects of the September 4 game were suspicious, and Hans’ explanation of his win post-event added to our suspicion."

The Report also gives a perfectly rational reason for the timing of Chess.com's private communication with Hans.

chesspep1,

I agree, the report confirms as you say that there is ZERO evidence of Neimann cheating as an adult--anywhere or anytime. 

And dropping that kind of report on the day before Hans was set to compete at the US Championships was pretty sleezy.

There's no definite proof he cheated IRL, but there's a statistical proof he cheated online many many many times

As a war criminal once said:  "The absence of evidence is not the evidence is absence."

He cheated online years ago on an account they had already closed for cheating.

They analyzed games from his closed cheating account and found more cheating. Wow. Great job. So surprising 🙄

They found zero cheating on his current account @hansontwitch which is why it's still open.