Do you think Hans Is cheating?

It is sad, but it isn't all that different from the parents who put their kids on PEDs to make their high school football team.

The interesting thing to note is that Hans' play was significantly worse after they increased the delay to 15 minutes (especially his game with Lenier).  That could just be the stress of being scrutinized so heavily, but it is interesting to see nonetheless.

Also, one of the ways TDs will challenge people suspected of cheating during a tournament is to bring them into a room with the other arbiters, give them a position on the board, and have them analyze it.  They are not really looking for a correct evaluation, but a coherent one.  Can the person in question identify the weaknesses, come up with a plan, point out a tactic or two to avoid, etc.?  That is why Hans' interviews (specifically the one after the game with Magnus and the one after the game with Firouzja) are so troubling.

But hypothetically, lets say he had a friend sitting at the Starbucks across the street with Chess24's or Chess.com's game board pulled up.  Both of those have the ability to watch the game with engines turned on.  If they simply held up a sign that said "Qg3!" (as an example) he would pass through the security checks with no problem and still be cheating (for the record, I do not think that is what is going on, I am just giving it as an example of one way it could be possible).

I didn't know that about the arbiters getting players to analyse.

Your "Starbucks scenario" is interesting. Are there any windows in the playing area? Are there display boards that would be visible from outside? What I'm asking is - assuming that no-one inside, including spectators has any electronics - could the position of a game be communicated to the outside world?

Where they play is on the second floor of the club, and the stairs are not far from first 3 boards, so in theory you could see the street from one of those boards.  There are no display boards that would have instant updates visible from outside the club (unless things have changed recently), but when it was on a 5-minute delay, it wouldn't have been necessary.  Thinking for 5-10 minutes on a move would not be that uncommon, so a 5 minute delay in having it transmitted to the chess.com or chess24 sites wouldn't be a big deal.  When that got increased to 15 minutes, that becomes a problem.  In complicated positions where someone might need to help on several moves in a row, he would quickly get into time trouble waiting for the accomplice to see the next move.

As I understand it, they are not allowing spectators in the club right now (if someone is in the club, they could confirm that?).  So, there are only certain people in the building.  Unless they suspect one of those people of helping Hans, such a scenario would have to be done from the outside.

Unfortunately, I do not think we will get a resolution to this anytime soon.  As the organizer, I do not think Rex Sinquefield would even want to catch Hans in the act (as it would tarnish the image of the tournament).  Rather, he would prefer to make it even more difficult to continue doing any nefarious activities and let the games work themselves out.  What is also interesting is how quiet Kasparov has been on this topic. 

If I had to place a bet, I would bet on Hans not looking nearly as good against Wesley, Fabi, and Nepo as he did against Magnus and Firouzja.

They're playing today, right? I'm really looking forward to watching the coverage of the rest of this tournament.

Why is Kasparov being quiet or noisy of interest?

Ok, but it's common to have a good/bad first half followed by a bad/good second half.

I'm leaning towards he's not cheating because the strongest argument so far was Carlsen quit, but their individual game was not suspicious, and most of the accusations (e.g. from Hikaru) are stupid or childish.

Could he be cheating? Sure. But Firo missed winning chances presumably because he was afraid he was playing a cheater and bailed out into a draw... that game isn't suspicious either. So what's actually suspicious? That a young person improved quickly? That a teenager is giving unrefined interviews?

It's fun to make up stories and believe in them, but I'm waiting for something substantial.

Coverage starts in ~30 minutes.

Kasparov is one of the board members for the GCT.  He finally tweeted about it this morning, but the tweets were basically, "We need Magnus to say something".

Silence followed by telling Carlsen to say something is a very responsible tweet... rather than strange, this is what I might expect from someone on the board...

Actually Kasparov did say something a couple of hours ago, asking Carlsen for an explanation:

I thought what Nepo said was interesting, and especially the way he said it!

Brilliant! I'm just finishing work and I'll be home in 10 minutes!

That was basically my point.  I do not think he can keep crushing members of the 2800+ club for an entire tournament.  If a ~2650 player suddenly went +3/+4 against what easily could be a Candidates Tournament field, everyone would be wondering what is going on.  It would be highly unusual!

The suspicious part for me was not the game itself, but the incoherent analysis and the "miracle" prep.  The online cheating issue just shows that he has a history of being less than ethical, and the accent thing is just nonsense.  But I had the same reaction as Hikaru when watching the post-game analysis (especially the game with Firouzja when he said "White is just winning here, I don't even need to give variations ...")

I think everyone who plays Hans right now is thinking he is cheating and it is affecting their play.  If it was anyone else, any other time, he takes the free knight and tells his opponent "prove it!"  But I think it was clear from his interview that he thought something strange was going on.

And I agree with the Occam's Razor approach, but that leaves you with 2 options:  Either Hans is an intuitive player who has drastically improved over the last 18 months, or he is cheating somehow.  Only time will tell which.  I tend to lean towards the cheating side, but I understand the urge to believe him as well.  Frankly, I would really just like to get to the bottom of it and be done with the issue (I'm 100% with Levy on that!).

The scenario I used earlier was not meant to claim he is doing that, but merely pointing out one way it might be done to demonstrate that if someone really wants to get around the rules, they can find a way.  No security system is ever perfect; it is all about managing the risks and making it as difficult as possible.

Sure, fair enough.

It will be interesting to see where it goes.

Kasparov is 100% correct

As a side note here, with the delay, I would not be surprised at all to see someone like Nepo play 30+ moves in under 5 minutes just to force Hans to play before anyone else has a chance to see the games.  And it would be rather hilarious to have Yasser and Svidler open the commentary saying "Welcome to the last day of the Sinquefield Cup and today's match ups ... oh, we already have a decisive game ..."

found it as the pilot said to the tic tac.........hikaru et al are trying to slander live otb chess with the wonderful idea that online chess is safer than otb. from the wall street journal

“You could argue, in some ways, over-the-board chess has been less secure,” says Danny Rensch, chess.com’s chief chess officer.  

its a business plan. all you need now hear is 7 hour chess is too yawn long.......

It's very interesting that this site is very strict about having NO discussions about cheating in the public forums but allow ALL THESE discussions about cheating.  

It's gettin interestinger and interestinger.

NO! Know lol