Kudos to chess.com

I would like to congratulate those who administer the site. Accusing someone without any evidence. You know who I'm talking about. A site that abounds with cheaters. Do as usual, close the discussion, certain things are better less visible, right?

1. I have no idea who you're talking about.

2. We close all cheating and fair play discussions on public forums because it is against our Terms of Service. However, you're welcome to discuss them in this group, made specifically because Chess.com believes people should have a place to express such concerns. For more information feel free to visit this link: Discussions about cheating - Chess Forums .  

The group exists because we take cheating accusations very seriously. We can't have them being freely thrown around in our Forums, nor would we ever make them without previously investigating the situation. You're welcome to join it if you like.

3. If you believe you've caught a cheater, please report them for it. That helps to keep them off the website. Every report matters. 

4. We're also taking feedback on Fair Play. Take the Fair Play Survey - Chess.com if you want to express more of your opinions in that regard. 

We do talk about it, we have many places for that discussion. But it is a serious matter, and it's carefully treated as such. 

Here are 72 pages of it.  And this may also help ease concerns. Our Fair Play team is always trying to make improvements, we'd love to hear from you if you have more specific critiques or some constructive feedback. Feel free to make a suggestion or to discuss the topic it in the appropriate forums, as previously stated. 

Isn't that "cheating forums" group discussion jusy a way of red-flagging whomever attends as a potential cheating suspect??

No, that's the exact opposite of it. 

The Cheating Forum was created as a way to keep a declicate subject such as Fair Play from causing unecessary conflict and anxiety in our regular forums. Public threads can be volatile and get messy very quickly. We take accusations, questions and concearns about Fair Play violations very seriously. Keeping the topic restricted to a single place also helps us give due attention to the points raised by our users. 

It's a specialized platform for people to start a conversation with our Staff and with the Community whenever they want to discuss how Fair Play is handled on Chess.com, ask if someone is showing signs of being a cheater, or just participate in ongoing discourse.

Being there doesn't guarantee you're clean, of course, but, in my opinion, the users who join are usually the ones wanting to fight cheaters on the website. Not the ones doing the cheating. 

72 pages of chess.com creating a smoke screen for their bad behavior.

The bottom line is they locked him out of his account even though by chess.com's own admission they have no good evidence that Niemann cheated online or OTB. Then they bring up his 2 year old cheating (on an account already banned for cheating) as a way to confuse people into thinking he deserved being locked out and disinvited from the GCC.

@hansontwitch isn't closed for cheating, because in spite of their intense scrutiny, chess.com didn't find anything.

We found a lot. We presented evidence. If you're not convinced, that's ok. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the matter. This discussion has been had many times. If you have any specific points to raise about Fair Play, we're happy to hear you, but please do so in the appropriate space. Thank you.