Unfortunately there is no real way of knowing, but unless someone has a title I usually doubt the legitimacy of the scores in the leaderboard
What we do know though is that he artificially boosted all of his ratings until chess.com came in and reset them. (This can be easily verified by checking his rated games in blitz/Bullet/rapid/daily which are literally all fake games against banned accounts). We also know he has been banned at least once on a past account and possibly multiple times. He also cheats on the forums by getting chatgpt to write all his posts, including every post in this thread.
So yes, we have no proof that he cheats in puzzle rush, but I think it's fair to assume that someone who is a known cheater in every other facet of the website is also cheating when they put up world records in puzzle rush. Particularly when they have given zero evidence of chess or tactics ability elsewhere (he was rated 700 blitz on his old account across thousands of games, and I've yet to see proof of him solving regular timed puzzle rush up to even puzzle 25 or 30)
I want to clear up a few things.
First, I acknowledge some discrepancies with my regular chess ratings, but that’s all in the past. I’m not sure how that’s relevant to this discussion, as my focus has always been on puzzles. I’ve used Chess.com’s built-in training tools—especially the Custom Puzzles feature—to improve, which is how I’ve developed my ability to recognize and solve high-level puzzles quickly.
As for forum posts, I write my responses. I sometimes use ChatGPT to refine wording, but that’s no different from using a spell checker or grammar tool—it doesn’t change the facts I’m sharing.
Lastly, would someone be this proud of their successes in the puzzle-solving world if they had cheated? That wouldn’t make much sense. I’ve put in years of training and effort, and I share my results because I genuinely enjoy puzzles and problem-solving.
I’d rather have a constructive discussion than go in circles with accusations. If there’s something specific you’d like to understand better, I’m happy to clarify.
You claim that you would never cheat to get #1 on a leaderboard when there are zero consequences for cheating, yet in the past you have been willing to cheat to get to a measly 2000 rating even with consequences. Makes sense
When I first created this account, I set it to 'Expert,' which starts at 2000. As far as I know, there’s no rule against that, so technically, I haven't done anything wrong.
Anyway, I’m getting a bit bored with this conversation now. I hope you have a good year of chess!
A