Inside the cheating scandal that rocked the chess world

It should have been simple for Magnus Carlsen, or at least as simple as a top-tier chess game can be. When the world chess champion sat down across from 19-year-old American Hans Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup earlier this month, he had the benefit of playing with the white pieces, he was on a 53-game unbeaten streak, and was facing someone who entered the tournament as the lowest-rated player.

Few were expecting an upset, but that’s just what happened.

Carlsen’s loss to Niemann in that game was unusual, but what followed was even more so. The next day, the world’s number one chess star withdrew from the tournament without explanation; only a short statement posted to Twitter and a meme.

“I’ve withdrawn from the tournament. I’ve always enjoyed playing in the @STLChessClub, and hope to be back in the future,” he wrote in a tweet, which was accompanied by a video clip of José Mourinho, saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble.”

Carlsen didn’t say so explicitly himself, but his withdrawal and the cryptic video were interpreted as a veiled accusation of cheating against Niemann.

Niemann has vehemently denied the accusations against him, but the world of chess — which is its own ecosystem of players and teachers, YouTubers, streamers and fans — has been consumed by the drama ever since.

“Basically it seems like Magnus Carlsen thinks something’s not quite right with Hans Niemann,” said Levy Rozman, an international master and host of a popular chess-based YouTube channel, in a video. He described it as “likely the biggest chess scandal in history.”

Cheating in chess is as old as the game itself. But the rise of online play, coupled with the invention of chess engines powered by artificial intelligence that can calculate millions of possible moves in seconds, has led to an explosion in cheating in recent years. Chess.com, the most popular chess platform on the internet, calls cheating “the dirty not-so-secret of chess,” one that has “plagued online chess websites.” The site says it suspends around 500 accounts a day for cheating.

So, how was Niemann, who played Carlsen in person, supposed to have cheated? This is where things get weird. A theory reportedly from the depths of Reddit, which suggested Neimann used vibrating anal beads to receive move commands from an outside helper, was discussed as if it were a serious likelihood by grandmaster Eric Hansen on a livestream. Another theory suggested Niemann might be using a “tiny laser” that “draws an ultraviolet line on the board visible only through soecial [sic] contacts.”

Niemann had his own theory, positing in his post-match interview that Carlsen “was just so demoralized because he’s losing to an idiot like me. It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me. I feel bad for him.”

What followed was something akin to a true crime drama. Niemann’s history was fiercely scrutinised online, his past games studied for anomalies and patterns.

Hikaru Nakamura, a chess grandmaster, former world number two and popular chess YouTuber, replayed the game between Carlsen and Niemann to look for moves that didn’t make sense. In other words, he looked for moves that could only have been prompted by artificial intelligence. “I’m really suss actually,” he said.

Greg Keener, a FIDE arbiter and assistant manager at The Marshall Chess Club, wrote in an analysis for the New York Times that Niemann’s Elo rating, which is based on a player’s playing record, rose more than 500 points since January 2021, describing it as “an increase so sharp many people don’t believe it is possible.”

In other words, Niemann’s meteoric rise was an underlying reason for many people’s suspicions.

The scandal only deepened when it emerged that Niemann, in an interview he gave to explain his game against Carlsen and defend himself against the accusations, admitted to cheating in online games when he was younger.

“I cheated on random games on Chess.com. I was confronted. I confessed. And this is the single biggest mistake of my life. And I am completely ashamed. I am telling the world because I don’t want misrepresentations and I don’t want rumours. I have never cheated in an over-the-board game. And other than when I was 12 years old I have never cheated in a tournament with prize money,” he said in an interview with the St Louis Chess Club.

“To give context, I was 16 years old and living alone in New York City at the heart of the pandemic and I was willing to do anything to grow my stream,” he added. “What I want people to know about this is that I am deeply, deeply sorry for my mistake. I know my actions have consequences and I suffered those consequences.”

Niemann went on to say that he would play naked to prove himself innocent against the accusations of him wearing devices on his body.

“If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it. I don’t care. Because I know…