Explained: The Biggest Cheating Scandal in Chess History
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00:00 On September 4th 2022, reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen sat down opposite
00:07 the 19 year old rising star Hans Nieman to play round 3 of the Sinkfield Cup, a prestigious
00:15 chess tournament held in St Louis, USA. What followed was one of the most shocking 24 hours
00:22 in chess history and with the chess world still reeling at the time of this recording,
00:28 people want to know, what really happened? But first, we need to understand the series
00:34 of events that led up to this game in order to properly examine the events that unfolded
00:39 in St Louis. Norwegian born Magnus Carlsen has been a dominant force in chess for well
00:45 over a decade now. World champion since 2013, he rarely loses a game of classical chess
00:53 and going into his game against Hans Nieman he was on a 53 game undefeated streak. Now
01:00 Hans Nieman on the other hand was yet to even establish himself in elite chess circles,
01:06 just a 19 year old kid from the US with a dream of becoming world chess champion. But
01:12 one thing Nieman does have on his side is a fervent hunger to dethrone Magnus and this
01:18 was on full display less than 3 weeks earlier when the teenager defeated Magnus Carlsen
01:24 in an online rapid play game and when asked to comment on his victory had only the following
01:31 peremptory response. Now Magnus went on to win that mini match, 3-1, but the tone was
01:38 set there and then, Hans was here and Hans meant business. But any time Magnus Carlsen
01:45 sits down at the board he means business too and he expects to win, especially when he's
01:51 playing an opponent almost 200 points lower rated than he is and he has the white pieces.
01:58 And that's where our story begins, because Hans didn't get the memo. After just 13
02:04 moves of their round 3 game in St Louis, the world champion was already squirming when
02:09 Hans hit him with a brilliant and unexpected bishop move. Magnus was already worse and
02:16 burning through his allotted time to play all his moves and that's a big factor in
02:21 a game of professional chess. By move 21 things were even worse, Carlsen was now down a pawn
02:28 and desperately seeking activity. But Hans wasn't giving an inch, he wasn't playing
02:33 like a 26-88, his official FIDE rating, no, he was grinding Carlsen down like he was a
02:41 28-88. He was doing to Carlsen what Carlsen had made a career on doing to others. Carlsen
02:48 tried every trick in the book, but Hans never let up. A positional masterpiece was rendered
02:54 on the board and Carlsen was left with no choice but to grimace, raise his eyebrows,
03:01 proffer his hand and thereby resign the game. So Hans had beaten Magnus, a triumph for the
03:07 young man and a moment to be celebrated. In the interview afterwards he discussed the
03:13 position, the various subtleties and he even talked about how he had the exact opening
03:18 variation on his computer analysis board that very morning. It was the next day that the
03:25 news hit. Magnus Carlsen stunned the chess world by withdrawing from the prestigious
03:32 Sinkfield Cup, a move unprecedented for him in his entire career. His reason? The following
03:39 tweet was all the chess world had to go on, coupled with this clip, recorded years earlier
03:46 by the famous football, or soccer, manager Jose Mourinho. The chess world was immediately
04:01 ablaze with rumour and speculation and it soon became apparent that at the heart of
04:06 Magnus' reason for withdrawing was a suspicion of foul play, aka cheating. How did this become
04:14 apparent? Well on the day of Magnus' withdrawal from the tournament, some peculiar things
04:19 started happening. The tournament organisers suddenly introduced additional security measures,
04:26 such as delaying their live broadcast by 15 minutes and then, even more curiously, when
04:32 the round 4 games were completed and then analysed by the two players who had just played
04:38 a game against each other, the computer analysis engine was turned off. But not for everyone,
04:45 only for Hans Niemann and his opponent that day, Alireza Firuzja. It was now clear to
04:51 everyone, Hans Niemann was on trial, but with lack of evidence, judge or jury, this was
04:57 the worst kind, trial by public opinion. The internet was awash with theories of what had
05:04 happened, each one steadily more unlikely than the next. From the leak of Magnus' preparation
05:10 to the use of anal beads, the latter so farcical that even major newspapers picked up the story
05:18 and ran with it. Elon Musk also got in on the action, with a series of amusing tweets.
05:25 Public opinion was against Hans, the world champion had withdrawn, famous chess streamers
05:30 like Hikaru Nakamura had picked up on the potentially suspicious aspects of the case
05:35 and, oh, by the way, Hans had cheated before. But then he must have cheated I hear you cry.
05:43 Well, where Hans had previously wanted the chess to speak for itself, on Wednesday 7th
05:49 of September, he spoke for himself. In a nearly 30 minute interview, which I've linked in
05:55 the description of this video in case you want to check it out after, Hans passionately
06:00 responded to his critics, and this is what he had to say;
06:04 "I have never cheated over the board. It's true that I have cheated twice in my life
06:10 at online chess, once when I was 12 years old and again when I was 16 and looking to
06:16 rapidly enhance my rating in order to play stronger players, but this was never for prize
06:22 money and remains the biggest regret of my chess career."
06:26 And finally he called on his critics to answer for their part in this attack. Those he named
06:32 were Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Danny Wrench, Chief Chess Officer at Chess.com,
06:40 the biggest chess website in the world. Because, by the way, Chess.com had banned Hans from
06:46 playing on their site in the wake of Carlsen's withdrawal, Hans stated "I am not going to
06:52 be scared, to be manipulated, to be conspired against, to try and ruin my chess career."
06:59 And like flicking on a light switch, where the mind of the mob was previously filled
07:03 with doubt and suspicion, the most probable truth was suddenly illuminated. Public opinion
07:10 switched. Where was the evidence of cheating? Had any chess computer been found on Hans'
07:16 person or someone he was communicating with? Was there any evidence in his play that he
07:21 was being assisted? Was there any evidence in his response to the accusations that he
07:26 was cheating? The answer to all plausible questions was a resounding no. And so to this
07:33 day, sure, Hans could have cheated, but to this day neither Magnus Carlsen or anyone
07:40 else has brought to light any concrete evidence that would suggest he has done so. So what
07:46 about Chess.com? What about Hikaru? What about Magnus? What did they have to say about all
07:51 of this now that Hans had hit back? Well here's what Chess.com had to say. Feel free to pause
07:58 the video and read into it what you will. As for Hikaru, he released two videos on his
08:04 YouTube channel in the following days, seeking to make it clear that he never directly accused
08:11 Hans. And as for Magnus, well no one knows what he has to say on this, because to this
08:17 day, at the time of recording, Magnus still hasn't broken his silence and so his initial
08:23 tweet is still all we have to go on. So, what's the verdict on all of this? Well for me, there's
08:30 little more to say, other than following an investigation by the tournament organisers,
08:35 this was the finding of the Chief Arbiter. The whole chess world now eagerly awaits comment
08:41 from Magnus Carlsen, but when will he break his silence? So do let me know your thoughts
08:47 in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you and by the way, starting this Sunday,
08:53 18th September, guess what? None other than Magnus Carlsen and Hans Nieman are playing
09:00 in the same tournament together. Pure drama to come, so do hit that subscribe button,
09:06 never miss one of my future recaps and I hope to see you again on a future video. Thanks
09:10 very much for watching and I'll see you soon.