World

Chess: How hard is it to cheat at a tournament?

The world’s top chess player has accused the teenager who beat him of cheating “more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted.”

The controversy stemmed from the September 4 game in St. fraud, which Niemann denied. When the two grandmasters faced off online again on September 20, Carlsen gave up after just one move.

Niemann is currently ranked 49th by the International Chess Federation while Carlsen has been the reigning world champion since 2013. There is no evidence that Niemann cheated in either match against Carlsen.

Vladimir Drkulec, president of the Canadian Chess Federation, told CTVNews.ca: “It is very difficult to cheat in overstretched matches and tournaments. “There [was] No obvious cheating in the game. Magnus just played badly; like, he played at my level equal to the number of fouls he made. “

Drkulec, a national pro, describes himself as a Canadian chess expert. He needs to be: the federation he leads is the governing body for the game in Canada.

“Usually, people get caught, so it doesn’t pay,” Drkulec said. “They will be banned from [the International Chess Federation] maybe for at least three years, but maybe for a lifetime. A top player wouldn’t do that, because if he did, he would lose his livelihood. “

Drkulec’s stance is supported by Kenneth Regan, a chess cheating expert and professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Buffalo. After a computer analysis of the original controversial match, as well as all of Niemann’s matches over the past two years, Regan found no reason to suspect the player was cheating on Carlsen.

“There is no concrete basis to judge his allegations,” Regan, who has advised the league in St.Louis, told CTVNews.ca. “Neither myself nor the tournament staff found any signs of cheating in that game or in any combination of Niemann’s other games at the tournament.”


‘There are a lot of cheaters around, but usually they’re online’

Cheating in online chess is simple – you just need to enter moves into the chess program on another device.

“Computers on phones have been king since at least 2010, and this is the main concern in tournaments,” said Regan. “Deep Blue in 1997 was a supercomputer, but you no longer need so much hardware.”

Deep Blue is the towering computer that beat Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

Niemann himself admitted to online fraud when he was 12 and 16 years old; an admission has contributed to recent ban from online platform Chess.com.

“I don’t want to compete with people who have cheated many times in the past, because I don’t know what they are capable of in the future,” Carlsen wrote in a statement dated September 26 about the scandal.

For his part, Niemann recently said, “I’ve never cheated in a game of extremes.”

Doing so wouldn’t be easy in a top-tier tournament where players are closely monitored and banned from keeping electronic devices like phones on them. Some tournaments even ignore spectators, search participants with hand-held metal detectors, or use broadcast delays of 15 to 30 minutes to ensure players do not receive outside help. .

Despite the protections, the chess world has been rocked by previous cheating controversies. Tactics include consulting with an associate or hiding the phone in the restroom; or receive instructions with the help of hidden cameras and headphones, through Morse code or by signal from accomplices in the crowd. A more bizarre theory suggests that Niemann may even have received messages via a vibrating sex toy that was remotely controlled by an accomplice using a device to figure out the best moves. .

However, cheating is still relatively common for over-board matches. Regan estimates the cheating rate to be one in 5,000 to one in 10,000 for International Chess Federation live tournaments, representing about 5 to 10 reliable cases per year. In contrast, he calculates the cheating rate in online games is significantly higher, at one to two percent.

“There are a lot of cheaters around,” Drkulec added. “But normally they’re online and the platforms are catching them. But they’re also catching some non-cheating people who have improved a lot quickly.”

Drkulec said he has seen several players allegedly cheat after making significant progress by practicing online during the COVID-19 pandemic, when live tournaments came to a halt. Only live games are included in the International Chess Federation rankings.

Drkulec explains: “A lot of the kids were really working hard during the pandemic, and now they’re bothering the more highly rated players. “Niemann is only 19 years old and he was invited to the tournament for a reason, because he has improved so quickly.”


With files from Reuters.

Source link

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button
Immediate Peak