“It is not some crazy grandpa talking” Kramnik on online cheating
Author: Maria Fragaki
The past year it seems like Hans Niemann and online cheating go together on chess articles’ titles. This time, another “chess drama” has arisen between the former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the 20-year-old American GM and streamer, with both sides being publicly talkative about the situation.
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If you haven’t heard about the cheating scandal which shook the chess world about a year ago, then you have might been living under a rock! It all started when Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup after losing to Hans Niemann in Round 3. Magnus has made clear allegations of Hans cheating, chess.com banned him from their gaming platform and published an extensive article on the Wall Street Journal about Hans’ online cheating, leading to a year-long legal dispute among them. A few weeks ago, all parties have reached to an agreement, Hans has been cleared of any wrongdoing, and his Chess.com account has been reinstated, marking a fresh chapter in his chess journey.
Until lately, when the former World Champion and among the best players of all time, GM Vladimir Kramnik, played a “fatal” online game with the American GM. Their second game was a short and ironic one, as Kramnik played 1...f6, followed by 2...g5 to get checkmated, but Niemann preferred to resign.
After that, Kramnik published a 45-minute analysis on their game, openly accusing Niemann on cheating. “During the game, there were few moments which made me kind of uncomfortable. In what sense, that it was so unusual, the way Hans was playing, in the sense of some moves. But especially, the time management.” Kramnik said.
“First of all, I want to say that I am a huge fan of your chess and I’ve been following your career and you’ve been someone that I’ve looked up to for a very long time. I saw your recent video, and I thought that perhaps a resolution to that would be to have an in-person training camp where you would be able to evaluate my chess on a deeper level.[...] I’d be happy to do whatever you like, play games, look at positions, and you could get a more nuanced understanding of my interesting style that you have talked about extensively. So, please let me know. Anytime I’m not playing a tournament, I could do it anytime, anywhere. Completely up to you, and of course, I can compensate for your time.” Niemann responded with a video on his Twitter account.
Yesterday, Kramnik’s interview at the C-Squared Podcast by Cristian Chirila & Fabiano Caruana came out, to bring a bit more light to the online cheating situation in general. “It is not some crazy grandpa talking. This is serious.” Kramnik highlighted.
Conclusions are yours to make!
