American player Hans Niemann, accused of cheating by world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, said he was "not going to back down", after a report from the platform chess.com accused him of having " probably cheated more than 100 times" in online games.
“In total, we found that Hans (Niemann) probably cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several monetary prize events,” writes the world's leading online chess platform in this report. of 20 pages - plus 50 more annexes - published Tuesday evening.
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Asked at a press conference after winning the United States Chess Championship on Wednesday, Hans Nieman said the game he had just won "speaks for itself and showed the chess player that I am ".
"It also showed that I'm not going to back down and I'm going to play my best chess here no matter how much pressure I'm under," he added.
Chess.com banned the 19-year-old player on September 5, shortly after the first accusations were first made, but the platform is defending itself against any pressure from the Norwegian world champion, whose Play company it is in the process of buying. Magnus.
A spectacular progression
The famous platform says it is "extremely confident" in its means of detecting cheating, for which it reveals to use Grand Masters - the highest rank of chess players -, in addition to an analysis of moves made by tools automated.
The suspicions of the platform go beyond the framework of the internet: it also devotes part of the report to the spectacular progression on the chessboard of the 19-year-old American.
"While we have no doubt that Hans is a talented player, we find that his results are statistically extraordinary", with the fastest progression between the high level and the very high level of chess, the report states with great graphics.
His progress is the most spectacular among the young talents of the moment like the French Alireza Firouzja, also author of a breakthrough at the highest level, until reaching the 2nd world rank, in 2021.
“weird” behavior
However, “our statistical investigation revealed nothing particular concerning the parties or the progression” in the parties in front of a Hans Niemann chessboard, recognizes the platform.
This precision applies to the famous victory of the American against Magnus Carlsen at the beginning of September in Saint-Louis, although "the part", "the behavior" and "the explanations" of Niemann are "weird".
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced Thursday, September 29 the opening of an investigation into these accusations of cheating.
If he admitted to having cheated in the past on chess.com, when he was between 12 and 16 years old, Hans Niemann denies the most recent accusations, claiming to be “ready to play naked”, if necessary.
