The Biggest Scandal in Chess History: The Full Story

you might have never played a game of chess in your life but there's a chance that you've heard about Hans Neiman beads or the chess cheating scandal this is the craziest story that the chess world has ever seen and I'm about to tell you it from start to finish before we dive into the story of this crazy chess shooting Scandal I'm gonna start with the players who is Hans Neiman Hans Neiman is a 19 year old chess Grandmaster who had one of the quickest rides the top players in the world for somebody his age his opponent Magnus Carlson is the current world chess champion he's held a title for five years in a row and is considered one of the best chess players in history this is an interesting story about a boy who is utterly obsessed with chess he dedicates his life to the game and in a year and a half he goes from being Junior Champion to the top 50 players in the world he then plays a phenomenal game where he beats the world chess champion now the means by which Hans got this win is why the chess world is currently literally on fire if his opponent's allegations that he cheated are true this poses a huge threat to the integrity and security of competitive chess but it's not that simple cheating in a real life tournament is not only extremely difficult to do but also extremely difficult to prove to this day no one has gotten away with it at the top level so the narrative begins on a nice day in mid-august in Miami Hans and Magnus are playing a rapid online tournament that's in person Hans is pretty much playing a ton of super Grand Masters that are much higher rated than him and the first day they sweep the floor with him the second day no different except he gets one win versus Magnus Magnus does score and win the match 3-1 but Hans is still feeling pretty good after the game Hans gives us a very detailed explanation of how he won Hans yesterday was a terrible day for you and today you start out with a Masterpiece how would you summarize it trust speaks for itself is it something special doing this against magnusons to be fair what type of interviewer goes yeah you just had a day nice job you finally won something but anyways after Hans gets that one win versus Magnus the rest of the tournament doesn't go very well for him he literally loses all of the nine matches he gets destroyed by the super Grand Masters which honestly makes sense while I was doing my research I got a little bit sidetracked I'm just saying this has to be like the funniest and most random PR move I've ever seen I don't know why but they made Magnus and Hans play chess in the beach and the photographers thought it would look good if they're just crouched over playing in the sand with these random people building a sand castle in the back what's even better is this video keep in mind here Hans does not yet have a European accent there's like ah yes let's make chess players look cool what do they do they golf before the games this is actually how chess players warm up watch my opponent's ego crumble so two weeks later after this lovely little Miami moment is the sink field cup a very prestigious chest tournament where the top 10 chess players in the world compete originally Hans is not supposed to play in this tournament but a player dropped out last minute and Hans filled in we find out later that some of the players in this tournament were not comfortable with Hans playing including nepo who was the Challenger for the world chess champion last year apparently Magnus even asked for extra anti-cheating measures to be put in place but they didn't happen in the tournament until after he withdrew so here we are round three in the sinkfield cup Hans and Magnus are paired again Hans has a literally perfect game and he destroys Magnus with the black pieces even breaking magnus's streak of 53 undefeated games apparently this is also one of magnus's worst games in a long time he played only 43 engine moves which is low for the world chess champion I I'm sure there was some sort of psychological effect if he truly thought Hans was cheating because if you're playing someone who you think is using an engine and you're bound to play worse and get in your own head after hans's Masterpiece of a game we're blessed with another interview it's not bad news he just he played quite poorly so I didn't do anything special you just went well okay I think I played quite well but I was actually very fortunate that this opening came on the board and I looked at this today you guessed this opening today I don't guess it but but some miracle I had checked this today and it's like it's such such a ridiculous miracle that that I don't even remember why I checked it now I don't know if he's playing a character but Hans happened to just pick up a European accent over the last two weeks but what happens throughout the interviews and what caused a lot of Grandmasters suspicions is the way that Hans talks through his thoughts and calculations typically when a chess player is talking about a game that they just play they're talking about very specific lines Hans doesn't really go in depth as much as a top player at this level would and some of his calculations even seemed off I don't even need to show variations you just look at the position like okay let's say okay what reason Bishop G5 is it working immediately because maybe F6 works right F6 wait did he just literally say I don't need to show variation but just a form like like come on it has to be lost like I don't understand what Universe this is not completely lost does Queen C5 and Bishop T8 though Queen C5 and Bishop d8 okay so many moves it sounds like uh I think black's actually winning here by the way after rookie just to be clear I think black is winning here zero chance then the next day after the loss Magnus Carlson withdraws from the tournament he tweets that he loves the St Louis chess club hopes to be back and leaves this cryptic video I prefer really not to not to speak if I speak I am in in big trouble in big trouble and I don't want to be in big trouble spoiler he did and he was he was one of the most important and respected figures in chess so him withdrawing from a tournament like this with absolutely no explanation was seen as pretty irresponsible the internet of course began taking sides as we speak people are analyzing every single game that Hans has played in a real life tournament to try to see if he's ever used an engine but Hans also built quite the crowd of supporters the chess Community was just absolutely shocked literally Grand Masters were at a loss of words over the situation I I am I'm at a loss for I I'm at a loss for words too I mean I gotta leave it here I mean this got spicy really fast you guys Hikaru did not leave it there I will add one thing and this this is probably something I should not say but I will say this anyway which is there was a period of over six months where Hans did not play any prize money terms on chess.com that is the one thing that I'm going to say and that is the only thing that I'm gonna say on this topic um as of this moment that's the only thing that I'm gonna say that was not the only thing that ikaru said the next few days the tournament goes on without Magnus but Hans is under some serious fire about these cheating allegations even though Hikaru or Magnus don't explicitly say that they think he cheated it's pretty clear to the internet chess.com even privately bans Hans from a tournament so Hans uses his next interview as an opportunity to come out with a very Earnest and passionate apology where he comes out with his truth that apparently he has cheated before online not in person two times before in his life once when he was 12 and once when he was 16. but he makes it clear that he has never and did not cheat on the board I have never cheated in an over the board game other when I was 12 years old I have never ever ever and I would never do that that is the worst thing I could ever do cheat in a tournament with prize money now I made that mistake and this is something I thought something I was doing consistently never when I was streaming did actually never did I misrepresent my strength so I made this mistake I was confronted by trust.com now Hans is feeling pretty good and a lot of people take this interview at heart for the next 20 days though Magnus is absolutely silent so everyone starts coming up with their own theories they're thinking if Hans really did cheat how could he get away with it with Extreme anti-cheating Measures and metal detectors Grand Masters begin thinking of some very intellectual and creative ways that Hans could have managed to use an engine to cheat that's probably a good one right and it would be probably would beat the thing I I'm sure if the engine I it but probably I don't know I really don't know like think about it I don't know now you might just think I'm being a weirdo but no the beads Theory caught the attention of Elon Musk it broke National headlines and the beads theory was heavily investigated now after this dies down two weeks later Hans and Magnus meet again in another tournament this time they're playing in an online tournament hosted by chess 24. the internet is on the edge of their seat waiting for the stream match but Magnus did not care he takes their popcorn licks off all the butter chews it up and leaves nothing but hard kernels what no what happened Magnus Carlsen just designed now Magnus resigning was obviously a form of protest Magnus ends up winning this tournament and at the end of the tournament he finally puts out a statement Magnus puts out this tweet discussing the larger issue of cheating in chess and still standing his ground that he thinks Hans is cheating but still there's no evidence yet chess.com later backs up Magnus and finally backing up their decision to ban Hans they release a 72-page report that shows that Hans wasn't so honest in his interview where he came out about online cheating Hans didn't cheat twice but likely more than a hundred times online but still there is a very big line between getting away with cheating online and cheating in some of the highest security tournaments at the top level Hans continues to play tournaments under stricter and stricter anti-cheating devices he continues to play Above his left level performing pretty well at tournaments like the US Chess Championship and finally where the story ends for now after two weeks of Silence Hans announces his 100 million defamation if I said that right lawsuit against chess.com Magnus and Hikaru this lawsuit is more than the combined earnings of all the top 100 chess players in the world frankly this type of money just doesn't exist in chess which is why it's so crazy that it got to this point well if you've made it this far in the video I hope I've at least informed you or sparked your interest in the Hans Magnus Saga maybe you can make your own opinion if there is any and if this was your first introduction to the chess Community get off YouTube you damn drama frog and go play game of chess or something foreign

Channel: BotezLive

Views: 1,168,978

Keywords: alexandra botez, andrea botez, best game, twitch, highlights, hikaru, carlsen, best chess channel, chess tips, improve chess, botezlive, chess lesson, botez, botez sisters, chess, gmhikaru, hikaru nakamura, nakamura, magnus, gothamchess, eric rosen, agadmator, botez twins, attack, grandmaster, chess game, chess hustler, chess master, hans niemann cheating, hans niemann, hans niemann lawsuit, chess cheating, chess cheating scandal, chess cheating drama, magnus carlsen, niemann carlsen

Id: d_b-GXgg1AU

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022