[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

I have been getting back into chess, a lot.

I have also been following the kerfluffle with Magnus Carlsen and Hans Nieman.

At this year's Sinquefield Cup, held here in the St. Louis area, Carlsen got his ass beat by Hans Nieman..an erratic, 19-year old Grandmaster.

Clearly, Hans is an excellent player, or he wouldn't be in the tournament.

After a very careful review of the game in question, it appeared that Carlsen played poorly..well under his "rating."

The FIDE chess ratings are exceptionally sophisticated....and so are the latest chess "engines."

These engines (AI) are SO good, that they are used to train humans, but are also vulnerable to be exploited by humans to determine the best moves.

Each move is rated..and a perfect, always-make-the-perfect-move scores a 100.

Realistically, if a human scores above a ninety, he's a damned fine player.

Hans scored a 97, on this, and on a couple of other games. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Dunno.

Carlsen has accused Hans Nieman of cheating in their match. He has no proof, other than Hans played an excellent game.

Let's add to the drama...Hans has ADMITTED to cheating on at least two occasions..once as a 12-year old, and once as a 16-year old.

Chess.com has recently suspended Hans Nieman..with no specific reason given, other than to say Hans has not been upfront about his past. Reading between the knights, chess.com has likely statistical evidence - empirical - that indicates more of a pattern cheating than Hans has admitted to.

Either way, it's hella fun in the chess world now.

I played an enormous amount of chess back in the day..been playing, off and on, since the mid '60's. I held a rating for many years. My current rating is somewhere between "you suck" and "wood pusher"...but it is going up reasonably quickly, as I get my mojo back.

I'm on chess.com too. Can you tell me how someone can cheat in chess? Are they using a computer on the side and then making that move? How pathetic. Why would you do that? What good can come of that?

BTW, what's your ranking? I'm anywhere between 1100-1200 but I play a lot of buzzed chess. So I lose some games I probably shouldn't. So I'm probably a solid 1200.