Biggest 'CHEATING' SCANDAL In Chess History

0:00 Intro
0:30 Magnus/Hans Story
5:00 Game 1
5:55 Game 2
8:49 Game 3
16:25 Hans

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[GothamChess]

Hi! I'm Levy, welcome to the chess world. If you haven't played, you should - it's quite a fun game. Highly recommend my beginner videos :)
This video was recorded the first day the 'drama' happened, so it wasn't as detailed as I wanted.

[tdjjlly]

Fun fact. In a norwegian podcast Magnus talked about cheating (this was a few years ago, so not about this situation). He had a very good point. He said to cheat, you wouldn't even need to be told what move to play. Imagine you simply had a buzzer, e.g. in your shoe, that simply gave a vibration if there was a significant change in the computer evaluation after a move. This way you would immediately know that your opponent made a mistake, and that it would be worth spending time to look for it. It was implied that this very simple piece of information would be significant to turn one of his closest competitors into his superior, i.e. a 50-100 point jump.

[davidrobertson]

Here’s my take - I’m betting Magnus and his inner circle have had suspicions since the FTX Crypto Cup (possibly before), specifically his game against Hans. The cheating would’ve involved the leak of prep, not computer assistance, which would be nearly impossible to get away with. He decided to test this theory this time by preparing an obscure line he had never played before, and his suspicions were confirmed.

He subsequently withdrew from the tournament, not out of saltiness from losing to Hans, but because he now knew with near certainty that there was a leak within this camp (and who’s to say that the leaker hadn’t leaked to others as well?).

Everyone is focusing on Hans in all of this, but to me, the drastic reaction by Magnus is more indicative of an ongoing betrayal by someone he trusted rather than just being enraged at having been cheated by Hans. As others have pointed out, if Magnus suspected that Hans had computer assistance then there is no upside to withdrawing as he’d never be able to prove it. The only reason to do so is because he believes there is a continuing possibility of losing to others that have received his prep.

Then there is the issue of the post-game interviews. There are a lot of people that I think are dismissing them as having no evidentiary value, but I think there are just too many red flags (of course, none of them rising to the level of “proof”). The attention that has been given to him miscalculating lines when challenged by Alejandro Ramirez I think is misplaced - I think that is much more likely due to him being rattled by feeling the heat of suspicion rather than him being a ~2400 player playing at a 2800 level because of computer assistance.

Ironically, the scenario that I think is most likely is that Hans has actually made huge strides in his chess game lately, but was overcome by the temptation of the opportunity to look at Magnus’s prep. The truly damning thing that I think he said (again, not proof, but as close to a smoking gun as you’ll get) was his comment that “by some miracle” he had looked at that exact line before the game by chance. This is something you often see in guilty people - they know that they’re guilty, and because they know that, they think they need to address every possible avenue of questioning as soon as possible to establish their alibi/narrative, when in reality they never needed to even broach the topic as it only looks more suspicious.

All the other weird behaviors are probably due to him crumbling under the heat - the accent, the rambling, oversupplying information/providing unprompted justifications, miscalculating lines, etc.

But, I think the big takeaway is that from Magnus’s perspective this is not a Hans issue but an issue with his team. Only scenario that I think fits the facts. Hans’ nervous behavior, in combination with the actions that Magnus has taken certainly amounts to a preponderance of evidence for me. The idea that Magnus is just salty about losing to Hans doesn’t have any credibility with me, sure he has an ego, but it doesn’t fit the larger established pattern of his behavior.

[GukGukNinja]

Clearly the engine is inside the pieces, because chess speaks for itself.

[nobodynowhere]

Magnus is arguably one of if not the best chess player in history. Still he has lost many games. But he’s never made any accusations like this, even when he just got crushed or outplayed. This leads me to believe even if he is wrong he has very reasonable justification to act the way he is

[carlostrujillo]

"Beating someone once isn't revenge" has been there for a long time already, i know this coz i follow him

[Sinrix]

I bet someone cheated by stream sniping to see the other guy’s side of the board, truly a day that will live in infamy

[robbiebay]

I believe that Magnus' prep may have gotten leaked or somehow bugged. Magnus probably left because he could not completely trust the team.

[sahargenish]

Magnus lost before, yet he never made such a commotion. As the greatest chess player of all time, he can recognize patterns that no one else can see. Some of these patters might not add up

[howdyman]

This is insane. I cant believe I have the privilege to witness this juicy drama live. This is the exact type of content I needed. The chess world is fascinating

[simonplatt]

Props to Levi for calling José Mourinho a football manager

[hardikconilingus]

"Beating someone once isn't Revenge" has been his bio for last 2 years.

[Memphis_ritz]

He may have said this, but my take on this as a non chess player is that the scariest thing about this is the potential that he cheated and nobody knows how. If nobody knows how, how can they prevent it in the future?

[sid]

Magnus always had beating someone once isnt revenge in his bio

[abraham]

this is a good, levelheaded response from Levy. nearly every twitch streamer i saw today was crucifying Hans and dissecting every little thing he's ever done -- it's an unfortunate situation and it may very well turn out be true, but it's refreshing to see someone just give the facts of the matter and not jump to any attacks or further drama-baiting.

[froofycat]

Poker player here. We had the same with Mike Postle. In interviews he couldn't defend his choices. Just had feelings. Was unbeatable. Ultimately a HUGE scandal and a proven cheater. And say what you want about the Botez sisters but I wouldn't even know who Hikaru or Magnus were without them.

[xeno]

I think that Magnus may have withdrawn due to a prep leak. As said in the video, I don’t think that Magnus would simply withdraw because he lost the game. In the post game interview, Hans said, “I was so lucky to have prepped this line today.” Not saying this is definitive proof, just a theory.

[AlexDings]

Cheating by getting prep leaked seems much more plausible - and Magnus withdrawing would make more sense too. Because if there was someone in Magnus' team leaking prep, Magnus can't know the other players don't have that, too, so it makes sense not to play them for now. If he thinks Hans was cheating, why would he withdraw from the entire tournament?

[LordMayonnaise]

Levy, I have confirmed Hans was using a Bluetooth prostate massager to have moves relayed to him in Morse code. Please do not ask how I have done it, but just know I have now acquired the very device Hans was using. I can confirm it is very strong and after 1 hour of use, I am very tired myself. This fatigue might explain Hans’ inability to analyze the games in the post game interviews.

[porcu]

It's the biggest cheating scandal with absolutely no evidence of cheating lmao