You Kramnik's fangirls really like to make baseless claims and accusations huh? Is making a rational and coherent argument your kryptonite? Because you didn't explain the reasons for what you said whatsoever but just threw those random accusations trying to dismiss his analysis without having to debate using your brain (if you have one).
@@lehatikhonovit’s not really true tho, magnus and naka are quite well matched online and hikki has beaten him many times OTB in speed chess as well. But on the balance magnus is better, which is expected
His argument is that Hikaru is stronger online than Magnus is over OTB. Basically, claiming that the gap between Hikaru and the 2nd best player is too much to be legit. The problem is when you're the best online player of all time you're going to have anomalies statlines
@@lehatikhonov I'm pretty sure even Hikaru admits he farms rating points.... he takes matches against players to maximize his rating potential and avoids bad matchups where he's likely to lose rating points.
Personally I see it like this. Kramnik was good once but became old and slow, but is still arrogant enough to believe he's better than everyone else. Except this doesn't line up with the results people get against him these days, and the only way to resolve the cognitive dissonance between those two conflicting "facts" is that everyone else must be cheating.
@itaintinnit i do like it because it adheres to the Occam's razor like you said, but also Hanlon's razor, my personal favorite rule of thumb. 'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.' Good thing to remember with conspiracies running wild. Cheers!
@@potatoonastick2239 Although I get the point of Hanlon's razor, and do agree with the sentiment of "people are generally not evil, just sometimes stupid," I don't feel it's quite adequate. Problem is, it only accounts for two reasons: evil, and ignorance. It doesn't account for the third reason: indifference. Now, you might argue indifference is the worst kind of evil, and I would tend to agree, but you would want to distinguish between the two. I guess you could bake it all into evil and name three categories of evil, from lesser to worse: evil by ignorance; evil by intent; evil by indifference. In Kramnik's case, I don't think he wanted to do Danya harm. He either was ignorant or indifferent, and my feeling is that he was a bit of both. Ignorant of the suffering he was causing, and indifferent to it/managed to rationalize it as okay. I think this viewpoint can be supported by the "debate" they had on the Levitov Chess channel.
it just comes down to kramnik not being able to click and drag with a mouse and instead clicking squares instead to move. he'd literally be +150 elo online of where he is if he could use a mouse correctly.
@@jacksarkisian playing dumb not understanding that he was kicking his chess pieces and correcting them during Nepos time. American like you just lying again. Already found the WMD in Iraq dear lying american?
younger generation is stronger, nnue solved chess positions for everyone quickly cheaply objectively. if play as fast as possible against at a world class player for 20 moves without giving opponent obvious targets, takes away ability for them to think on your time, even they can blunder horribly in time pressure, especially if they are slow with a mouse. have noticed that egoistic top chess players sometimes falter against such a strategy, make unforced errors, more so than players who are more collected, as someone who has played almost all the worlds elite, there are some players who definitely handle unexpected developments less well, although they are on another level the way they fight back from disadvantage situations and usually win anyway. there is a geopolitical element here as well with India ascendant and Russia on decline. could be a cultural paranoia. or a cry to stay relevant or for attention or a way of protecting ego, to absolve oneself of responsibility of embarrassing mistakes or results. somehow in chess, behavior is much worse after a loss because intense stress in time trouble situations and no outlet when the game is over and when taking shortcuts in one’s thinking mistakes that are unthinkable will sometimes occur. one oversight can ruin 50 good moves. in chess it is easy to gain an advantage somewhere on the board and if it is around the opponents king well, weaker players know their checkmates, upsets will sometimes happen. top level athletes often take losses hard, in chess it players constantly second guess things when they go wrong and players can be very emotionally invested after a tense game see their heart rates. there are players who are good at chess but lack worldly awareness or lack perception, or curiousity or tact in areas outside what benefits them, shocking as that may sound, but can find all sorts in chess as elsewhere. elite players some of them devote their life to the game, some more successfully than others
The funny thing is that Nepo openly admitted of using stockfish in a game against Hans online, that's what i call a proven cheater, not their baseless accusations.
@@jacksarkisian It doesn't let me paste links so I'll just put the name of the video: "Шахматы, скандалы, книги и Магнус Карлсен. Ян Непомнящий. Книжный чел #91". The part I was talking about is at around 49:00 and you can even turn on english subtitles.
i think an important piece of context missing from this video is that FIDE banned Russia in 2022 which could possibly put everything that has happened since then into perspective
i really just didn't want to get political with this video. mentioning the war or anything to do with it just leaves a sour taste even though it might be relevant. at the end of the day i don't think it would be the most compelling information from what we have anyway - the only real sanction is that they can't bear their own flags or speak on the war.
@@jacksarkisian nah, threy also get less invites to the tournaments. Like Fedoseev, Sarana, and Vitugov all changed because of that. Also Karjakin was banned (at least top 20 player).
I appreciate the research that went into this video - I had never heard of Nepo's incident with Harikrishna until now. That said, I think the inclusion of Dubov in particular, and to a lesser extent Grischuk, in the narrative is forced. Dubov's comments in question, while unflattering, are not accusations of cheating. It is also unlikely that he would speak on behalf of the Russian chess federation, given his history of notably non-nationalistic behavior: he famously helped Carlsen prepare for his world championship match against Nepo, and spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine when it began (as did Grischuk, and in a way Nepo). I think the whole fiasco is frankly more of a Kramnik and Nepo thing than a Russian thing.
16:45* correction, not the indian team. Those phones had nothing to do with the indian team, they were owned and placed by ChessBaseIndia with the permission of FIDE.
While I liked the hypothesis, it is of course speculative. Vlad's "boomer clicking" is still the problem to me. The guy can't move his pieces in time scramble, and is extremely frustrated by it.
I sympathise - I'm considerably older than Kramnik (who is not a Boomer) and refuse to play bullet because I'm just not fast enough with a mouse (although I do use the right method, I am just too nervous about making a mouse slip).
Exactly, which is why I disliked the video since its very one-sided with an obvious narrative in mind. I thought grischuk tried his best not to come across as somebody who accuses others of cheating, yet he still made it into the video
Interesting theory. Very unlikely to be true though in my opinion. Btw Kramnik did accuse a Russian IM, Matvey Galchenko as well. Kramnik's views do get spread in Russian speaking audiences much wider. But I don't think it's for the reason of being embarrassed for the country, though it might play some small part in it. Main reasons I'd say are 1) Kramnik is much better known and just has inherently more credibility in Russian speaking audiences being one of the great Russian champions. 2) Russians it feels (being Russian I can't speak for other Russian speaking nations) are just prone to conspiracies currently due to the political situation. Because of catastrophic economic situation in 90-s, and then the autocracy and dictatorship of 2000-current. The "there is no objective truth" myth, the "people can't act without a hidden agenda" myth and even more generally not trusting anyone are cultivated by the state propaganda for 25 years now. It leaves a mark. I’m not saying that’s what’s driving Kramnik, what drives him is a mystery to me by now. It honestly looks like he’s not 100% mentally stable by this point. But I think those may be the main factors driving so many people to believe him.
You damn right you can speak for all russians, wtf is this whole tangent about conspiracies? Не нужно никакой конспирологии, чтобы видеть куда катятся шахматы. Политика, деньги, эго некоторых игроков, которые думают, что им всё дозволено (один только Накамура чего стоит), читерство. Если бы не такие люди как Леви Розман, весь этот розовый мирок уже давно бы развалился.
Fully agree. To the "typical (post-)Soviet conspiracy" I would add that Kramnik's mouse skills seem surprisingly bad for his OTB rating, and as the world is moving into online chess, he gets destroyed more and more by much weaker opponents - it fuels his anger to the point of no return.
I was so upset to hear Danya was being harassed. He is such a sweet and kind teacher. I can't imagine people believing the accusations against Danya based on such worthless evidence. Great video.
" I can't imagine people believing the accusations against Danya based on such worthless evidence.": There was no evidence. Actually, 'worhtless evidence' is somewhat a contradiction. Anyway... you don't need evidence whatsover to believe something. That's why there are flat earthers, people who don't believe we landed on the moon, Trump voters, and religion.
i love danya content but he came out as a compulsive liar so much lmao then proceeded to flame kramnik pipi in your pampers style, weird gimmicks with monitors etc. zero chance he hasnt cheated in the past online in some (probably minor) form.
@@LukasSkys”He came out as a compulsive liar” ? Bullshit! From everything I know and have observed about Danya, I can only conclude that he’s a really good and decent human being. I’d like to be able to say that about Kramnik. Unfortunately I can’t, cause Vlad the impaler is a worthless piece of garbage - kinda like the leader of his country and those who follow him.
The problem arises because they believe the ability to play a board game somehow makes them special. It really doesn't. It's just another talent. like balancing plates on a stick, or riding a unicycle. The real world really doesn't give a toss about chess, or chess players.
i 100% agree with this take. its crazy that we as a society place so much intellectual stakehold on a bunch of guys playing a boardgame. they have insane egos. and thus having access to "secret knowledge", such as a cheating conspiracy will help soothe the ego. maybe it once was that performance in chess was linked to intellect, but nowadays gms are skilled at chess and nothing else, they are only normal people who have one very particular well-honed skill. hence the rise of an innumerable amount of child prodigies and the like. imagine if we put the same stock into esports or card games players intellect.
I'll agree kramnik is jealous and crazy but to make this intire video into 2000s movies of russia bad, usa good is quite hilarious.Also i think some russian kid won the blitz championship and ian came 3rd.
Very insightful! I wasn’t aware of a lot of events you covered Honestly I’m tired of Kramnik and Nepo’s antics, and I’m finding it harder and harder to take anything they say seriously nowadays
i was always super weary of Nepo, heard lots of things about him spanning back to 6ish years ago where it just seemed like he wasn't a great guy. this puts the nail in the coffin for me, especially the snidey digs at Wei Yi - he would never do that in an English interview.
Strongly agree here! It’s sad to see some of the best players in the world/history behave like this I only started chess about a year ago so I’m not attached to them in any but it’s still a shame
I have to say, this was a very weird video and I'm not sure if it's some sort of exercise in ironic meta-commentary about creating narratives. The main criticism people have about Kramnik's crusades is that he's cherry picking data that fits a narrative, and some of these examples just really seem like you're doing the same. For example, the Nepo-Harikrishna thing: you show Nepo being pissed off but you don't show why. In the heat of the battle, Hari had actually knocked over pieces and adjusted on Nepo's time, and after missing out on a win in a World Championship he was pissed off immediately after the game. So what? Something similar happened between Nepo and Wesley recently, and again Nepo was salty afterwards, but that doesn't fit here because Wesley isn't Indian. In the recent team tournament in London where they had a no-increment time control there were lots of these crazy time scrambles, pieces flying, and decisions made on win/loss/draws, and people on every side were salty and grumbling, but so what? They were a bunch of players from various countries so no narrative there. You've found an example of this normal thing that sometimes people are salty after a bad result and infractions during play, but hey this one is a Russian being annoyed at an Indian (who actually did commit an infraction during the game), so that fits the narrative! The thing with the online Olympiad is another one: it's hilarious for an experienced chess player to look at the Divya game which is a crazy position with *literally every piece* still on the board and then declare that it would have been...ahem... "almost certain" that India would have tied for first place as the game was in the bag. _Anything_ could have happened in that game. It's an unfortunate situation to have arisen by chance, and a difficult decision for how to handle it in making a ruling after the fact to just decide who to give the title to, with no decision that could be made which would not end with some people being angry. It's a perfectly fair position to be annoyed that they arbitrarily decided to grant a win to a +3 eval in a game in which clearly anything could have happened, especially as disconnections have happened many times and are normally not retroactively decided in favour of someone by reviewing the eval. As much as Kramnik talks nonsense about stats, he actually had a fair criticism about the use of phones as cameras during the recent Olympiad. While it's understood that there should be press access to record games and therefore to allow cameras to be set up by the boards, it's reasonable to ask why rather than just use a simple camera, it should be allowed to use a camera combined with a powerful computer with built in telecommunications tech, a large display, and operating system designed specifically to allow the installation and running of any app (aka a smartphone). Really, if anti-cheating security is so important, why not just say only simple cameras (eg a go-pro etc) are allowed rather than smartphones which are built for flexibly running apps, can easily be hacked/rooted to allow basically any capability, and are made for communicating? Kramnik can be criticised for not bringing this up before facing the Indian team, but to be fair to him, it's probably only when facing the Indian team that the opponent's friends (Sagar/CBI) are setting up powerful computers (smartphones) right next to the boards of the players of their countrymen. (Just to be clear, I'm in no way saying Sagar/CBI did anything wrong, they are great, I'm just saying that to look at it objectively it's a pretty poor security standard and VK's concern was not unreasonable). The fact that FIDE "inspected the devices and gave them an approved security sticker" is laughable as they just put a sticker _on the phone case,_ not even on the device itself. With the case of Nepo criticising the lax standards for conferring GM titles, he made two specific suggestions in his tweet. Both of which sounded quite reasonable. What do you think? You just presented this tweet as though there was something wrong with it, without actually stating any criticism or rebuttal whatsoever. If there's a standard for having to have played against GMs to earn the title, does it make sense to still count them if they are sub-2500? I've written enough so I won't keep going on, but to get to your conclusion, as this is what literally made me laugh out loud and prompted me to write this comment. You then present your conclusion, but did it in perfect Kramnik-speak by repeatedly declaring _"It's very clear to me..."._ That's exactly what he says in his stats videos, he shows a bunch of out of context data and casually declares "it's very clear to me, it's obvious" and this is exactly what you've done, and why I'm not sure if this video is a deep joke. Yes, the chess scene is much more international today and relatively speaking the Russians are much less prominent, but framing a load of cherry-picked examples of a Russian complaining about something (often fairly) as a diagnosis of them all being just jealous is pretty weak. You use the timeliness of it as evidence, that Kramnik started spewing stats after Nepo failed to win the WC, but this is exactly the same period as the post Magnus-Hans debacle, which surely is the one massive event which was like an atomic bomb of normalising cheating accusations. Before that, it was taboo to make public accasations, but Magnus smashed that into a million pieces. Talking about that case was the biggest thing in the chess world for a year. You mention this case at the beginning of the video. How do you manage to set this up as a precedent for what came after, while at the same time saying that Kramnik's crusades which started just after it are actually because of the damage to the Russian psyche of Nepo merely being an almost WC rather than a WC? There's just so much sloppy, motivated reasoning in this video, it's embarrassing. But nice narrative bro. (Note I'm not Russian or Indian and have no connection or allegiance whatsoever to either of these countries.)
I agree with first 2 of your points (2nd and 3rd paragraphs), but the second 2 don't convinse me (4nd and 5rd paragraphs), seems like the points made in the video regarding phones in the Olympiad and titles actually make sence. Overall the conclusion of the video seems like rather crazy, but sort of justified conspiracy, and it's kinda weird that the author says it's obvious. Although it seems to me Nepo and Cramnik might indeed be jealous of other countries' success and therefore salty, I don't think other Russian players are, because examples about Dubov and Grischuk look like cherry picking.
Yes, I just saw your comment after posting mine. The creator of this video seems to have forgotten to check for evidence that contradicts his idea. It's totally fine, and actually the normal scientific process, to start with an idea, and then go and check for evidence that supports said idea. But, crucially, you must check for evidence that contradicts your idea. The creator of this video seems to have failed to do that. I made a point about how he shouldn't have included Dubov, but thanks for your other points, even though it was messy to read. Cheers.
My maaan if you Think only problem with Kramnin is Data you might need some social skills to work on and some friends to make Man is a egotistical weirdo anyone thinking Kramnik is sane and Honest person watch Danya kramnik debate on Levitov
I think you have a point, but you're going to far. In any situation you have to select information to try and discern people's intentions. I think the only really accurate point you have it the first one, Nepo has his salty moments. It's still disrespectful but understable. But I will also add that in my opinion, there has been a systematic atempt to downplay the indian young GMs of this generation by Nepo and while I wouldn't say this proves anything, I think it's a dot, and many dots make a line. It's also fair to assume that he choses his words quite careful, since according to Hikaru(and others) Nepo has consistently been someone who often accuses people of cheating behind closed doors. If the smartphones are properly checked, I don't see how you can claim that this is a problem, it's only a problem if you're purpusefully trying to instil doubt in people's minds. If kramnik had an issue with it, he should have talked to the organizers, not make a public statement.It's the same reason why magnus acted very wrongly in the HN situation. Finally, I feel like the last paragraph was a bit of a way to downplay the credebility of the video, which was what prompted me to write a reply,I don't think you need to attack the credebility of a video or of a youtuber to dismantle it's facts.
Surprised you didnt bring up how Ian accused Ding of foul play at the WCC. After he lost, he started complaining about how his sleeping pills "went missing"
Honestly I believe Kramnik is accusing everyone because of his pride and being a former world champion. He doesn’t want to admit he’s not one of the best anymore and is paranoid with the rise of ai in chess. There is some people cheating in chess I will give him the benefit of the doubt but it feels more like a witch hunt rather than trying to improve the chess community, more like destruction of it more
Although it seems to me Nepo and Cramnik might indeed be jealous of other countries' success and therefore salty, I don't think other Russian players are, because examples about Dubov and Grischuk look like cherry picking. Overall the conclusion of the video seems like rather crazy, but sort of justified conspiracy, and it's definitely not clear if this is the case.
i think the Dubov & Grischuk clips look cherry picked, but in reality its just because there's very few instances of them talking about the subject online. i've heard a lot of instances of Grischuk in Russian interviews making snidey remarks at several Grandmasters and calling it "Russian humour", but as far as Dubov goes he might have completely differing opinions as the rest of them. i agree that its not clear, but with the situation as grey as it is you either come to some sort of conclusion with the information you have or you just pretend it doesn't exist - and when the consequences of the situation is having peoples careers ruined over false accusations i'd rather come to some kind of conclusion.
Dubov is super salty. Imagine calling Fabi talentless then pretending it was a compliment. I can't imagine how naive/ weird one have to be to go along with that. And I don't know what's Grischuk's problem is. Some of the things he says these days are completely unwarranted.
@superneenjaa718, that’s just your speculation. I got an impression he was genuine. Either way this example is just cherry picking. Overall the conclusion of the video states that Russian players have this agenda against Americans and Indians because they’re jealous. If you’ve seen certain Dubov podcasts you know that he’s most likely not the type of person to support this type of stuff in any way.
@@superneenjaa718 Yep, Dubov is a kind of person who = give a fuck {not like Nakamura pretending, but literally} and he most of the time does not live in Russia on a daily basis. Dubov had - overall - cheating suspicions before it was fashionable, which he presented in one of the podcasts, and this was a time when Dubov was still somewhat associated with the "Magnus circle", so I suppose these were the suspicions of that circle. Grischuk has recently "crushed" in Blitz most top Indian GM's winning tournament and he is 2 time Blitz Champ, so his suspicions are valid. I also didn't notice that Grischuk has anything against the Indian chess scene since he plays there regularly. In addition, Grischuk lived in the US playing poker, has liberal views and has never shown any anti-American beliefs. In addition, he has good contacts with ChessBrah for example.
Okay just skipped to the summary part and this sounds like crazy talk. Going to listen to the whole thing. Edit: Honestly this felt as painful to watch as Levitov moderating the Kramnik/Naroditsky discussion. If the idea was to create an equally toxic counterpart to that I guess it succeeded (?) What is the point of the of including Grischuk and Dubov lmao. Feels like they had to be in to make it a Russia topic. Obv. Kramnik and Nepo talk a lot with each other and share these view publicly. There are so many arguments someone could come up with if it should be a neutral view. If one would really put some thoughts into it you could argue that Nepo is more used to anti cheating measurements failing since I think he is/was sort of into online gaming and Valve using bad AC basically pushes people into a 3rd party matchmaking. So feeling the need that some 3rd party has to step up if current platforms fail to do so feels reasonable (think chess is just a lost cause online since parties have 0 power of chess if it's not played locally). Also such huge disrespect towards Nepo - in a Magnus era of chess that guy did great. Video feels super weird with excluding the existing problem of cheating (even if it was discussed on the channel before).
Wow, accusing everyone of cheating is not disrespectful. 👏 Lashing out on others GMs is not disrespectful either. This video accounting those incidents, on the other hand, is a huge disrespect. Lol.
@@NoOne-ky1er What are you even talking about? Read the comment again and/or watch the video once more. The disrespect was regarding the fact that the video is shitting on the achievements of Nepo as a player. Has 0 to do with cheating/the accusations of it.
@@NoOne-ky1er What are you even talking about? Read the comment again and/or watch the video once more. The disrespect was regarding the fact that the video is shitting on the achievements of Nepo as a player. Has 0 to do with cheating/the accusations of it.
As a Russian speaker, I find this a clearly cherry-picked way to connect the dots. Firstly, the top Russian chess scene is far from patriotic. Players like Nepo, Grischuk, and Dubov don’t seem to care much about the state of Russian chess. Sure, they occasionally lament how Russian chess has declined, but they’re not deeply involved or particularly patriotic about it. On the other hand, you have someone like Karjakin, who is obviously extremely patriotic, yet he doesn’t say anything about cheating. Interestingly, other top Russian players don’t even mention him in interviews. It also seems much more about human connections-they’re contemporaries and naturally close to each other. At the same time, they maintain good relationships with players like Fabi, MVL, and many other top players. If there’s any low-key conspiracy, it’s more likely about older groups of close-knit players versus the new generation. The newer players, who’ve grown up in a digitalized era and studied chess extensively with computers, play in a way that’s often hard for the older generation to fully grasp from a human perspective. Also they obviously take everyhting Kramnik says seriously because his figure has a very big authority in russian-speaking world, and obviously his opiniong is very important for russian-speaking chess-players, so if they believe in what he says, they support him officially like Nepo or quietly like many other players. Additionally, there are obvious cultural differences that you don’t seem to take seriously. In the Russian-speaking world, using sarcastic or even slightly offensive language is much more normal than in English-speaking contexts. This difference in communication styles can lead to misinterpretations if not properly understood.
Cherry picking, confirmation bias and, of course, the Dunning-Kruger at its finest. Kramnik was pissed that they took his electronic cigarette, that’s why he demanded that all phones should be out, because rules are rules. All other arguments are also ridiculous, there are a number of young Russian GMs who are being of accused of cheating and Kramnik and Nepo accuse different players. Nepo didn’t accuse Hikaru publicly, that Dina Belenkaya heard something from Nepo’s team is ridiculous.
He didn't accuse him publicly? Strongly suggesting that someone might be cheating is the same thing as accusing, they're just phrasing it like that to protect themselves from legal consequences, but everyone with a brain can see what their true intent is.
Honestly I think that Kramnik is accusing everyone of cheating because he can't perform good with a PC mouse... And that's the entire story... Kramnik has no idea about how fast people can play online chess. Also Kramnik has NEVER played an online bullet game either... So when he gets to time trouble, he loses to lower rated players, thus he then accuses them for cheating...
honestly im excited for the chance of kramnik posting about this on twitter knowing he's reposted one of your videos before jack and that you follow him (:
playing dirty at a high level isn't a thing. if your opponent knocks over pieces and fixes it on your clock you stop the clock and call the arbiter. the arbiter will then warn the player and add time to Nepo's clock. if you don't do that, which Nepo didn't, its completely your fault.
@ ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Even though these are the rules, every player knows that, in time pressure, the best strategy is to play dirty, break the rules and provoke the call to the arbiter. The extra time that Nepo would have doesn’t make any difference for him, but for pentala it is the main factor for drawing, not losing. YOU KNOW THAT. The rules are not perfect and fair play goes beyond what is literally written in the rules. Every top player knows that this is playing dirty.
In defence of the russian players, they have been banned from events because of the war and the doping scandal from the Olympics. Neither were anything to do with chess, which was also very unfair.
Your theory is entertaining, but it also resorts to a significant amount of specualtion. Theres a couple of remarks that could make this more "interesting" I guess: 1. Kasparov has been saying lately that we should stop talking about the upcoming match as a "world championship". To some conspiracy theorists this may be evidence that Kasparov, like many other Russians, also thinks there's something shady going on there and it must be cheating. His comments about Carlsen not playing anymore are just a cover for he really means. 2) Nakamura has also accused quite a few other players of cheating, including Erigaisi himself. You seem to have overlooked that or you didn't want to bring it up. Maybe it doesn't fit your theory. Who knows.
i didn't know that about Kasparov, very strange but its most likely in reference to the fact that the best player ITW isn't competing for the title due to the time format. as for Naka, i think he has a bad history for falsely accusing people as well - however i don't think there's anything more to it than he just a bad loser sometimes.
Kasparov would be the most anti russia of russians , considered his past endeavors in politics that got him locked in prison . You could argue that since Kramnik was his student that his comment was implicitly defending Kramnik . However i don't think it is the case , it is just hothead Garry being himself lol .
Great background coverage. I think you are being too conspiratorial, though, with your conclusion. I think it is very unlikely that anything organised is going on. More likely, hurt egos have no better explanation than cheating on behalf of their opponents since alternative explanations would require admitting to not being as good (anymore). All these players are extremely competitive and without some strong beliefs in one's abilities, one does crack the top of the league table. That strong self belief gets in the way of unbiased judgements.
appreciate it bro, i don't think its organised at all either if that's how it comes across - but i certainly think Russian players know exactly what they're doing when they make these kinds of insinuations.
I think the conclusion you came to is very believable. I know that Kramnik has often omitted some facts while accusing someone of cheating. You can have a 30-game-win-streak if 25 out of these games were played against a weaker opponent back-to-back, but if you leave out that it was always the same opponent you come across as desperate or misleading. Over all very good video. Maybe the Russian players are unaware that they are sore losers and echo-chambered themselves into a delusion, but that's difficult to determine from the outside...
What I know is that politics has not interfered with sports, and this is what all sports organizations say, but the truth is that after the Russian-Ukrainian war, it was proven once again that war has interfered with politics, and this was not only in chess, as the Russians were banned from using their country's flag and Sergey Karyakin was punished following his statements. In football, Russia was punished, and even in the Paris Olympics, Russia did not participate because of the war. I do not mind that your opinion may have some truth, but the Russians are being persecuted because of the war, while there are other countries that are waging wars and crushing others without mentioning names because you know for sure, and they are not punished, which means that there is solidarity against the Russians. This is a fact. I am not Russian, but I stand with the truth. Again, your point of view may have some truth.
i don't think stopping players from bearing Russian flags in Chess makes a difference, its just a PR move from FIDE that i don't think Russian players care too much about. i also believe that Karjakin's ban was just, was an extremely insensitive thing to say when you actively compete with players on the other side of the war. at the end of the day i don't actually think the war has too much of an effect on Russian Chess. the biggest effect is self-induced and is the fact its much harder for Russian's to travel to play, especially their junior players.
people don't seem to analyze that chess skill is largely reflected by the prosperity of the country. During the 10th century some of the most developed and progressive enclaves was in the middle east. The greatest chess player of that time was Al-Suli, an Arabian. 16th century, spanish empire. The strongest chess player was Lucena. A spaniard. Italian renaissance period. Strongest chess player was Gioachino Greco. An Italian. During Napoleon's reign. The srongest chess player was Philidor. A frenchman. 1902. Cuba gains independance from Spain, but Cuba stays under the influence of US (before Castro). Cuba financially develops immensely. Jose Casablanca, a Cuban, becomes the world chess champion. Now when was the period of the Soviet Unions world dominance and reign? sometime during the 60's - 70's. You know how many world champions they had during this period? All of them. Except for Fischer. You could say these are coincidences, but chess development seems to be tied with prosperity. History has shown that to be true to me. There's no surprise to me that China, a country that has been progressively most economically developed 20 years ago and currently stands to rival the US, or India, a country that is yearly developing economically at a faster rate than other countries, is also incidently producing the strongest chess players. The fact that Russians are so weak and have completely lost their dominance, and are now resulting to ridiculous cheating accusations to save face from their unfortunate fate, is cathartic to me. it seems to beautifully reflect the behavior of their goverment over the 21st century.
Collective guilt is an extreme tool only used in the most extreme cases. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is very different that "other wars". It is an explicit attempt to completely erase a country from the face of the world. The only recent precedent is the Nazi conquest and genocide. Collective guilt was applied to Germans. Rightfully so. They reformed their culture, they learned where their borders are, and 80 years later they still feel shame. It was an extreme case, and collective guilt was SUCCESSFUL in dealing with it. Russians are also collectively guilty for developing their country in this direction. Putin has higher popular support than Hitler ever had. Diplomacy and military will eventually resolve the conflict, but they will not fix the problem. The problem can only be fixed by shaming Russians into fixing the problem with their culture. Excluding Russia from international organizations in entertainment and sport is correct. The current level of exclusion is actually utterly insufficient to project collective guilt as strongly as it must be.
@@flashpeter625 Germans shouldn't have been punished that harshly, Russia unfortunately will not be punished at all because there's no one to do the punishing
I don't know of any other wars of this magnitude being waged today.. are we talking about Israel? If so then yes, maybe Israeli players should get banned from using their flags too but that's it. What are other countries waging wars of aggression nowadays? I think none.
The only reason i have started to believe Kramnik over Danya is because of that one clip where Danya was doing a speedrun or something and he was playing someone that's rated 1100, and explicitly said during the game that "im looking in the engine right now and......." he goes on to explain something, but the point is that he himself said that he was using the engine during the match against the amateur player. But i did not follow up on what's the response from Danya was.
I can’t believe this is the smoking gun people are going with. Danya was up like 10 points of material and his opponent was stalling and wouldn’t play a move, so Danya got impatient and started analyzing the opening (which had nothing to do with the current position) in chessbase so that he could prep for the post game analysis while he waited on his opponent. Yeah, it’s technically against the terms of service, but I would hardly call it cheating.
@@muzzamilsalman4117 If anything, the fact that he casually admitted to looking at opening lines in chess base on stream is proof to me that he’s legit. He openly admitted it because he didn’t feel like what he was doing was even wrong, which is understandable. Don’t you think if he always played with an engine running, that he wouldn’t openly admit it on stream?
I understand your position on hans, but c'mon tyhe guy literally cheated , he is a diferent case, i dont think people blindely follow magnus, i guess he did cheated.
Honestly I've always liked Nepo too and for much the same reasons! He doesn't come off as pretentious in interviews, he answers questions insightfully, and he has acted classy multiple times after games. (The time he apologized to the audience for playing a terrible game where he didn't think he even played like a GM at all let alone to his normal level, and when he empathized with Fabi after the candidates knowing that the former would be crushed knowing he had multiple chances to beat him and win the tournament but let them slip away with the game being drawn). It kills me to see his antics too, it's really disappointing.
@@Stefan-cx6gv not Danya's fault the rule exists, and he is not the only one taking advantage of it. He's not doing anything illegal here. He is a strong player, regardless.
@@Prometheus4096 He had no reason to cheat - the existence of cables in the walls of a building is not evidence of cheating. Admittedly FIDE have to take it more seriously - metal detector sweeps, Faraday cages, accompanied toilet breaks (or NONE) & sitting at the board for the entire duration of every game. No game at ANY level rated without ALL of these conditions enforced. Instead of IDIOTIC drug tests ... for which drug?
@@imankhandaker6103 If Kramnik had no reason to cheat, then no one ever has a reason to cheat. He was in the world up match and his only accomplishment in life is becoming world champ. You wouldn't even know who he was today without that.
@Prometheus4096 I knew who he was when he burst on the scene in the Olympiad & everybody knew who he was after he hammered Kasparov without losing a game, or even looking like he would lose a game. Winning or losing against Topalov could not add to that legend or diminish it.
I am looking again at this thumbnail and this is hilarious. Why are you covering his eyes? Are you afraid of copyright strike? Don't worry, he doesn't copyright strike other channels. Only Danya does that.
I disagree with the Fischer point made at the end of the video. Situations are completely different. Largely cause the Russians WERE intentionally drawing games, but Bobby was the only player in this "coalition". Whereas the Russian group today is large
i tried to convey this better, but i did say the legitimacy of the claims were completely different. Fischer's claims were just, but Kramnik's claims aren't - thats the main difference.
i think Magnus has the respect from most Chess players and is the benchmark of excellence. Carlsen has great relationships with Russians, most notably being on good terms with Nepo after some teams tournaments and also having had Dubov on his team in a WCC match to help with his preparation. generally speaking accusing Carlsen is just a losing battle for Kramnik, you can't accuse someone of cheating that has 2 more WC titles than you. i wouldn't be surprised if the cheating accusations on Gukesh completely go away after the WCC if he wins - its absolutely impossible to cheat in the WCC, security measures are too strict.
@@jacksarkisian Again with your nationalistic BS. No, Carlsen and Nepo doesn't have good relationship. They don't even respect each other too much. Have you heard when Magnus said that he would be so embarrassed to lose someone that's so out of his league as Nepo was (Lex Fridman interview - but you probably didn't watch it, since Lex is a Russian emigrant)
do u even know that grischuk threatened to leave russia if karajkin became the fide president, dubov supported magnus against nepo so i dont know how u joined all their statements to make this video.
Though I don't agree with everything in this video, I appreciate you taking time to analyze everything from the start including the online olympiad. We can have differing views and we all have a right to have our opinions. If we start to argue in chat information will pile up and end up in more confusion ... But honestly the only stance I can take of all this scandal is "Kramnik is not right about everything (ok this is what you want to hear) but in the same breath lets also admit that Neither are Chess com right about everything. They have a lot to hide" Also let us not forget all the times the great Naka cried fowl and accused players of cheating
For me it's Fisher 2.0... It's only going to get worse, he tics almost every item from the DSM 5 Paranoid Personality Disorder. Good luck to his close ones, it's not easy.
I think I get it. Somehow, some of these Russian GM's with their old school teaching, can't understand and accept how quickly chess bots changed the dynamics. Players are improving too fast when they have the bot
Summary: Russia is jealous no players aside from 1 are on the top players list, so theyre throwing out cheating accusations left and right. My analysis: Its much simpler - Krammnik is a former world champion with a huge ego that lives in a world that has access to online sources that produces younger and younger great players - and his game is deteriorating as he ages. Instead of coming to grasp with this, he thinks anyone that beats him/thinks of move that he didnt think of is automatically a cheater.
I think a lot of Kramnik's beef goes back to ToiletGate. But there's no excuse for slander. FIDE should sue players who baselessly accuse other FIDE players of cheating.
Love the methodical, and clear laying out of the evidence. Your skills will translate to bigger topics, and is needed in this day an age. Hope you never turn to the dark side.
Anyone picking on Danya is by his own actions, immediately discredited. Dude is too humble and intelligent both to risk his value system and immaculate social persona through cheating. Sometimes you need to take an objective look at the people involved. Who is above reproach, who is bitter... and apply the "duck principle". If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.... it's a duck.
Turning this into a russophobic argument it's just that, russophobic. I think Kramnik and Nepo are finding hard to watch their own decline, and are probably unitedstatianphobic.
i apologise if it seems Russophobic, i definitely didn't mean this. in no way am i suggesting every player in Russia is in on this, but its certainly clear to me there is an overarching feeling of jealousy to countries having more success than them currently. i've also seen people suggest this could be because of the United States involvement in the Ukraine war, but i'd prefer not to use that as proof because its just not a nice situation to bring up. i just feel like the top 5 players in Russia hold so much weight in their opinions. someone like Artemiev doesn't publicly support these claims, but because of how extreme the claims are the silence is also deafening. it will continue to put a bad stain on the RCF until one of the more respected Russian players speaks out against it. not saying they have to call Kramnik a lunatic, but just simply disagree publicly.
"Indian team has used mobile phones to stream their games but Kramnik only had a problem when his team was playing against them". Isn't it very logical and makes perfect sense? He may have not been aware of indians using mobile phones prior to his team playing, it also makes sense he defends his team. His behaviour was logical, his arguments sound (yes, you indeed can cheat with mobile phones without simcards) yet this episode was used to somehow make Kramnik look bad? Well if you are just listening to this video without thinking that could work
Well, Im assuming that (for obvious reasons) either wifi was turned off in the room, or none of the players were given the wifi password.So a sim card (which is the only way to access mobile data) is the only other way to access the internet to cheat. The only other way to cheat is to have the engine downloaded on your phone before coming in, which is something else I assume the arbiters can just screen for. With no internet to use to download stockfish with after the screening, there's no way (that I know of) to cheat
@@wallysullivan9315 players weren't allowed to touch the phones at all. The phones were used by the broadcasting company "chessbase India". Indian Olympiad team players or coaches weren't involved in this whatsoever.
That's the worst video I've seen in months. For the record, I am from Russia(so, I believe I know more context to players words) and I dont agree with Kramnik accusations. First of all, Ian wasn't accusing Wei Yi. I believe he was genuinely imspessed by Wei Yi strength. As I remember, he named Wei alongside strongest players around the moment of the interview. If he was accusing, he would name Pragg or someone else. Another thing is that you collected out of context statements from russian player to others, without providing viewers with context. Then you call nearly everything here an accusation, build a theory and do everything trying not to disprove it. Kramnik also accused russian players. Or, for example, Lazavik. Has he tried to undermine belorussian school of chess? Dubov and Nepo duscuss falling of russian chess school in every interview. It seems stupid to cover it with accusations only to then publicly speak about it again, isn't it? Okey, lets assume they are really trying to undermine new generation. Where is smth about Alireza or Nodirbek? Vidit? Pragg? Wesley(not a new generation, but american)? I can only see "accusations" towards Niemann and Gukesh. Okey, the history with Gukesh is weird, yet no one accused him publicly, they just need another strong tournament from him to be sure he is clear. Hans was also accused by Magnus. Was Magnus upset about downfall of Norwegian chess school? As for Dubov, a few months ago I've seen his interview, where he decided to spend more time traning in order to compete with new generation. He is impressed by thier hard work and said that he couldn't spend this much time even if he wished to. So, double standarts is just really about time player can spend to improve. I dont see a problem here. Kramnik is accusing everyone of cheating because he doesnt like cheating. That's all. Funny thing is, I clicked on your channel and on the main page I see "Proof Chesscom has a cheating problem". Is Kramnik this bad afterall? :) Theory based on opinion and facts with cherry-pick without doublecheck. Sounds like Kramnik, yet he is the enemy here, lol Or maybe it's all a joke, which I didnt get. Well, in that case, this is the best video I've seen in months
The only thing obvious to me is that many top level chess players are some of the most childish and egotistical people in the world. Which is hilarious to me. Its a freakin board game. 😂
So your conclusion at the end and the whole video is built on your opinion without dealing in any facts, strange when your previous video about cheating seemed full of research and facts.
I would not be surprised if Nepo Accuses Magnus of cheating 😂 , Nepo,s 1 st loses to a top player and then accuses him to satisfy his own ego it is not Hidden how much egoistic and jealous of a person nepo is and how he act childish when he loss he deserved to loss both world championship,s✨✨
Now after gukesh's win in world championship and russian federation's allegation of fixed match and ding losing deliberately this video makes even more sense
Kramnik liked your first video about cheating and mentioned you... so what is this? Not your place to talk about world champions, you should go back to your viewbotted twitch streams... Disliked, unsubscribed. Never liked rats.
There's actually a far simpler explanation than your thesis. Why did Kramnik accuse a lot of people of cheating? Your theory was that he needed some precedent. Nope. He just started playing online after retiring over-the-board, and once he started playing players he thought were cheating, then he accused them. He needed zero precedent.
The problem with the swapping in of all of these videos is you compare Hans Niemann to Daniel Naroditsky with all of these clips. You also don't know the context behind Magnus Carlsen accusing Hans Niemann of cheating. At the FTX Cup, Hans played a 100% accuracy game according to high depth Stockfish to beat Magnus, with very strange anti-human engine moves. Then he lost 3 in a row to Magnus, all without a fight, playing about 1,200 elo weaker according to computer analysis. This, along with Niemann's history of online cheating and whispers from other top players, strongly shaped Magnus's view of Hans Niemann. Painting it like Magnus is some irrational narcissist who can't handle losing is completely untrue. You seem like a new player to the scene though, so I don't think you'd know any of this.
I have mixed feelings about this. There is absolutely no doubt that cheating in chess is out of control, especially with online chess. It is ridiculous how out of control it is and Kramnik is trying to point this out and really, when you are at his level, there is a certain feeling you get when someone keeps playing consistent super accurate moves that surprise you as they don't make human sense until the move is played. Hard to explain this but even a 2500 ELO player can feel this. However, there is no doubt that chess engines and online chess tactical trainers, have made new generation human chess players dramatically better at spotting obscure engine tactics ... I think that is where Kramnik sometimes tends to claim cheating when it does not happen. I do think that Kramnik is more right about his accusations than wrong ... but certainly it is not 100% correct.
kramnik doesn't accuse everyone, but he does accuse a lot of people. I think the explanation is simple. I think he is actually acting in good faith, but isn't cognitively sharp enough to understand why his arguments aren't convincing, why the burden of proof is entirely on him and not the accused, and many other things. He's very good at chess but having listened to him speak for hours that's the clear impression I get...and I think it's the most elegant solution since it really does explain quite a lot. It even answers the question in the title. he doesn't understand that he has the burden of proof and that it is philosophically impossible to prove non existence, so in his mind he is approaching these accusations on neutral moral ground. he's just asking questions and if the accused person answers them to his satisfaction then no harm no foul, but by making public accusations with insufficient evidence, he is far from being morally neutral. of course in his mind he doesn't think he has insufficient evidence, he thinks it's compelling evidence, but once again that is explained by my initial explanation. why so many russian players are convinced by kramnik isn't something i fully understand, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss cultural reasons as being a factor. i have no idea so this is just guessing, but maybe loyalty and solidarity are more valued? I don't want to get too political but there are geopolitical and nationalistic reasons that I could see being a factor...but I really don't know, though I do find it a strange phenomenon.
The relentless completely unfounded bullying of Daniel is disgusting. To play devils advocate I think also its a little bit unfair to paint nepo in a bad light using a clip From heated blitz game. We can all get a bit hot under the collar in comeptitions and I think This just show that and nothing else. Attacking a 12 year old GM on twitter is more than enough to show nepos bad side.
Full disclosure, I'm Russian, just in case. Not a fan of Kramnik at all, but in my opinion your conclusions are near Kramnik's level of insanity. 1. You mention the Russian chess federation a lot. Do you seriously suggest that there's some sort of coordinated attack from the Russian chess federation? Like the guys in suits telling players what to say? This sounds like a crazy conspiracy to me. Also the "It only made sense for Russia to cast doubt on the legitimacy of everyone playing chess right now" part. I mean it may be true that they are sad about current russian chess youth, but I wouldn't go as far as to suggest any "plan to undermine chess" or whatever you are implicating. Also it might be interesting to check how many young russian chess players are playing for other chess federations because of the current Russia ban, but I'm too lazy for that. It might not be as bad for russian youth, but that's not my main argument here, just pointing this out. 2. During the first half you spoke about what has led to the current cheating accusations: Levy's situation, Hans Nieman's situation etc. And in the end you are just stating out of the blue that "accusations from Kramnik started JUST 9 months after Nepo lost his second championship match". What are you even implying here? If he's that salty then he would probably start right after the loss? This doesn't make any sense. 3. Grischuk didn't accuse anyone of cheating in the video you showed us. He's speaking about different performance levels during different tournaments, I don't see any hints that would imply cheating. As well as Dubov. He thinks of chess more like art and so he might rank talent over hard work, but nothing more. He doesn't imply cheating here. 4. The last sentence "if Nepo would've won then would any of this happen?" is just dirty. You are behaving like Kramnik who likes to "ask questions" and not accuse directly. This can't be an argument, because it didn't happen, using such questions is not the way to go. All in all I think you did a great job of compiling the storyline but your conclusions don't make any sense. You are trying really hard to build a "salty russians narrative", when in reality it's more like Kramnik went insane and Nepo also a little. Grischuk didn't even say anything and Dubov is just a chill guy who doesn't like super hard workers very much. Mixing them together with the overall results of Russia and making a conclusion about the Russian attack on chess simply doesn't make any sense at all.
Another cheatcom propaganda channel. This is sad to see.
fantastic argument brother
You Kramnik's fangirls really like to make baseless claims and accusations huh? Is making a rational and coherent argument your kryptonite? Because you didn't explain the reasons for what you said whatsoever but just threw those random accusations trying to dismiss his analysis without having to debate using your brain (if you have one).
Another Kramnik brainwashing victim. Sad.
@@lebannen6056 I can make the arguments, but this video is so hilarious I just cannot take it seriously.
wassup kramnik alt
I never understood his accusations with Hikaru. Bro draws arrows everywhere and tells everyone his plan and his time advantage is always massive
His argument is basically that Nakamura is stronger player than Magnus online and not so much OTB.
@@lehatikhonovit’s not really true tho, magnus and naka are quite well matched online and hikki has beaten him many times OTB in speed chess as well. But on the balance magnus is better, which is expected
His argument is that Hikaru is stronger online than Magnus is over OTB. Basically, claiming that the gap between Hikaru and the 2nd best player is too much to be legit. The problem is when you're the best online player of all time you're going to have anomalies statlines
@@lehatikhonov I'm pretty sure even Hikaru admits he farms rating points.... he takes matches against players to maximize his rating potential and avoids bad matchups where he's likely to lose rating points.
Doesn't mean he can't see the evaluation or stockfish
Personally I see it like this. Kramnik was good once but became old and slow, but is still arrogant enough to believe he's better than everyone else. Except this doesn't line up with the results people get against him these days, and the only way to resolve the cognitive dissonance between those two conflicting "facts" is that everyone else must be cheating.
Indeed, that is the simple explanation. As far as I can tell, it is also the best one. Cheers.
@itaintinnit i do like it because it adheres to the Occam's razor like you said, but also Hanlon's razor, my personal favorite rule of thumb. 'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.' Good thing to remember with conspiracies running wild. Cheers!
@@potatoonastick2239 Although I get the point of Hanlon's razor, and do agree with the sentiment of "people are generally not evil, just sometimes stupid," I don't feel it's quite adequate. Problem is, it only accounts for two reasons: evil, and ignorance. It doesn't account for the third reason: indifference. Now, you might argue indifference is the worst kind of evil, and I would tend to agree, but you would want to distinguish between the two. I guess you could bake it all into evil and name three categories of evil, from lesser to worse: evil by ignorance; evil by intent; evil by indifference.
In Kramnik's case, I don't think he wanted to do Danya harm. He either was ignorant or indifferent, and my feeling is that he was a bit of both. Ignorant of the suffering he was causing, and indifferent to it/managed to rationalize it as okay. I think this viewpoint can be supported by the "debate" they had on the Levitov Chess channel.
it just comes down to kramnik not being able to click and drag with a mouse and instead clicking squares instead to move. he'd literally be +150 elo online of where he is if he could use a mouse correctly.
Also he never matured from the mentality of a teenager
Nepo is working hard to be the least likeable top chess player
the clip of him & Harikrisha was just so weird, Pentala seems like such a nice guy too
@@jacksarkisian playing dumb not understanding that he was kicking his chess pieces and correcting them during Nepos time. American like you just lying again. Already found the WMD in Iraq dear lying american?
Fr nepo is a jerk to everybody I dont get it why he just rages and has a attitude like he's a world champion@@jacksarkisian
He's been on his villain arc since Ding
younger generation is stronger, nnue solved chess positions for everyone quickly cheaply objectively. if play as fast as possible against at a world class player for 20 moves without giving opponent obvious targets, takes away ability for them to think on your time, even they can blunder horribly in time pressure, especially if they are slow with a mouse. have noticed that egoistic top chess players sometimes falter against such a strategy, make unforced errors, more so than players who are more collected, as someone who has played almost all the worlds elite, there are some players who definitely handle unexpected developments less well, although they are on another level the way they fight back from disadvantage situations and usually win anyway. there is a geopolitical element here as well with India ascendant and Russia on decline. could be a cultural paranoia. or a cry to stay relevant or for attention or a way of protecting ego, to absolve oneself of responsibility of embarrassing mistakes or results. somehow in chess, behavior is much worse after a loss because intense stress in time trouble situations and no outlet when the game is over and when taking shortcuts in one’s thinking mistakes that are unthinkable will sometimes occur. one oversight can ruin 50 good moves. in chess it is easy to gain an advantage somewhere on the board and if it is around the opponents king well, weaker players know their checkmates, upsets will sometimes happen. top level athletes often take losses hard, in chess it players constantly second guess things when they go wrong and players can be very emotionally invested after a tense game see their heart rates. there are players who are good at chess but lack worldly awareness or lack perception, or curiousity or tact in areas outside what benefits them, shocking as that may sound, but can find all sorts in chess as elsewhere. elite players some of them devote their life to the game, some more successfully than others
I appreciate that a whole bunch of this video is just "Nepo is a jerk to everybody for no reason."
he genuinely had me feeling so bad for him after that final game in the WCC vs Ding, and now this...
Russians always making shit up. Boxing, chess, US elections
@@jacksarkisianThat loss changed him and turned him to the dark side...
Nepo is just ass lmao. Outside of the candidates his performance is like a 2500 💀💀
@@aadilharoon1807 nah go back and listen to other players walk about Nepo. He is just a jerk, full on dickhead :p
The funny thing is that Nepo openly admitted of using stockfish in a game against Hans online, that's what i call a proven cheater, not their baseless accusations.
i must have missed this in my research, do you have a link for this by chance?
@jacksarkisian It was in a Russian podcast, I'll try to find it
@@jacksarkisian It doesn't let me paste links so I'll just put the name of the video:
"Шахматы, скандалы, книги и Магнус Карлсен. Ян Непомнящий. Книжный чел #91".
The part I was talking about is at around 49:00 and you can even turn on english subtitles.
@@lebannen6056 Doesn't appear on the search. What channel was this video on?
@@FourOneNineOneFourOne The channel is "Книжный чел"
i think an important piece of context missing from this video is that FIDE banned Russia in 2022 which could possibly put everything that has happened since then into perspective
i really just didn't want to get political with this video. mentioning the war or anything to do with it just leaves a sour taste even though it might be relevant. at the end of the day i don't think it would be the most compelling information from what we have anyway - the only real sanction is that they can't bear their own flags or speak on the war.
damn, I didn't know you followed chess
@@jacksarkisian nah, threy also get less invites to the tournaments. Like Fedoseev, Sarana, and Vitugov all changed because of that. Also Karjakin was banned (at least top 20 player).
I appreciate the research that went into this video - I had never heard of Nepo's incident with Harikrishna until now. That said, I think the inclusion of Dubov in particular, and to a lesser extent Grischuk, in the narrative is forced. Dubov's comments in question, while unflattering, are not accusations of cheating. It is also unlikely that he would speak on behalf of the Russian chess federation, given his history of notably non-nationalistic behavior: he famously helped Carlsen prepare for his world championship match against Nepo, and spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine when it began (as did Grischuk, and in a way Nepo). I think the whole fiasco is frankly more of a Kramnik and Nepo thing than a Russian thing.
Hopefully Kramnik pins this on his twitter.
😭😭😭
16:45* correction, not the indian team. Those phones had nothing to do with the indian team, they were owned and placed by ChessBaseIndia with the permission of FIDE.
While I liked the hypothesis, it is of course speculative.
Vlad's "boomer clicking" is still the problem to me. The guy can't move his pieces in time scramble, and is extremely frustrated by it.
I sympathise - I'm considerably older than Kramnik (who is not a Boomer) and refuse to play bullet because I'm just not fast enough with a mouse (although I do use the right method, I am just too nervous about making a mouse slip).
I dont think Grishchuk was accusing Gukesh. Dubov didn't say anything bad either.
Exactly, which is why I disliked the video since its very one-sided with an obvious narrative in mind. I thought grischuk tried his best not to come across as somebody who accuses others of cheating, yet he still made it into the video
lol prag was studying and playing at the same time. Ultra focused family
Worst thing that can happen to a person is to b accused falsely.
The worst thing for him is to get caught...
Interesting theory. Very unlikely to be true though in my opinion. Btw Kramnik did accuse a Russian IM, Matvey Galchenko as well.
Kramnik's views do get spread in Russian speaking audiences much wider. But I don't think it's for the reason of being embarrassed for the country, though it might play some small part in it.
Main reasons I'd say are
1) Kramnik is much better known and just has inherently more credibility in Russian speaking audiences being one of the great Russian champions.
2) Russians it feels (being Russian I can't speak for other Russian speaking nations) are just prone to conspiracies currently due to the political situation. Because of catastrophic economic situation in 90-s, and then the autocracy and dictatorship of 2000-current. The "there is no objective truth" myth, the "people can't act without a hidden agenda" myth and even more generally not trusting anyone are cultivated by the state propaganda for 25 years now. It leaves a mark.
I’m not saying that’s what’s driving Kramnik, what drives him is a mystery to me by now. It honestly looks like he’s not 100% mentally stable by this point. But I think those may be the main factors driving so many people to believe him.
You damn right you can speak for all russians, wtf is this whole tangent about conspiracies?
Не нужно никакой конспирологии, чтобы видеть куда катятся шахматы. Политика, деньги, эго некоторых игроков, которые думают, что им всё дозволено (один только Накамура чего стоит), читерство. Если бы не такие люди как Леви Розман, весь этот розовый мирок уже давно бы развалился.
Fully agree. To the "typical (post-)Soviet conspiracy" I would add that Kramnik's mouse skills seem surprisingly bad for his OTB rating, and as the world is moving into online chess, he gets destroyed more and more by much weaker opponents - it fuels his anger to the point of no return.
I was so upset to hear Danya was being harassed. He is such a sweet and kind teacher. I can't imagine people believing the accusations against Danya based on such worthless evidence. Great video.
" I can't imagine people believing the accusations against Danya based on such worthless evidence.": There was no evidence. Actually, 'worhtless evidence' is somewhat a contradiction. Anyway... you don't need evidence whatsover to believe something. That's why there are flat earthers, people who don't believe we landed on the moon, Trump voters, and religion.
i love danya content but he came out as a compulsive liar so much lmao then proceeded to flame kramnik pipi in your pampers style, weird gimmicks with monitors etc. zero chance he hasnt cheated in the past online in some (probably minor) form.
@@LukasSkys”He came out as a compulsive liar” ? Bullshit! From everything I know and have observed about Danya, I can only conclude that he’s a really good and decent human being. I’d like to be able to say that about Kramnik. Unfortunately I can’t, cause Vlad the impaler is a worthless piece of garbage - kinda like the leader of his country and those who follow him.
Idk about sweet teacher, man charges 300$/hr to teach blitz openings
@@Milos-mk9pb WTF... You can find a GM instructor for under 50 bucks an hour on lichess
The problem arises because they believe the ability to play a board game somehow makes them special. It really doesn't. It's just another talent. like balancing plates on a stick, or riding a unicycle. The real world really doesn't give a toss about chess, or chess players.
i 100% agree with this take. its crazy that we as a society place so much intellectual stakehold on a bunch of guys playing a boardgame. they have insane egos. and thus having access to "secret knowledge", such as a cheating conspiracy will help soothe the ego.
maybe it once was that performance in chess was linked to intellect, but nowadays gms are skilled at chess and nothing else, they are only normal people who have one very particular well-honed skill. hence the rise of an innumerable amount of child prodigies and the like.
imagine if we put the same stock into esports or card games players intellect.
I'll agree kramnik is jealous and crazy but to make this intire video into 2000s movies of russia bad, usa good is quite hilarious.Also i think some russian kid won the blitz championship and ian came 3rd.
Very insightful! I wasn’t aware of a lot of events you covered
Honestly I’m tired of Kramnik and Nepo’s antics, and I’m finding it harder and harder to take anything they say seriously nowadays
i was always super weary of Nepo, heard lots of things about him spanning back to 6ish years ago where it just seemed like he wasn't a great guy. this puts the nail in the coffin for me, especially the snidey digs at Wei Yi - he would never do that in an English interview.
Strongly agree here! It’s sad to see some of the best players in the world/history behave like this
I only started chess about a year ago so I’m not attached to them in any but it’s still a shame
Kramnik and Nepo are past their peak and grasping at whatever's left
@@xylyze Exactly, it's exhausting haha
I have to say, this was a very weird video and I'm not sure if it's some sort of exercise in ironic meta-commentary about creating narratives. The main criticism people have about Kramnik's crusades is that he's cherry picking data that fits a narrative, and some of these examples just really seem like you're doing the same.
For example, the Nepo-Harikrishna thing: you show Nepo being pissed off but you don't show why. In the heat of the battle, Hari had actually knocked over pieces and adjusted on Nepo's time, and after missing out on a win in a World Championship he was pissed off immediately after the game. So what? Something similar happened between Nepo and Wesley recently, and again Nepo was salty afterwards, but that doesn't fit here because Wesley isn't Indian. In the recent team tournament in London where they had a no-increment time control there were lots of these crazy time scrambles, pieces flying, and decisions made on win/loss/draws, and people on every side were salty and grumbling, but so what? They were a bunch of players from various countries so no narrative there. You've found an example of this normal thing that sometimes people are salty after a bad result and infractions during play, but hey this one is a Russian being annoyed at an Indian (who actually did commit an infraction during the game), so that fits the narrative!
The thing with the online Olympiad is another one: it's hilarious for an experienced chess player to look at the Divya game which is a crazy position with *literally every piece* still on the board and then declare that it would have been...ahem... "almost certain" that India would have tied for first place as the game was in the bag. _Anything_ could have happened in that game. It's an unfortunate situation to have arisen by chance, and a difficult decision for how to handle it in making a ruling after the fact to just decide who to give the title to, with no decision that could be made which would not end with some people being angry. It's a perfectly fair position to be annoyed that they arbitrarily decided to grant a win to a +3 eval in a game in which clearly anything could have happened, especially as disconnections have happened many times and are normally not retroactively decided in favour of someone by reviewing the eval.
As much as Kramnik talks nonsense about stats, he actually had a fair criticism about the use of phones as cameras during the recent Olympiad. While it's understood that there should be press access to record games and therefore to allow cameras to be set up by the boards, it's reasonable to ask why rather than just use a simple camera, it should be allowed to use a camera combined with a powerful computer with built in telecommunications tech, a large display, and operating system designed specifically to allow the installation and running of any app (aka a smartphone). Really, if anti-cheating security is so important, why not just say only simple cameras (eg a go-pro etc) are allowed rather than smartphones which are built for flexibly running apps, can easily be hacked/rooted to allow basically any capability, and are made for communicating? Kramnik can be criticised for not bringing this up before facing the Indian team, but to be fair to him, it's probably only when facing the Indian team that the opponent's friends (Sagar/CBI) are setting up powerful computers (smartphones) right next to the boards of the players of their countrymen. (Just to be clear, I'm in no way saying Sagar/CBI did anything wrong, they are great, I'm just saying that to look at it objectively it's a pretty poor security standard and VK's concern was not unreasonable). The fact that FIDE "inspected the devices and gave them an approved security sticker" is laughable as they just put a sticker _on the phone case,_ not even on the device itself.
With the case of Nepo criticising the lax standards for conferring GM titles, he made two specific suggestions in his tweet. Both of which sounded quite reasonable. What do you think? You just presented this tweet as though there was something wrong with it, without actually stating any criticism or rebuttal whatsoever. If there's a standard for having to have played against GMs to earn the title, does it make sense to still count them if they are sub-2500?
I've written enough so I won't keep going on, but to get to your conclusion, as this is what literally made me laugh out loud and prompted me to write this comment. You then present your conclusion, but did it in perfect Kramnik-speak by repeatedly declaring _"It's very clear to me..."._ That's exactly what he says in his stats videos, he shows a bunch of out of context data and casually declares "it's very clear to me, it's obvious" and this is exactly what you've done, and why I'm not sure if this video is a deep joke. Yes, the chess scene is much more international today and relatively speaking the Russians are much less prominent, but framing a load of cherry-picked examples of a Russian complaining about something (often fairly) as a diagnosis of them all being just jealous is pretty weak. You use the timeliness of it as evidence, that Kramnik started spewing stats after Nepo failed to win the WC, but this is exactly the same period as the post Magnus-Hans debacle, which surely is the one massive event which was like an atomic bomb of normalising cheating accusations. Before that, it was taboo to make public accasations, but Magnus smashed that into a million pieces. Talking about that case was the biggest thing in the chess world for a year. You mention this case at the beginning of the video. How do you manage to set this up as a precedent for what came after, while at the same time saying that Kramnik's crusades which started just after it are actually because of the damage to the Russian psyche of Nepo merely being an almost WC rather than a WC? There's just so much sloppy, motivated reasoning in this video, it's embarrassing. But nice narrative bro.
(Note I'm not Russian or Indian and have no connection or allegiance whatsoever to either of these countries.)
I agree with first 2 of your points (2nd and 3rd paragraphs), but the second 2 don't convinse me (4nd and 5rd paragraphs), seems like the points made in the video regarding phones in the Olympiad and titles actually make sence.
Overall the conclusion of the video seems like rather crazy, but sort of justified conspiracy, and it's kinda weird that the author says it's obvious. Although it seems to me Nepo and Cramnik might indeed be jealous of other countries' success and therefore salty, I don't think other Russian players are, because examples about Dubov and Grischuk look like cherry picking.
tldr? Not reading all that
Yes, I just saw your comment after posting mine. The creator of this video seems to have forgotten to check for evidence that contradicts his idea. It's totally fine, and actually the normal scientific process, to start with an idea, and then go and check for evidence that supports said idea. But, crucially, you must check for evidence that contradicts your idea. The creator of this video seems to have failed to do that. I made a point about how he shouldn't have included Dubov, but thanks for your other points, even though it was messy to read. Cheers.
My maaan if you Think only problem with Kramnin is Data you might need some social skills to work on and some friends to make
Man is a egotistical weirdo anyone thinking Kramnik is sane and Honest person watch Danya kramnik debate on Levitov
I think you have a point, but you're going to far. In any situation you have to select information to try and discern people's intentions.
I think the only really accurate point you have it the first one, Nepo has his salty moments. It's still disrespectful but understable. But I will also add that in my opinion, there has been a systematic atempt to downplay the indian young GMs of this generation by Nepo and while I wouldn't say this proves anything, I think it's a dot, and many dots make a line. It's also fair to assume that he choses his words quite careful, since according to Hikaru(and others) Nepo has consistently been someone who often accuses people of cheating behind closed doors.
If the smartphones are properly checked, I don't see how you can claim that this is a problem, it's only a problem if you're purpusefully trying to instil doubt in people's minds. If kramnik had an issue with it, he should have talked to the organizers, not make a public statement.It's the same reason why magnus acted very wrongly in the HN situation.
Finally, I feel like the last paragraph was a bit of a way to downplay the credebility of the video, which was what prompted me to write a reply,I don't think you need to attack the credebility of a video or of a youtuber to dismantle it's facts.
*Vladimir Kramnik is typing…*
Surprised you didnt bring up how Ian accused Ding of foul play at the WCC. After he lost, he started complaining about how his sleeping pills "went missing"
Wow, Ding had to hide Nepo's meds to get a win. Nepo the GOAT.
It sounds like Kramnik just doesn't understand modern day technology, my grandma can click faster than this guy
Honestly I believe Kramnik is accusing everyone because of his pride and being a former world champion. He doesn’t want to admit he’s not one of the best anymore and is paranoid with the rise of ai in chess. There is some people cheating in chess I will give him the benefit of the doubt but it feels more like a witch hunt rather than trying to improve the chess community, more like destruction of it more
Neimann calling Kramnik his life coach 💀
Lmao
Bro missed the first ten seasons of the show called 'Chess'. It's always been that way.
Although it seems to me Nepo and Cramnik might indeed be jealous of other countries' success and therefore salty, I don't think other Russian players are, because examples about Dubov and Grischuk look like cherry picking.
Overall the conclusion of the video seems like rather crazy, but sort of justified conspiracy, and it's definitely not clear if this is the case.
i think the Dubov & Grischuk clips look cherry picked, but in reality its just because there's very few instances of them talking about the subject online. i've heard a lot of instances of Grischuk in Russian interviews making snidey remarks at several Grandmasters and calling it "Russian humour", but as far as Dubov goes he might have completely differing opinions as the rest of them.
i agree that its not clear, but with the situation as grey as it is you either come to some sort of conclusion with the information you have or you just pretend it doesn't exist - and when the consequences of the situation is having peoples careers ruined over false accusations i'd rather come to some kind of conclusion.
Dubov is super salty. Imagine calling Fabi talentless then pretending it was a compliment. I can't imagine how naive/ weird one have to be to go along with that.
And I don't know what's Grischuk's problem is. Some of the things he says these days are completely unwarranted.
@superneenjaa718, that’s just your speculation. I got an impression he was genuine. Either way this example is just cherry picking.
Overall the conclusion of the video states that Russian players have this agenda against Americans and Indians because they’re jealous. If you’ve seen certain Dubov podcasts you know that he’s most likely not the type of person to support this type of stuff in any way.
@@YDAE4 this whole fiasco is centred around people's speculations. What else can there be?
@@superneenjaa718 Yep,
Dubov is a kind of person who = give a fuck {not like Nakamura pretending, but literally} and he most of the time does not live in Russia on a daily basis.
Dubov had - overall - cheating suspicions before it was fashionable, which he presented in one of the podcasts, and this was a time when Dubov was still somewhat associated with the "Magnus circle", so I suppose these were the suspicions of that circle.
Grischuk has recently "crushed" in Blitz most top Indian GM's winning tournament and he is 2 time Blitz Champ, so his suspicions are valid. I also didn't notice that Grischuk has anything against the Indian chess scene since he plays there regularly.
In addition, Grischuk lived in the US playing poker, has liberal views and has never shown any anti-American beliefs. In addition, he has good contacts with ChessBrah for example.
Interesting hypothesis. But even regardless of it, I hadn't realised how much Russian chess level has factually dropped. Thanks Jack.
Okay just skipped to the summary part and this sounds like crazy talk. Going to listen to the whole thing.
Edit: Honestly this felt as painful to watch as Levitov moderating the Kramnik/Naroditsky discussion. If the idea was to create an equally toxic counterpart to that I guess it succeeded (?)
What is the point of the of including Grischuk and Dubov lmao. Feels like they had to be in to make it a Russia topic.
Obv. Kramnik and Nepo talk a lot with each other and share these view publicly. There are so many arguments someone could come up with if it should be a neutral view. If one would really put some thoughts into it you could argue that Nepo is more used to anti cheating measurements failing since I think he is/was sort of into online gaming and Valve using bad AC basically pushes people into a 3rd party matchmaking. So feeling the need that some 3rd party has to step up if current platforms fail to do so feels reasonable (think chess is just a lost cause online since parties have 0 power of chess if it's not played locally).
Also such huge disrespect towards Nepo - in a Magnus era of chess that guy did great.
Video feels super weird with excluding the existing problem of cheating (even if it was discussed on the channel before).
Wow, accusing everyone of cheating is not disrespectful. 👏
Lashing out on others GMs is not disrespectful either.
This video accounting those incidents, on the other hand, is a huge disrespect. Lol.
@@NoOne-ky1er What are you even talking about? Read the comment again and/or watch the video once more. The disrespect was regarding the fact that the video is shitting on the achievements of Nepo as a player. Has 0 to do with cheating/the accusations of it.
@@klauswolfbert
This is what Nepo is doing to other GMs.
@@NoOne-ky1er What are you even talking about? Read the comment again and/or watch the video once more. The disrespect was regarding the fact that the video is shitting on the achievements of Nepo as a player. Has 0 to do with cheating/the accusations of it.
As a Russian speaker, I find this a clearly cherry-picked way to connect the dots. Firstly, the top Russian chess scene is far from patriotic. Players like Nepo, Grischuk, and Dubov don’t seem to care much about the state of Russian chess. Sure, they occasionally lament how Russian chess has declined, but they’re not deeply involved or particularly patriotic about it. On the other hand, you have someone like Karjakin, who is obviously extremely patriotic, yet he doesn’t say anything about cheating. Interestingly, other top Russian players don’t even mention him in interviews.
It also seems much more about human connections-they’re contemporaries and naturally close to each other. At the same time, they maintain good relationships with players like Fabi, MVL, and many other top players. If there’s any low-key conspiracy, it’s more likely about older groups of close-knit players versus the new generation. The newer players, who’ve grown up in a digitalized era and studied chess extensively with computers, play in a way that’s often hard for the older generation to fully grasp from a human perspective.
Also they obviously take everyhting Kramnik says seriously because his figure has a very big authority in russian-speaking world, and obviously his opiniong is very important for russian-speaking chess-players, so if they believe in what he says, they support him officially like Nepo or quietly like many other players.
Additionally, there are obvious cultural differences that you don’t seem to take seriously. In the Russian-speaking world, using sarcastic or even slightly offensive language is much more normal than in English-speaking contexts. This difference in communication styles can lead to misinterpretations if not properly understood.
The uploader is a half-wit
Строго говоря, Карякин > данные "российские" шахматисты. Но Карякина фактически отлучили от шахмат, поэтому на мировом уровне он выступать не может.
wow it has already been a year since Hikaru being accused time really flies
Cherry picking, confirmation bias and, of course, the Dunning-Kruger at its finest. Kramnik was pissed that they took his electronic cigarette, that’s why he demanded that all phones should be out, because rules are rules. All other arguments are also ridiculous, there are a number of young Russian GMs who are being of accused of cheating and Kramnik and Nepo accuse different players. Nepo didn’t accuse Hikaru publicly, that Dina Belenkaya heard something from Nepo’s team is ridiculous.
He didn't accuse him publicly? Strongly suggesting that someone might be cheating is the same thing as accusing, they're just phrasing it like that to protect themselves from legal consequences, but everyone with a brain can see what their true intent is.
He did it privately among his team, allegedly, according to Dina
Kramnik has no problems in accusing some russian players so all this stuff doesnt make sense.
Honestly I think that Kramnik is accusing everyone of cheating because he can't perform good with a PC mouse... And that's the entire story... Kramnik has no idea about how fast people can play online chess. Also Kramnik has NEVER played an online bullet game either... So when he gets to time trouble, he loses to lower rated players, thus he then accuses them for cheating...
Are you sure you don't mean premoving? Nakamura can play 255 moves in 1 minute - premoving online. OTB he is nothing like as fast.
honestly im excited for the chance of kramnik posting about this on twitter knowing he's reposted one of your videos before jack and that you follow him (:
Ok, but pentala DID play dirty against Nepo. Why haven’t you mentioned?
playing dirty at a high level isn't a thing. if your opponent knocks over pieces and fixes it on your clock you stop the clock and call the arbiter. the arbiter will then warn the player and add time to Nepo's clock. if you don't do that, which Nepo didn't, its completely your fault.
@ ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Even though these are the rules, every player knows that, in time pressure, the best strategy is to play dirty, break the rules and provoke the call to the arbiter. The extra time that Nepo would have doesn’t make any difference for him, but for pentala it is the main factor for drawing, not losing. YOU KNOW THAT. The rules are not perfect and fair play goes beyond what is literally written in the rules. Every top player knows that this is playing dirty.
Nepo doing everything he can to make me not feel bad for him losing 2 World Championship matches in a row
In defence of the russian players, they have been banned from events because of the war and the doping scandal from the Olympics. Neither were anything to do with chess, which was also very unfair.
If Nepo said that to me, the battle would have continued with fists.
Your theory is entertaining, but it also resorts to a significant amount of specualtion. Theres a couple of remarks that could make this more "interesting" I guess:
1. Kasparov has been saying lately that we should stop talking about the upcoming match as a "world championship". To some conspiracy theorists this may be evidence that Kasparov, like many other Russians, also thinks there's something shady going on there and it must be cheating. His comments about Carlsen not playing anymore are just a cover for he really means.
2) Nakamura has also accused quite a few other players of cheating, including Erigaisi himself. You seem to have overlooked that or you didn't want to bring it up. Maybe it doesn't fit your theory. Who knows.
i didn't know that about Kasparov, very strange but its most likely in reference to the fact that the best player ITW isn't competing for the title due to the time format. as for Naka, i think he has a bad history for falsely accusing people as well - however i don't think there's anything more to it than he just a bad loser sometimes.
Kasparov would be the most anti russia of russians , considered his past endeavors in politics that got him locked in prison . You could argue that since Kramnik was his student that his comment was implicitly defending Kramnik . However i don't think it is the case , it is just hothead Garry being himself lol .
My sentiment is similar. Good try, but ultimately, not convincing. Indeed, too much speculation, and some cherry picking of evidence. Cheers.
Great background coverage. I think you are being too conspiratorial, though, with your conclusion. I think it is very unlikely that anything organised is going on. More likely, hurt egos have no better explanation than cheating on behalf of their opponents since alternative explanations would require admitting to not being as good (anymore). All these players are extremely competitive and without some strong beliefs in one's abilities, one does crack the top of the league table. That strong self belief gets in the way of unbiased judgements.
appreciate it bro, i don't think its organised at all either if that's how it comes across - but i certainly think Russian players know exactly what they're doing when they make these kinds of insinuations.
I think the conclusion you came to is very believable. I know that Kramnik has often omitted some facts while accusing someone of cheating. You can have a 30-game-win-streak if 25 out of these games were played against a weaker opponent back-to-back, but if you leave out that it was always the same opponent you come across as desperate or misleading.
Over all very good video. Maybe the Russian players are unaware that they are sore losers and echo-chambered themselves into a delusion, but that's difficult to determine from the outside...
you forgot turkey, vietnam, argentina, germany, england. all have young prodigies.
Not really
What I know is that politics has not interfered with sports, and this is what all sports organizations say, but the truth is that after the Russian-Ukrainian war, it was proven once again that war has interfered with politics, and this was not only in chess, as the Russians were banned from using their country's flag and Sergey Karyakin was punished following his statements. In football, Russia was punished, and even in the Paris Olympics, Russia did not participate because of the war. I do not mind that your opinion may have some truth, but the Russians are being persecuted because of the war, while there are other countries that are waging wars and crushing others without mentioning names because you know for sure, and they are not punished, which means that there is solidarity against the Russians. This is a fact. I am not Russian, but I stand with the truth. Again, your point of view may have some truth.
i don't think stopping players from bearing Russian flags in Chess makes a difference, its just a PR move from FIDE that i don't think Russian players care too much about. i also believe that Karjakin's ban was just, was an extremely insensitive thing to say when you actively compete with players on the other side of the war.
at the end of the day i don't actually think the war has too much of an effect on Russian Chess. the biggest effect is self-induced and is the fact its much harder for Russian's to travel to play, especially their junior players.
people don't seem to analyze that chess skill is largely reflected by the prosperity of the country.
During the 10th century some of the most developed and progressive enclaves was in the middle east. The greatest chess player of that time was Al-Suli, an Arabian.
16th century, spanish empire. The strongest chess player was Lucena. A spaniard.
Italian renaissance period. Strongest chess player was Gioachino Greco. An Italian.
During Napoleon's reign. The srongest chess player was Philidor. A frenchman.
1902. Cuba gains independance from Spain, but Cuba stays under the influence of US (before Castro). Cuba financially develops immensely. Jose Casablanca, a Cuban, becomes the world chess champion.
Now when was the period of the Soviet Unions world dominance and reign? sometime during the 60's - 70's. You know how many world champions they had during this period? All of them. Except for Fischer.
You could say these are coincidences, but chess development seems to be tied with prosperity. History has shown that to be true to me.
There's no surprise to me that China, a country that has been progressively most economically developed 20 years ago and currently stands to rival the US, or India, a country that is yearly developing economically at a faster rate than other countries, is also incidently producing the strongest chess players.
The fact that Russians are so weak and have completely lost their dominance, and are now resulting to ridiculous cheating accusations to save face from their unfortunate fate, is cathartic to me. it seems to beautifully reflect the behavior of their goverment over the 21st century.
Collective guilt is an extreme tool only used in the most extreme cases. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is very different that "other wars". It is an explicit attempt to completely erase a country from the face of the world. The only recent precedent is the Nazi conquest and genocide. Collective guilt was applied to Germans. Rightfully so. They reformed their culture, they learned where their borders are, and 80 years later they still feel shame. It was an extreme case, and collective guilt was SUCCESSFUL in dealing with it. Russians are also collectively guilty for developing their country in this direction. Putin has higher popular support than Hitler ever had. Diplomacy and military will eventually resolve the conflict, but they will not fix the problem. The problem can only be fixed by shaming Russians into fixing the problem with their culture. Excluding Russia from international organizations in entertainment and sport is correct. The current level of exclusion is actually utterly insufficient to project collective guilt as strongly as it must be.
@@flashpeter625 Germans shouldn't have been punished that harshly, Russia unfortunately will not be punished at all because there's no one to do the punishing
I don't know of any other wars of this magnitude being waged today.. are we talking about Israel? If so then yes, maybe Israeli players should get banned from using their flags too but that's it. What are other countries waging wars of aggression nowadays? I think none.
The only reason i have started to believe Kramnik over Danya is because of that one clip where Danya was doing a speedrun or something and he was playing someone that's rated 1100, and explicitly said during the game that "im looking in the engine right now and......." he goes on to explain something, but the point is that he himself said that he was using the engine during the match against the amateur player. But i did not follow up on what's the response from Danya was.
I can’t believe this is the smoking gun people are going with. Danya was up like 10 points of material and his opponent was stalling and wouldn’t play a move, so Danya got impatient and started analyzing the opening (which had nothing to do with the current position) in chessbase so that he could prep for the post game analysis while he waited on his opponent. Yeah, it’s technically against the terms of service, but I would hardly call it cheating.
@AP0PT0SIS this is what he shows to the public, can you deny that he doesn't do it in private? You cant, because in doing this he lost credibility
Nah that’s a nothing burger. Danya can beat an 1100 in his sleep
@@muzzamilsalman4117 If anything, the fact that he casually admitted to looking at opening lines in chess base on stream is proof to me that he’s legit. He openly admitted it because he didn’t feel like what he was doing was even wrong, which is understandable. Don’t you think if he always played with an engine running, that he wouldn’t openly admit it on stream?
"I think any creator at the time would be forgiven for taking the topic seriously"
=
"You and I forgive myself"
I understand your position on hans, but c'mon tyhe guy literally cheated , he is a diferent case, i dont think people blindely follow magnus, i guess he did cheated.
we know vidit and anish could never be accused of cheating
I used to be a fan of Nepo. Always loved the way he answered press conference questions. This very much saddens me.
Honestly I've always liked Nepo too and for much the same reasons! He doesn't come off as pretentious in interviews, he answers questions insightfully, and he has acted classy multiple times after games. (The time he apologized to the audience for playing a terrible game where he didn't think he even played like a GM at all let alone to his normal level, and when he empathized with Fabi after the candidates knowing that the former would be crushed knowing he had multiple chances to beat him and win the tournament but let them slip away with the game being drawn). It kills me to see his antics too, it's really disappointing.
@@user-rs1fv2dl6pyeah he seemed respectful then but yeah he's been a diva the whole time
Always knew he was a man-child. And I'm so glad he failed twice at the WCC.
Play more dirty next time yeah?
His entire worldview is that if anyone apart of Magnus or Fabi beats him, the guy is a cheat.
As an indian whose favorite player is nepo this is hard to watch.
Being a bit better at chess could gain Nakamura financial rewards? Are you kidding!? He is number 2 in the world on the ratinglist! LOL
20:30
I mean, Daniel is kinda not wrong it that statement 😂. As an Indian, I can see Arjun and Pragg just putting hours and hours on just chess
18:51 - Naroditsky is ranked 23rd in the world in OTB Blitz (Fact)
But also please state that he got there playing against 2000 rated players
Sooooo you don’t believe in statistics? ELO demonstrates a player’s strength. Period
@@jeffreybuffkin9108 Yes he beats 2000 elo guys Very strong
@@jeffreybuffkin9108 It is the opposite actually. He believes in statistics, which is why a 400 point rule should not exist.
@@Stefan-cx6gv i certainly agree that rule is dumb. What percentage of opponents have that rule applied for all the other top blitz players?
@@Stefan-cx6gv not Danya's fault the rule exists, and he is not the only one taking advantage of it. He's not doing anything illegal here. He is a strong player, regardless.
Your content feels so professional these days, cheers!
appreciate it bro
It is because Kramnik cheated himself against Topalov. And he assumes other people are like him.
Kramnik performed to 2800 in the early 90s - before computers were that strong.
@@imankhandaker6103 I never said he wasn't a good player. WAS, though.
@@Prometheus4096 He had no reason to cheat - the existence of cables in the walls of a building is not evidence of cheating.
Admittedly FIDE have to take it more seriously - metal detector sweeps, Faraday cages, accompanied toilet breaks (or NONE) & sitting at the board for the entire duration of every game. No game at ANY level rated without ALL of these conditions enforced. Instead of IDIOTIC drug tests ... for which drug?
@@imankhandaker6103 If Kramnik had no reason to cheat, then no one ever has a reason to cheat. He was in the world up match and his only accomplishment in life is becoming world champ. You wouldn't even know who he was today without that.
@Prometheus4096 I knew who he was when he burst on the scene in the Olympiad & everybody knew who he was after he hammered Kasparov without losing a game, or even looking like he would lose a game. Winning or losing against Topalov could not add to that legend or diminish it.
I am looking again at this thumbnail and this is hilarious. Why are you covering his eyes? Are you afraid of copyright strike? Don't worry, he doesn't copyright strike other channels. Only Danya does that.
I disagree with the Fischer point made at the end of the video. Situations are completely different. Largely cause the Russians WERE intentionally drawing games, but Bobby was the only player in this "coalition". Whereas the Russian group today is large
i tried to convey this better, but i did say the legitimacy of the claims were completely different. Fischer's claims were just, but Kramnik's claims aren't - thats the main difference.
Could I get some thoughts on why Kramnik never accuses Carlsen?
i think Magnus has the respect from most Chess players and is the benchmark of excellence. Carlsen has great relationships with Russians, most notably being on good terms with Nepo after some teams tournaments and also having had Dubov on his team in a WCC match to help with his preparation.
generally speaking accusing Carlsen is just a losing battle for Kramnik, you can't accuse someone of cheating that has 2 more WC titles than you. i wouldn't be surprised if the cheating accusations on Gukesh completely go away after the WCC if he wins - its absolutely impossible to cheat in the WCC, security measures are too strict.
@@jacksarkisian Again with your nationalistic BS. No, Carlsen and Nepo doesn't have good relationship. They don't even respect each other too much. Have you heard when Magnus said that he would be so embarrassed to lose someone that's so out of his league as Nepo was (Lex Fridman interview - but you probably didn't watch it, since Lex is a Russian emigrant)
Funny how Nepo accused someone of cheating in a tournament that he won.
Perhaps he knows because he cheated too...
“What I think and do, others must do too.”
This video took some time to put together I can tell! Good stuff
do u even know that grischuk threatened to leave russia if karajkin became the fide president, dubov supported magnus against nepo so i dont know how u joined all their statements to make this video.
Though I don't agree with everything in this video, I appreciate you taking time to analyze everything from the start including the online olympiad.
We can have differing views and we all have a right to have our opinions. If we start to argue in chat information will pile up and end up in more confusion ...
But honestly the only stance I can take of all this scandal is
"Kramnik is not right about everything (ok this is what you want to hear) but in the same breath lets also admit that Neither are Chess com right about everything. They have a lot to hide"
Also let us not forget all the times the great Naka cried fowl and accused players of cheating
For me it's Fisher 2.0... It's only going to get worse, he tics almost every item from the DSM 5 Paranoid Personality Disorder. Good luck to his close ones, it's not easy.
Fischer was right
@@hmmm3210 Fun thing is Kramnik is right too 🤣, but people are never ready to hear the truth
Very well made video Jack. Good to see such content in the chess space, hope to see more of such video essay type content on interesting chess topics!
appreciate it bro, glad you enjoyed
I think I get it. Somehow, some of these Russian GM's with their old school teaching, can't understand and accept how quickly chess bots changed the dynamics. Players are improving too fast when they have the bot
Summary: Russia is jealous no players aside from 1 are on the top players list, so theyre throwing out cheating accusations left and right.
My analysis: Its much simpler - Krammnik is a former world champion with a huge ego that lives in a world that has access to online sources that produces younger and younger great players - and his game is deteriorating as he ages. Instead of coming to grasp with this, he thinks anyone that beats him/thinks of move that he didnt think of is automatically a cheater.
I think a lot of Kramnik's beef goes back to ToiletGate. But there's no excuse for slander. FIDE should sue players who baselessly accuse other FIDE players of cheating.
Love the methodical, and clear laying out of the evidence. Your skills will translate to bigger topics, and is needed in this day an age. Hope you never turn to the dark side.
Anyone picking on Danya is by his own actions, immediately discredited. Dude is too humble and intelligent both to risk his value system and immaculate social persona through cheating. Sometimes you need to take an objective look at the people involved. Who is above reproach, who is bitter... and apply the "duck principle". If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.... it's a duck.
glad nepo was humiliated by magnus and broken by ding
Turning this into a russophobic argument it's just that, russophobic. I think Kramnik and Nepo are finding hard to watch their own decline, and are probably unitedstatianphobic.
i apologise if it seems Russophobic, i definitely didn't mean this. in no way am i suggesting every player in Russia is in on this, but its certainly clear to me there is an overarching feeling of jealousy to countries having more success than them currently. i've also seen people suggest this could be because of the United States involvement in the Ukraine war, but i'd prefer not to use that as proof because its just not a nice situation to bring up.
i just feel like the top 5 players in Russia hold so much weight in their opinions. someone like Artemiev doesn't publicly support these claims, but because of how extreme the claims are the silence is also deafening. it will continue to put a bad stain on the RCF until one of the more respected Russian players speaks out against it. not saying they have to call Kramnik a lunatic, but just simply disagree publicly.
theres nothing wrong with russophobia
Back in the day they accused mostly american grandmasters of cheating.
Now they added a new country to the roster.
Just ignore it
"Indian team has used mobile phones to stream their games but Kramnik only had a problem when his team was playing against them".
Isn't it very logical and makes perfect sense? He may have not been aware of indians using mobile phones prior to his team playing, it also makes sense he defends his team.
His behaviour was logical, his arguments sound (yes, you indeed can cheat with mobile phones without simcards) yet this episode was used to somehow make Kramnik look bad? Well if you are just listening to this video without thinking that could work
Well, Im assuming that (for obvious reasons) either wifi was turned off in the room, or none of the players were given the wifi password.So a sim card (which is the only way to access mobile data) is the only other way to access the internet to cheat. The only other way to cheat is to have the engine downloaded on your phone before coming in, which is something else I assume the arbiters can just screen for. With no internet to use to download stockfish with after the screening, there's no way (that I know of) to cheat
@@wallysullivan9315 players weren't allowed to touch the phones at all. The phones were used by the broadcasting company "chessbase India". Indian Olympiad team players or coaches weren't involved in this whatsoever.
@@superneenjaa718 That makes sense, and makes cheating even less feasible
That's the worst video I've seen in months.
For the record, I am from Russia(so, I believe I know more context to players words) and I dont agree with Kramnik accusations.
First of all, Ian wasn't accusing Wei Yi. I believe he was genuinely imspessed by Wei Yi strength. As I remember, he named Wei alongside strongest players around the moment of the interview. If he was accusing, he would name Pragg or someone else.
Another thing is that you collected out of context statements from russian player to others, without providing viewers with context. Then you call nearly everything here an accusation, build a theory and do everything trying not to disprove it. Kramnik also accused russian players. Or, for example, Lazavik. Has he tried to undermine belorussian school of chess?
Dubov and Nepo duscuss falling of russian chess school in every interview. It seems stupid to cover it with accusations only to then publicly speak about it again, isn't it?
Okey, lets assume they are really trying to undermine new generation. Where is smth about Alireza or Nodirbek? Vidit? Pragg? Wesley(not a new generation, but american)? I can only see "accusations" towards Niemann and Gukesh. Okey, the history with Gukesh is weird, yet no one accused him publicly, they just need another strong tournament from him to be sure he is clear. Hans was also accused by Magnus. Was Magnus upset about downfall of Norwegian chess school?
As for Dubov, a few months ago I've seen his interview, where he decided to spend more time traning in order to compete with new generation. He is impressed by thier hard work and said that he couldn't spend this much time even if he wished to. So, double standarts is just really about time player can spend to improve. I dont see a problem here.
Kramnik is accusing everyone of cheating because he doesnt like cheating. That's all. Funny thing is, I clicked on your channel and on the main page I see "Proof Chesscom has a cheating problem". Is Kramnik this bad afterall? :)
Theory based on opinion and facts with cherry-pick without doublecheck. Sounds like Kramnik, yet he is the enemy here, lol
Or maybe it's all a joke, which I didnt get. Well, in that case, this is the best video I've seen in months
No matter what, one thing is certain: There are people out there cheating, also among the top players.
The only thing obvious to me is that many top level chess players are some of the most childish and egotistical people in the world. Which is hilarious to me. Its a freakin board game. 😂
13:00 Hikaru actually has cheated otb by castling with two hands in a blitz game (Blitz WCC iirc)
damn, it all makes a lot more sense now
Nepo must be burning at Ghukesh destorying it at Tata 2025 as WORLD CHAMPION
So your conclusion at the end and the whole video is built on your opinion without dealing in any facts, strange when your previous video about cheating seemed full of research and facts.
Its called pattern recognition.
Cheating online is easy. Cheating OTB is not. You might therefore expect to find a lot more of the former than the latter, no?
I would not be surprised if Nepo Accuses Magnus of cheating 😂 , Nepo,s 1 st loses to a top player and then accuses him to satisfy his own ego it is not Hidden how much egoistic and jealous of a person nepo is and how he act childish when he loss he deserved to loss both world championship,s✨✨
Kramnik is the hero we need
volodor murzin is 2664 played multiple matches last month how is he inactive this shows u cherry picked the data to suit u
This is pure russian mentality. No surprise there.
I think losing the WC twice broke Nepo's brain.
It's typical KGB psyop. Kramnik is the main actor because he owes the KGB for what happened in 2006.
also why are people saying you are handsome in the comments
same observation
Why are you saying why people are saying he is handsome in the comment section?
Even that great saga about Trump being a Russian spy was a lesser stretch than this incessant rant...
Accusing Naroditsky of cheating is like accusing MisteRogers of being a wife-beater.
Now after gukesh's win in world championship and russian federation's allegation of fixed match and ding losing deliberately this video makes even more sense
Kramnik liked your first video about cheating and mentioned you... so what is this? Not your place to talk about world champions, you should go back to your viewbotted twitch streams... Disliked, unsubscribed. Never liked rats.
*procedure starting* 🔥🔥🔥 🗣️🗣️🗣️
There's actually a far simpler explanation than your thesis. Why did Kramnik accuse a lot of people of cheating? Your theory was that he needed some precedent. Nope. He just started playing online after retiring over-the-board, and once he started playing players he thought were cheating, then he accused them. He needed zero precedent.
The problem with the swapping in of all of these videos is you compare Hans Niemann to Daniel Naroditsky with all of these clips. You also don't know the context behind Magnus Carlsen accusing Hans Niemann of cheating. At the FTX Cup, Hans played a 100% accuracy game according to high depth Stockfish to beat Magnus, with very strange anti-human engine moves. Then he lost 3 in a row to Magnus, all without a fight, playing about 1,200 elo weaker according to computer analysis. This, along with Niemann's history of online cheating and whispers from other top players, strongly shaped Magnus's view of Hans Niemann. Painting it like Magnus is some irrational narcissist who can't handle losing is completely untrue. You seem like a new player to the scene though, so I don't think you'd know any of this.
I have mixed feelings about this. There is absolutely no doubt that cheating in chess is out of control, especially with online chess. It is ridiculous how out of control it is and Kramnik is trying to point this out and really, when you are at his level, there is a certain feeling you get when someone keeps playing consistent super accurate moves that surprise you as they don't make human sense until the move is played. Hard to explain this but even a 2500 ELO player can feel this. However, there is no doubt that chess engines and online chess tactical trainers, have made new generation human chess players dramatically better at spotting obscure engine tactics ... I think that is where Kramnik sometimes tends to claim cheating when it does not happen. I do think that Kramnik is more right about his accusations than wrong ... but certainly it is not 100% correct.
I appreciate your putting this all together. This was my sense of the situation as well.
kramnik doesn't accuse everyone, but he does accuse a lot of people. I think the explanation is simple. I think he is actually acting in good faith, but isn't cognitively sharp enough to understand why his arguments aren't convincing, why the burden of proof is entirely on him and not the accused, and many other things. He's very good at chess but having listened to him speak for hours that's the clear impression I get...and I think it's the most elegant solution since it really does explain quite a lot.
It even answers the question in the title. he doesn't understand that he has the burden of proof and that it is philosophically impossible to prove non existence, so in his mind he is approaching these accusations on neutral moral ground. he's just asking questions and if the accused person answers them to his satisfaction then no harm no foul, but by making public accusations with insufficient evidence, he is far from being morally neutral. of course in his mind he doesn't think he has insufficient evidence, he thinks it's compelling evidence, but once again that is explained by my initial explanation.
why so many russian players are convinced by kramnik isn't something i fully understand, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss cultural reasons as being a factor. i have no idea so this is just guessing, but maybe loyalty and solidarity are more valued? I don't want to get too political but there are geopolitical and nationalistic reasons that I could see being a factor...but I really don't know, though I do find it a strange phenomenon.
i genuinely feel sorry for people who wholeheartedly believe that hans cheated in that game
The relentless completely unfounded bullying of Daniel is disgusting.
To play devils advocate I think also its a little bit unfair to paint nepo in a bad light using a clip
From heated blitz game. We can all get a bit hot under the collar in comeptitions and I think
This just show that and nothing else. Attacking a 12 year old GM on twitter is more than enough to show nepos bad side.
Full disclosure, I'm Russian, just in case. Not a fan of Kramnik at all, but in my opinion your conclusions are near Kramnik's level of insanity.
1. You mention the Russian chess federation a lot. Do you seriously suggest that there's some sort of coordinated attack from the Russian chess federation? Like the guys in suits telling players what to say? This sounds like a crazy conspiracy to me. Also the "It only made sense for Russia to cast doubt on the legitimacy of everyone playing chess right now" part. I mean it may be true that they are sad about current russian chess youth, but I wouldn't go as far as to suggest any "plan to undermine chess" or whatever you are implicating. Also it might be interesting to check how many young russian chess players are playing for other chess federations because of the current Russia ban, but I'm too lazy for that. It might not be as bad for russian youth, but that's not my main argument here, just pointing this out.
2. During the first half you spoke about what has led to the current cheating accusations: Levy's situation, Hans Nieman's situation etc. And in the end you are just stating out of the blue that "accusations from Kramnik started JUST 9 months after Nepo lost his second championship match". What are you even implying here? If he's that salty then he would probably start right after the loss? This doesn't make any sense.
3. Grischuk didn't accuse anyone of cheating in the video you showed us. He's speaking about different performance levels during different tournaments, I don't see any hints that would imply cheating. As well as Dubov. He thinks of chess more like art and so he might rank talent over hard work, but nothing more. He doesn't imply cheating here.
4. The last sentence "if Nepo would've won then would any of this happen?" is just dirty. You are behaving like Kramnik who likes to "ask questions" and not accuse directly. This can't be an argument, because it didn't happen, using such questions is not the way to go.
All in all I think you did a great job of compiling the storyline but your conclusions don't make any sense. You are trying really hard to build a "salty russians narrative", when in reality it's more like Kramnik went insane and Nepo also a little. Grischuk didn't even say anything and Dubov is just a chill guy who doesn't like super hard workers very much. Mixing them together with the overall results of Russia and making a conclusion about the Russian attack on chess simply doesn't make any sense at all.