Carlsen loses - starts tweeting about cheating

[CornfedForever]

Qatar - Round 2: Wrist Watch 1 - Magnus Carlsen 0

Magnus loses to a 2500 player and within minutes starts posting material about cheating in chess. No, he does not accuse his opponent, but to start with this social media stuff immediately after the loss is...at best 'bad form'.

He also mentioned not being able to concentrate at seeing an analog watch upon his opponents wrist. He checked with an official who said 'analogs' were allowed, just not digital at their tourney.

A couple of comments from Nakamura and Hammer:

Nakamura: "If at the end of the day we are going to devolve into this world where if something happens and you lose a game and you automatically become suspicious, I think the days of professional chess are very very limited down the road".

Hammer: "If the players are going to be so paranoid about cheating, then they need to take a bigger responsibility in terms of reading the regulations and influencing the regulations" He thinks Magnus did not know what is allowed and not allowed at the tournament. He also said he thought because Magnus was so quick to (over)react, that it will be easier for him to apologize now as he can say he simply overreacted after a defeat. This instead of thinking about it and then later making the comments.

Naka also said he hopes Magnus apologizes to the kid and thinks Magnus got really angry over losing the game and turned it into a massive issue.

Naka further opined that Magnus is the one player who alone can be heard and make real changes to cheating in chess...but that we are seeing an "erosion" of his credibility and character to some degree with what we are seeing here.

If you look at the actual game...Magnus did himself no favors there either. He crawls into a Maroczy shell which saw one lone unit crossing to the other side of the board where it is quickly captured...he plays too passively, gets too cramped and gets hurt.

[Event "Qatar Masters 2023"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.10.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Suleymenov, Alisher"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E12"]
[WhiteElo "2512"]
[BlackElo "2839"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2023.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Nc3 c5 7. e4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bc5 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. b4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Be2 d6 14. O-O Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 Ne7 17. Nb5 Ne8 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. e5 d5 20. Qb3 Be7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4 Nf4 26. Qf3 Kg8 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5 Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6 1-0

Oh, and then Naka and Magnus get into a spat on 'social media'...it's all too much.

[Graham Banks]

Cry baby Magnus.

[j.t.]

Magnus' Curse



This whole thing reminds me of this.

[dkappe]

I haven’t played OTB in quite a while, but chess tournaments were the one place I would still wear an (analog) watch. At work and at home I would have access to computers and digital devices, but not at tournaments. So I would rely on my watch to tell me when to get to the board.

[Werewolf]

Nothing wrong with an analog watch.

It's a shame sites like Chessbase have called him the GOAT because it has gone to his head a little bit and he's just an imperfect man, who is good, but not perfect, at chess.

[CornfedForever]

Nothing wrong with an analog watch.

It's a shame sites like Chessbase have called him the GOAT because it has gone to his head a little bit and he's just an imperfect man, who is good, but not perfect, at chess.

I think about everyone considers him the GOAT...probably rightly so.

Today Magnus at one point had a lost (sure seems like it) position to the 16 yr old Pranesh. MC had an okay position but his king took to walking and became a target. Pranesh was probably outright winning for 5 or so moves but could only manage a draw.

Pranesh (16 I think) never had a laptop until AFTER he became an IM. But the underprivileld boy has RB Ramesh who may be the best coach in the world at his side.

Fedoseev lost twice in the first 3 rounds. I've been thru each...just mistakes and some poor judgement on his part really. But some Super GM's (I don't count BigFish as one at standard chess...he's sub 2700...and falling further after this tourney) find themselves living in a 'Demon Haunted World', but the truth here likely lies elsewhere.

With the (rather large I presume) appearance fees Nakamura has acknowledge are at play in Qatar, I have to think, some higher level players were persuaded to dip their toes in among the 'unwashed masses' of sub-2600 level on the rise players...and are just getting their toes stubbed. You take your 'free' money and you take your chances. One probably has to actually finish the tourney before they get that honorarium so I don't think we will see any withdrawls.

I also think they do not pull out their best 'opening prep' for that reason (already guaranteed pay day) and may play 'substandard' openings thinking there opponents will eventually give them 'something' and they can then use it and their superior technique to play for a win. That's also a gamble against good players who have time to think. SuperGM's like Naka and Magnus can help randomize the play in chess with their 1.a4 or 1a3 or 1...a6 type stuff in quick online play, but getting 'novel' positions or even playable ones with enough of an imbalace from which you can outplay a weaker opponent is a lot harder to do at standard time controls. Heck, I feared for Naka in round 1 as black...he was on the edge of getting hurt.

I'm not saying the fair play measures in place in Qatar are great (they have gotten tighter...but banning mechanical watches seems extreme...might as well ban bracelets or ear rings) but Magnus is a notoriously slow starter and did not complain after his round 1 win - even though what he saw in at the site was the same in that round. It's just 'bad form' to start talking about cheating within minutes of a loss that is surely your own fault (look at the game!).

But those stubbed toes can hurt real bad...

[M ANSARI]

He did not blame anyone for cheating, but said that watches were not allowed and his opponent was wearing a HUGE watch and that made him not concentrate. Allowing watches would circumvent any electronic measures as it would not be flagged by metal detector. In this era of vibrating beads I totally agree that they should not be allowed.

The title of this post is click bait. MC clearly applauded his opponent for playing an excellent game and crushing him. He never once mentioned that he thought his opponent was cheating. His opponent played a 97% accuracy game with a 0.1 centipawn loss while magnus played his average 91% accuracy with around .3 centipawn loss. At 97% accuracy MC had no chance after he made one inaccuracy, there were no obvious one move blunders. The position also at the critical moment ... sort of forced his opponent to go for a forced tactical line that was totally crushing.

[CornfedForever]

He did not blame anyone for cheating...

Of course, no one ever said he did...
Par for the course that you would start trying to 'refute' things no one said. The title of the post is 100% factual. One could quibble with 'tweeting' as Twitter no longer exists as such.

In this era of vibrating...

To take your view that mechanical watches (his was not huge...go look at the pics) should be outlawed to its logical conclusion...one naturally then has to outlaw: rings, ear-rings, necklaces...shirts with metal (probably not just metal) buttons, shoes with metal rings to pull strings through, pacemakers, pants with zippers, etc, etc. Heck maybe even shirts, pants and shoes/socks because fine metallic threads could run thru the fabric.

Unless players are going to be forced to play naked, we have to put a rationality check on the demon haunted world of conspiracy theorists.

I think all I and anyone who has posted on this is saying is that he chose a REALLY bad time to start talking about cheating. The optics are bad to do so after you have lost due to your own poor and passive play.

[M ANSARI]

The title is click bait and is modeled to make it look like Carlsen lost and again accuses someone of cheating. Stop thinking that people are stupid. In this game where MC opponent played with 97% accuracy ... he crushed MC. MC never once accused the player of cheating but simply stated that it bothered him that the person had a large watch ... that people were walking around the playing hall with smart phones on ... that there was no delay in game transmission. Watches are totally forbidden in any FIDE tournament ... when MC asked the arbiter why a watch was allowed he was told only "Smart Watches" are not allowed ... which is absolutely not the case. His complaint was that cheating anti measures were not in place and it bothered him. In the US championships ... even metal pens are not allowed. In his podcast Christian had one of his players tell him that he was flagged by the metal detector and was allowed through anyway. So obviously anti cheating measures were not being implemented and MC has every right to mention that. Cheating in Online chess is rampant and very possibly rampant OTB as well. You might not see it as a threat to chess but almost everyone else that plays chess does. Nepo just tweeted "judging by the current state of affairs in Online and OTB chess, either the cheating situation is completely out of control, or the rating system needs to be reformed, or both". MVL yesterday also mentioned that cheating has to be taken seriously and all measures should be taken to eliminate as much as possible the ease at which cheating can occur ... this way honest players that win by playing out of their league would not come under a cloud of suspicion. We all know about Kramnik and how much he sees cheating as a threat ... where he claims that over 25% of online games are players that are cheating. Then the day before yesterday, Caruana on his podcast went as far as to say that he thinks that over 50% of online games where money is at stake have some sort of cheating ... not every move ... but on some moves. So to anyone that thinks that it is not a big deal, every top player in the world thinks it is an existential threat to chess. Cycling had this problem for a long time ... where everyone knew cheating was rampant but there was no serious efforts to stop it.

This podcast is interesting and shows how much top players feel that cheating is a threat to chess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33kWuP4HRIA

[Chessqueen]

Qatar - Round 2: Wrist Watch 1 - Magnus Carlsen 0

Magnus loses to a 2500 player and within minutes starts posting material about cheating in chess. No, he does not accuse his opponent, but to start with this social media stuff immediately after the loss is...at best 'bad form'.

He also mentioned not being able to concentrate at seeing an analog watch upon his opponents wrist. He checked with an official who said 'analogs' were allowed, just not digital at their tourney.

A couple of comments from Nakamura and Hammer:

Nakamura: "If at the end of the day we are going to devolve into this world where if something happens and you lose a game and you automatically become suspicious, I think the days of professional chess are very very limited down the road".

Hammer: "If the players are going to be so paranoid about cheating, then they need to take a bigger responsibility in terms of reading the regulations and influencing the regulations" He thinks Magnus did not know what is allowed and not allowed at the tournament. He also said he thought because Magnus was so quick to (over)react, that it will be easier for him to apologize now as he can say he simply overreacted after a defeat. This instead of thinking about it and then later making the comments.

Naka also said he hopes Magnus apologizes to the kid and thinks Magnus got really angry over losing the game and turned it into a massive issue.

Naka further opined that Magnus is the one player who alone can be heard and make real changes to cheating in chess...but that we are seeing an "erosion" of his credibility and character to some degree with what we are seeing here.

If you look at the actual game...Magnus did himself no favors there either. He crawls into a Maroczy shell which saw one lone unit crossing to the other side of the board where it is quickly captured...he plays too passively, gets too cramped and gets hurt.

[Event "Qatar Masters 2023"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.10.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Suleymenov, Alisher"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E12"]
[WhiteElo "2512"]
[BlackElo "2839"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2023.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Nc3 c5 7. e4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bc5 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. b4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Be2 d6 14. O-O Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 Ne7 17. Nb5 Ne8 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. e5 d5 20. Qb3 Be7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4 Nf4 26. Qf3 Kg8 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5 Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6 1-0

Oh, and then Naka and Magnus get into a spat on 'social media'...it's all too much.

Here is the game where Magnus got crushed ===>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD6KCxnsQEg