How Hans Niemann BROKE Chess 

I just realized I didn’t say “Itesodadae”

Have no idea why YT recommended this to me but it was great.

I was the checker champion of my 3rd grade class.

As a statistician I hate the internet and everyone here

"Chess speaks for itself" -famous last words

That Botez clip really illustrates what the mindset was around this situation. He’s either the best or he cheated. And he can’t be the best bc Magnus is the best and he clearly cheated bc how could Magnus make a mistake. Like idk how this entire community just immediately snapped on this dude because their top player lost.

I didnt know Dream played chess.

Hans interview at Sinqfield didnt do him any favours. He said he cheated online only in unrated games so he could get his rating up to play stronger players. Wtf. He also lied about the number of times he cheated which turned out to be a lot more than he admitted too. When you have a track record of cheating and lying its not surprising that a lot of people wont trust you again.

This was an excellent video on cheating. I have been involved in investigation allegations of cheating in the Backgammon world. You have to be so careful and remember that you are dealing with a persons reputation. When you say a person cheated, you should have to say how they cheated, not just, that you have a feeling. Maybe a feeling is enough to start an investigation but it should be a private investigation.

I like the part where Hans Niemann says “It’s Esaming Time”

What frustrates me about videos like this is while the OP is being critical of all these people being so "obviously illogical", like 1 second later they will say things like "this rules out cheating" because the player didn't play only top engine moves. This mistake is made repeatedly by all sorts of defenders, the idea that a cheater must cheat constantly, when everyone knows the smart way to cheat would be to use the engine sparingly, in critical positions, and inconsistently. "obviously".

This was an amazing produced video. Not into chess that much but watched it from start to finish

thank you. this is a phenomenal video that was very clearly well-researched.

Really an amazingly well done video. You have a true talent at this.

I love how you’re branching out into covering other topics instead of just the smash and commentary community! Great video man🧡

I want to add on, the rapid elo climbing phenomenon during the pandemic applied to many up and coming players, not just Niemann. It has been a common complaint from top players about losing elo from people who were underrated due to the pandemic.

Never thought I would be so glued to a chess video, yet here I am You go a great job illustrating this!

I like that you don’t fear to go after big RU-vidrs just to say the right thing. Great video

This video perfectly illustrates how people put too much faith into models, math and stats. Just because a model exists and adheres to the rules of math and formal logic doesn't necessarily mean that it adequately or fully describes reality. This flawed use of the tool can be seen across many different domains of human activity.

Perfect video. I followed this closely and was shocked how everyone jumped the gun and believed everything everywhere. Ty!

Thanks a lot for this video!

Huge amount of work in that well compiled video thank you! Subscribed.

Hikaru is a hypocrite in nearly every drama he gets in.

Great video man! keep up the good work! We apreciate you and your passion 🙏

Great video! This is the first video I saw of yours and I was completely hooked! It was so damn interesting and considering this was a 1 hr video, I think it's quite an achievement to keep people hooked even for long format content (especially when reels are so popular and many people are losing their attention span), great work 💯

Amazing. Keep it up. ❤

Balanced and clear sighted analysis. Wish there more people like you on social media.

This was such a good video great work. It's my first time here I hope to run into another one of your videos

Great video; you have a talent to present it logically and in a fun way, please keep up the good work!

I don't think Hans cheated over the board. But once he cheated online he loses credibility and respect

Nice job. I really loved the detail at 16:55 when you synced up the "transposition" with the video interview. Excellent effort and detailed work. Very appreciated. Well done.

Good job man. Great research and video essay.

This was so well done! Thanks man

Your final statement is exactly how I felt watching this all go down in real time. How frustrating it must be to beat the best player in the world after spending countless hours improving yourself just to have him throw a childish temper tantrum and accuse you of cheating and bring the entire chess community down on you. Excellent video by the way, I have my degree in physics and did quite a bit of data science work in my undergrad years, and all the statistics proving Hans was cheating all felt really off to me, but I had no desire to break down why and you did an excellent job precisely describing why they were wrong even if you aren't a data scientist.

Hikaru broke an NDA and then stokes the flames with misleading videos

That was a great breakdown of the situation. I don't even play chess, but now I want to get into it

This is such an excellent video from you - well researched, well thought out and encompassing them both sides and treating them fairly, all while being digestible. I mean really good job with this one!! I just feel so bad for Hans after watching this video, I wonder if he’s seen it

Well poked at Hikaru

Chess was an unexpected topic from this channel, but this is such a well researched and produced video. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Also appreciated the Ace Attorney and other Capcom OST. Good job and happy new year!

Very informative and researched video. Keep up with this good work, my king.

your research is amazing man, subbed

So, the future of integrity in chess may be fucked because the #1 guy has such an ego that he can't just say he got outplayed? Seems about right.

YOOOO, I didnt think I would be featured as a member (I forgot I was a member lmao) Good vid bro, keep up the amazing work, and I pray that your editing software stops messing up all the time, I really hate to see it

Really good video. Edge of the seat recap.

such a great put together video very thoughtful and I like the ending thankyou for putting this together you are going places my friend +1 subscriber keep the great content coming and I'll be taking along -cheers!

Great documentary man. And yeah, I didn’t like how Hikaru posed himself as an objective bystander when he clearly had some biases against Hans. It’s okay to have biases, but he wasn’t combating them, he was leaning into them

The idea that you missed in this, is that a 2500 player that can go the the engine 3 times a match can beat a super gm, they had this weird thing in some nordic country where 3 IMs play a mystery GM in a green suit or something like that but they get to use an engine 3 times in the match and they won and then the gm reveals himself, it's kind of silly and fun but just checking an engine or knowing the eval is absolutely huge even if only done once or twice at tough parts of the match when players go into big thinks. That centipawn thing could be valid because you could be playing worse moves usually and getting slowly beat out on the eval but then playing a deciding line immediately after.

Best video on the topic I've seen

Great video on the subject! Well done sir.

Why tf haven't you blown up franchise this is probably THE MOST WELL MADE VIDEO on this topic, period. As someone from the smash community, you've always made such informative and HONEST videos about shit like this. I'm gonna keep watching you as long as you keep making videos unless you legitimately go crazy or something. Great video. MY FAVORITE BOXER WAS ON THE BEACH 😱😱😱😱😱

Really awesome video! I wanted to find out a detailed and balanced analysis of the Hans Niemann story and your video nails it! Not only it stands out from all the miss-informative, vague and outdated video on Niemann on RU-vid, but also it is a really coherent and logical analysis. Please keep up this great work. I appreciate it a lot!

Great work and research in this video

thanks for this trip into the chessworld :D

New sub here...."This video speaks for itself" 😉

Being a massive Magnus fan Magnus didn’t play his best that game… like at all, but what is weird is how he couldn’t analyze the match afterwards, the fact he did cheat a long time ago, and the rapid rise of improvement from his previous tournament score to the tournament he beat Magnus in

really good intro, it sold me on watching the whole video

What a great video, thans for creating it

This is excellent work man. You have always been incredibly talented at documentary style videos but this is next level.

Commenting for the algorithm and because thefranChise is still in desperate need of assistance!

Brilliant presentation. tx

Brasil mentioned 🗣🔥(not in a good way tho) lets gooooo

Absolute banger.

Great video, you nailed it.

Dang im coming back to your channel and im seeing CHESS videos? thats kinda cool im ngl

I don't think he cheated he just done something unexpected which has happened before in chess on kore than one occasion. Just because it was magnus carlson that lost. And magnus Carlson who started accusing him with no evidence. Then the wild anal head conspiracy theory hit and everyone magically agreed with no evidence yet again. No its tue simple answer that magnus just lost that day to an unexpected series of moves that presented themselves. As has happened in the past. Lastly Magnus was not looking at his absolute best at the time anyway. He is a sore loser though when he doesn't get his own way on a chessboard for a change. Nobody is perfect all the time

11:02 LTG reference never fails to brighten my day (though the lightning bolt might have something to do with it).

Im not much of a chess fan but am impressed at your ability to put together this video, i can see you reching the stars in the future if you hone your craft.

I have never before enjoyed a really well made video of a subject I have not one clue about but you made it informative, educational, entertaining and understandable. Thanks very much. I really enjoyed it.

hans cheated…i was the one who sent the signals to his beads

Honestly that whole drama destroyed my impression of both magnus and hikaru. To irresponsibly spread such baseless rumors and intentionally let them run amok (I doubt magnus seriously believed the beads were real) and tangibly damage the reputation and career of a young up and comer guilty of mistakes that many of their peers are is disgusting.

I don't know why drama in subcultures is so fascinating to me but it is and I want to say that you have done an excellent job of covering so much of this at such great depth. The statistical flaws section was especially well done.

great doco, subbed!

As a tournament player myself watching this video, what stands out to me is that you completely lack a reference point to understand why many players had the intuition Hans was suspicious. You aren't wrong that there's a problematic tendency to assume Magnus couldn't lose legitimately and constantly fluff him up beyond what's realistic (not to mention quid pro quo dynamics like where Magnus streams with Botez now and then and she talks shit about Hans), but there are also certain dynamics in a player's style of play that suggest they might be using an engine. You can't replace a chess player's experience with merely measuring centipawn accuracy. You also badly misrepresent the nature of the cheating allegations in this video. When you describe cheating in chess, you say it's like "playing god" and you control the outcome of the game entirely. This is false; chess is a game with some margin for error, therefore draws are by no means impossible for strong players to achieve even against strong engines. That may be less the case if those engines are configured specifically to find ways to unbalance the position and play for a win instead of simply choosing optimal moves, but doing so has several implications which might make cheating more conspicuous (e.g. playing on endlessly for hundreds of moves to extract an endgame error, or relying upon more easily detectable _sequences_ of computer moves instead of what was alleged). And most importantly, *the suggestion was that Hans cheated with only one or a few moves in each game.* A strategy like this makes cheating nearly undetectable and does not even vaguely approach your strawmanning of the accusations. If I had to bet, I don't think Hans ever cheated OTB at all. I accept that there is little concrete evidence for it and approve of the decision to treat him as innocent. However, I remain somewhat suspicious given how he played at certain critical junctures. I'm not talking about "quality" of moves, but more intangible characteristics about his ability to identify and make use of strange, seemingly unstable piece coordination patterns despite how rarely they appear in games) This indicates either unusual talent even among top players, simply a very unconventional playstyle, or engine play. Another important element you rightly touched on in this video is Hans' confidence. A lot of chess is psychological, and Hans' psychological willingness to accept and even perhaps expect that he'd beat Magnus seems like it could easily explain why he has an easier time of it than some of Magnus' steadier 'customers.' Hans' trainer's comments were also very useful, since they help build out the idea that Hans' anomalous play is partially attributable to a certain quirkiness of his approach to the game. Hans being so sanctimonious about it all _while lying_ during that interview by erasing the other times he had cheated online gave me the impression that he was very suspicious, and remains the worst strike against him. It is cause for concern even now. While I appreciate that you put work into understanding these events, given your ignorance about chess you should not be pronouncing any final judgement, nor signalling that people were wrong to be suspicious, as you're far from any reasonable standpoint to do this.

on baby this is the best video on this subject

What an amazing video! Good job!

Thank you for your objective observations.

Only 7 minutes in but you’ve earned a sub. I love the way you structure your videos.

Man, you and Technicals have ran a lot of stories recently of "guy with zero rizz gets into what should be a minor controversy, but because the memes are too funny, their whole life gets ruined" happened to Hax, The Panda CEO, Mike Z and now Hans. I think the moral here is that more people need a guy to do their PR.

Love that you took the side of reason and data.

Great video! Great flow

I think Mangus is a cereal cheater. No other reason to jump soo quickly to cheating

Commenting for more engagement. Going beyond smash is always something nice to see

The case was dismissed by a federal judge before an agreement was reached. It's not a settlement if there is no case.

Excellent, well made video. Thanks!

Any interaction i have ever seen from magnus was that he was so arrogant i wouldnt even bother talking to him.

Thoughts on Magnus pulling an Armada and not competing in the World Chess Championship?

Great video man!

An excellent documentary. Well done sir.

I believe everyone freaked out mainly because in chess, you have to calculate, right?...Hans had problems even remembering, let alone explaining the game he just got done playing.

I love the part when Carl said "ban jisu"

Best video regarding this case

Thank you for the content

Amazing video

I followed the drama about Hans Nieman cheating and i came to the same conclusion you did. The different methods used to find if he was cheating or not never struck me as very credible, it looked a lot like you can reach whatever goal you want by breaking the data down a certain way. Its basically using statistics in a dishonest way. I can make a comparison with Tennis, it is possible to win more games then your opponent and still lose the match. Then you take that data to prove that he is cheating when he starts winning (if he does obviously). The centipawn loss was a really dumb theory on every single front, it showed that he was losing more centipawns then other players and that should prove that he was a bad player, but also that he was cheating. In conjunction that he plays very aggressive and often let pawns and pieces hanging when he thinks he can force the game to a win for himself and he does it so that his opponents will hopefully make a mistake and not see that he can maybe force a win if they spend their turn to take the piece, so often they take the piece which would lead to a higher centipawn loss but still a win for himself. I think it was very dishonest of Carlsen to accuse him of cheating without ever saying so, because it was clear that he thought he was cheating but he didnt want to say it, because if he didnt think he was cheating he could have stepped up and said so any time he wanted during the whole drama. He struck me as someone that doesnt dare to stand behind what he was saying himself in case of backlash or that he was wrong. Hikaru did a horrific job at actually doing any work, he was basically only reacting to what other people said without ever actually analyzing Hans game against Magnus, or even being fair minded to Hans in a lot of what he said. "no one analyses games like that if you are 2800 elo" or saying something of the like. While at the same time saying that Kasparov's immortal game was well analyzed by Kasparov who basically said "i have too much material on that side" which is not analyzing the game at all.

Great work; well put together and structured! Nice, thank you from Germany! ;) Time to read Lushins Defense again. :p

Great video! Thank you!

There are so many errors in this. For example your point about a cheater making all the top moves. Only an idiot cheater would do that. It is much cleverer to only cheat as much as is necessary to win, not play the best move every move as that will be easy to detect. Many top players have said that a single alert in a critical position would be enough to turn the tables making it possible to cheat and avoid detection. Theoretically it is so hard to prove cheating mathematically for this reason. I think, “where there’s smoke there’s fire”. Are we to believe that Hans only cheated in two games ever? I find that highly unlikely. More likely is that he earned his reputation given how many top players (who actually understand how this works!!!) not just Magnus have come to suspect him.

Great vid! Guess it was filmed to early to note that Carlsen was just fined for his actions in chess! Insta-subbed.

Was wonderimg how this ended. Great video. And you are right, kudos to Hans for that excellent win againsr such a Great like Magnus

Already know this is about to be a banger