Quote:
Originally Posted by Montrealcorp
Fwiw , a video with stock fish analyses show that Hans made 33 best move with black while Magnus with white only made 23 best moves .
And Hans played almost to perfection the endgame vs one of the best virtuoso ever in endings .
Rating was 83 white vs black 93 .
Many flaws were apparent on Hans postgame analysis on his next game with white and in his last game with black he just played and couldn’t see a clear losing endgame transition vs a player that was similar strength to him ….
To me there is some massive red light shrug .
I haven't seen any real source make an argument that Hans cheated based on his moves in that game - the "fishy" part is catching Magnus in an opening where Magnus is the one who played a move he's never played before.
However, there is a normal explanation for it - he prepped for facing the Catalan and ended up there by transposition. Hans got very lucky he had looked in depth into the Nc3 variation (or whatever) and then played a slightly shaky game where Magnus played poorly and won.
Gustaffson and Fressinet discuss this and Hans pointed it out in his interview.
This just seems dreadful from Magnus' side. Posting that clip and telegraphing that he believes Neimann is cheating, without providing any explanation (no hard evidence, which admittedly is difficult to have - but not even any circumstantial evidence or anything) is not just being a really poor sport, it's one of the worst things he could do to any up-and-coming chess player.
I really hope there are repercussions for Magnus. This was one of the worst possible ways for him to handle this. Even if cheating in general was a concern that was brewing and Neimann just happens to be the one to be accused without formally being accused - there certainly is a better way to address cheating in OTB chess. You're/were the world champ FFS - just demand tournaments take more precautions before you show up. I'm sure they would incorporate whatever measures he wanted.