Vladimir Kramnik chess cheating poll backfires on ex-world champion

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who constantly raises questions about cheating in chess, posted an online poll on his X handle about cheating. But it turned out to be a self-inflicted blunder.
In the past, the Russian has implied that grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura have cheated in games. Kramnik’s tactics have been controversial, with the Russian posting statics on his X account that name players to imply wrongdoing. He has also sent several emails to chess app Chess.com about online cheating in chess.
The latest poll, which still has a few hours to end, from Kramnik was also regarding online cheating. But so far, it has thrown up surprising results, at least for the former world champion.
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“Who is doing most damage to chess nowadays,” asked Kramnik on X.
The four poll options he offered were:
Cheaters;
Structures covering them;
Players silent about it;
You, I support cheaters.
With five hours left for poll to end, 2892 people had voted. An overwhelming majority of that (48 per cent) had voted for the last option which stated that they thought that Kramnik was doing the most damage to chess.

Here’s what the other options got: Cheaters (23 per cent), Structures covering them (19 per cent), Players silent about it (20 per cent).

Who is doing most damage to chess nowadays
— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) January 31, 2025
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Kramnik’s crusade against cheating
The former world champion played — and lost — against GM Jose Martinez, in a match called ‘The Clash of Claims’ in Madrid. The Clash Of Claims was a three-day match in June last year played at the Casino Gran Via in Madrid to settle a dispute between the two players about alleged cheating on Martinez’s part. He beat Kramnik 14.5-11.5, with two games to spare, losing 6.5-7.5 over the board before winning 8-4 online. Story continues below this ad
However, Kramnik disputed this result as well, citing technical issues which he claimed had invalidated the contest.
This led to a rematch, called ‘The Clash of Blames’ in August last year where the former world champion prevailed 19-17 in their 36-game Clash of Blames blitz match in London.
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