Hikaru Nakamura, who once accused India’s Arjun Erigaisi of cheating without proof, now faces accusations himself | Chess News

In the world of the 64 squares, a fine line divides intuition from paranoia. Hikaru Nakamura, who once accused Indian teenage GM Arjun Erigaisi of cheating without having any incriminating evidence, now finds himself fending off allegations from Vladimir Kramnik that he cheated in online games. The suspicious Russian and the offended American have spent the past weeks trading punches over the internet. In the red corner stands former World Champion Kramnik, who Viswanathan Anand describes in his autobiography as someone who “often made the most startling statements with acute nonchalance.” In the red, white and blue corner stands Nakamura, a fast-talking motormouth of a Grandmaster, who once was an accuser himself.
As the Nakamura vs Kramnik mudslinging contest raged, Indian GM Srinath Narayanan revealed to The Indian Express that Hikaru used to once send direct messages to a teenaged Arjun on a chess portal to “stop cheating”. The issue was only resolved when Arjun wrote to the portal raising an objection and was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“Hikaru used to accuse Arjun of cheating. This was two or three years back. He was pretty confrontative about it. Arjun felt sad about it, that someone he looked up to as a chess player was accusing him just because he was playing well,” says Srinath, who was a coach and mentor for the young Indian prodigy.
A world of numbers
Just like with Hikaru’s baseless claims against Arjun, Kramnik has not been able to provide incriminating evidence yet. Just a theory based on circumstances. Kramnik’s suspicions are fuelled Nakamura’s statics and winning streaks in online blitz games, which the Russian says are not achievable without assance. After implying that Nakamura was cheating in online chess, he demanded that he be allowed to “examine” Nakamura’s games. Then, he said he was starting a petition. Another day, he threatened the portal with a legal case and said that he had faced threats and abuses from users on the portal.
The American has addressed the allegations in the way he knows best: doing a series of streams where he counters the allegations, while also taking personal potshots at the former world champion. So far, Nakamura has said that Kramnik “doesn’t have a brain” and that he “has lost it” and has pointed out that his adversary “was a school dropout” and hence shouldn’t try and interpret stats.
The portal in question — Chess.com — has said that Kramnik’s accusations ‘lack statical merit’.
“We have generated nearly 2,000 individual reports on Hikaru’s games in our Fair Play system and have found no incidents of cheating. As to the allegations about Hikaru’s incredible performance streaks (including winning 45.5 games out of 46), we have also looked at the statics behind this. Our team has done the math and various simulations of streaks for a player like Hikaru who has played more than 50,000 games. We have found that not only is a 45-game winning streak possible, it is in fact likely given the number of games played. We have confirmed these results with external staticians, including a professor of statics at a top-10 university,” a statement on the portal reads.
The portal employs a team of staticians and uses software to analyse the prospect of a human matching a computer’s best moves on the board to figure out whether they have been receiving assance.
Srinath says that in the past couple of years, anti-cheating measures in online chess tournaments have gotten much stricter. As have been standard operating practices. He points out that cheating was especially rampant in online chess during the early months of the pandemic. Back then, not all tournaments needed players to have their webcams and screenshare on.
“But in 2023, we’re in a better place as far as online cheat detection measures are concerned for tournaments. You need to have two cameras on, frontal cameras to show your face. A side-angle cam where your screen is visible,” he points out.
Srinath says that in recent times, the focus of the suspicion has shifted from lower-rated players using software to cheat their way through entire games to top players using electronic assance at critical junctures in a decisive game. But, as he points out, it’s very difficult to estimate in cases of top GMs whether they are receiving assance since they’re anyway making moves with incredible accuracy.
Paranoia in the 64 squares
Kramnik’s allegations have divided the sport. But irrespective of which side holds the upper hand, the incident shines a light on how much paranoia and mrust exs in the sport’s top echelons.
From the time of Paul Morphy (thought of as the first unofficial world champion), chess has had some notably paranoid men who rose to the top. Morphy spent the final years of his life as a recluse, in fear of people who were out to poison him. Then there was American GM Paul Benko, who was so convinced that Mikhail Tal was trying to hypnotise him, that he wore a pair of sunglasses as he sat across the Latvian. It was no surprise then, when recently dethroned world champion, Magnus Carlsen, accused the young Hans Niemann of cheating but was never able to offer up any evidence.
Fast forward to 2023, no matter how strong the measures in place are, suspicions remain.As Srinath says, “Certainly, there’s paranoia (in chess). When you’re playing, you go through so many emotions that you’re at a point where you’re not totally objective about these things. You’re so involved that you cannot take a step back. So, fear certainly plays a role. Messes with your mind,” says Srinath.