Chess Cheating Scandal

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack. I was brought up to compete fairly, to compete hard,
but within the bounds of the rules. Sportsmanship very important
in my family. My dad was offered my baseball coach,
and he was a stickler for sportsmanship. I'm not that
big a chess fan, but I hate a cheater. How
does anyway, Well, that's the essence of this story. Brought

(00:24):
this up earlier, but there are new developments, including Elon
Musk's comment on the story. Of all the scandals that
have rocked the world of elite chess in recent years,
this might be the most notable. In bizarre I missed those,
but the rumors that a nineteen year old grand master

(00:45):
used artificial intelligence, and I really I'm uncomfortable with the
actual term for the device he's alleged to have used.
Can we just call them vibrating high knee beads? All right,
let's let's put that aside for just a second. Um, well, no,

(01:05):
you don't put them aside. To put them inside, you're missing.
I happen to know that the current world chess number
one is Magnus Carlson because I actually kind of followed
chess a little bit, and I always have since I
was a little kid, like I remember when Gary Kasparov
was the guy, and uh, you know, I don't know
why I'm always into chess. But the current top guy

(01:25):
just got the coolest name ever, Magnus Carlson, and he
dresses coolmore sunglasses all the time. Well, this nineteen year
old from San Francisco, Hans Nieman, beat Carlson last week. Wow,
and chess fans are speculating that an accomplice watching the
match in St. Louis used a chess program to determine

(01:46):
the perfect move, then sent encoded instructions via the vibrating HBS.
So he had a vibrating device up inside him that
they could like allegedly tickles prostate if you need to
move your rook or something, oh boy, or one buzz

(02:07):
for left, two buzzes for right. I don't know how
it worked. I'm not good at chess, and frankly, I've
not spent a lot of time thinking about how one
might instruct someone in chess through their hind end, So
I don't know. Uh. Nimon is vehently denied cheating on
this occasion. Critics note that his rating his elo rating

(02:29):
his or is it his e l O rating, which
is based on how well he can sing, you know,
Turn to Stone and the other the other great hits
of the seventies. No, his ELO rating, which gauges the
strength of chess players, shot up an unprecedented amount in
recent days. Further, he admitted cheating during an online game
when he was twelve years old. I'm not sure what

(02:52):
you do as a twelve year old proves anything at all.
You cheated an online chess when you're twelve? All right?
How he cheated was one of his friends brought over
an iPad loaded with a chess engine program that offered
the most likely route to win. That person was off
camera in this online tournament. Um, and so he's admitted
to that. Okay, uh, And he was probably playing at

(03:14):
a pretty high competitive level even as a twelve year old.
So that's that's that's real cheating. Yeah, yeah, you know,
but who, so, who on earth? This? I mean, how
did this come to light? There were the sun doke shine? Um,
I'm not sure precise. That's a heck of a claim.

(03:37):
And did Carlson come up with this? You know why?
I lost? He's got a vibrating chess indicator up inside him.
What No, I'm sure of it. Let's see. Um, Magnus
Carlson walked out of this in the what do you
call a cup after he's beaten in the third round,
prompting online speculation that he suspected foul play. Um, so

(04:00):
he he stomped out. Magnus would never withdraw from a
tournament in a million years, said this other chess champion. Uh,
he just doesn't do that. He's the ultimate competitor, He's
a world champion. He wouldn't do this unless he strongly
believes Hans is cheating, with a very strong conviction. So
Magnus stomped out. The other guy kind of walked funny
with his feet like this. It was so bizarre and

(04:23):
so gro tesqueesque. Um, I'm looking for the what was
the origin of this particular theory? I mean, this is
a long article, too long, nobody cares this much, goes
into the history of cheating at chess. But anyway, and

(04:44):
I would not read this were this not one of
the great scientific geniuses of our time or any other
who happens to be the richest man on earth in
a sense deleted tweet. Elon Musk tweeted an adapted version
of a quote by the philosopher Arthen Schopenhauer, writing quote,

(05:04):
talent hits Oh, I'm never gonna get through this. Ah,
I am not going to get through this. This is
our wackiest, richest person ever. Oh beyond compare. Yeah. Yeah,
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. I'm sorry.

(05:29):
I'm sorry, child, I'm gonna try to get through this.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius
hits a target no one else can see because it's
in your butt musk if you need him. And he

(05:59):
deleted that tweet, so he woke up at some point
thought I shouldn't have tweeted that boy, Armstrong and Getty