[imagesource:  Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club]

Chess doesn’t enjoy mainstream media coverage most of the time.

Aside from the brief period when The Queen’s Gambit was a Netflix smash hit, it mostly flies under the radar, despite being a game enjoyed by millions around the world.

That all changed when Magnus Carlsen accused Hans Niemann of cheating during their match in early September.

He didn’t outright say it at first, dropping hints on social media and letting the whispers grow into a cacophony, before releasing an official statement this week explicitly levelling cheating allegations at Niemann.

Niemann has admitted to cheating during online play when he was 12 and 16 but insists he has never cheated in a live game. He has been banned from Chess.com, the sport’s biggest online platform, which claims it has evidence of further incidents yet to be publicly revealed.

You’re up to speed, more or less, so here’s the latest via VICE:

Maxim Dlugy, one of Niemann’s coaches, was banned from Chess.com in 2017 and 2020 for repeatedly cheating in its tournaments, according to emails reviewed by Motherboard in which Dlugy admits to cheating.

Image: Facebook / Maxim Dlugy

They include a lengthy explanation from Dlugy [with Niemann above] in which he says that students from his chess academy were watching him play in a Chess.com tournament, and that one of them was using a chess AI to feed him moves.

The 56-year-old grandmaster and former junior world champion is a familiar name in the chess world. He runs the Chess Max Academy, a top chess school with locations in two cities, where lessons start from $250 an hour.

Dlugy was initially banned in 2017 after he was caught out and returned to the online platform under a different username. Three years later, he was caught again and told website administrators, “I promise it will not happen again.”

He also pointed out that he thinks cheating is rife in the sport, especially online.

These developments are not good for Niemann and Carlsen may have already known about them. When asked last week what he thought of Niemann, he gave a peculiar answer:

“Unfortunately I cannot particularly speak on that. But, you know, people can draw their own conclusion and they certainly have. I have to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play, and I think his mentor Maxim Dlugy must be doing a great job.”

The fact that he specifically named Dlugy and called him a “mentor” is telling.

Niemann has not yet spoken publicly about Dlugy’s emails or Carlsen’s most recent cheating allegations.

You seem distracted? Ah, you’re still thinking about the rumours that Niemann cheated using vibrating anal beads, aren’t you?

VICE reports that we could soon shed more light on whether or not that’s possible and plausible:

Ron Sijm, a software engineer in the Netherlands, wants to find out and has developed software to test the theory. He’s posted the code to open-source coding platform GitHub, and all he needs now is the right sex toy…

Sijm adapted Sockfish, a program that uses a chess engine and vibrations to communicate to internet of things devices. Sockfish was designed to vibrate a motor in someone’s shoe, but Sijm’s system would have a team watching the board, running the chess AI, and sending morse code vibrations to a device up someone’s butt. He’s still trying to figure out which sex toy would be best.

The number one problem, aside from keeping a straight face, would be how to “translate a series of vibrations felt in the ass into a workable chess move”.

He’s now looking for someone who has a working device to test his software.

Step up and take one for the world of chess.

[sources:vice&vice]