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Fide has responded to the death of Daniel Naroditsky by promising to take faster action over allegations by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, which were made without significant evidence.
The Fide president, Arkady Dvorkovich, announced on Wednesday that the case will be referred to its ethics and disciplinary committee, which has the power to ban players for life. The omens for that are not promising. A similar referral of the Magnus Carlsen v Hans Niemann episode at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup took more than a year, and produced just a €10,000 fine for Carlsen and no other penalties.
Meanwhile, Kramnik has denied any bullying or personal insults directed at Naroditsky, and has announced his intention to file a lawsuit against Fide, accusing the organisation of launching a smear campaign against him. Naroditsky’s mother, in her first personal statement since his death, spoke of the emotional effect that the campaign had on her son.
Allegations of an opponent cheating online with the aid of computers are frequent. However, they very rarely occur over-the-board, while online websites have developed robust counter-cheating mechanisms such as fast inspection of suspicious results and moves.
In recent years Kramnik, who won the world title from Garry Kasparov in 2000 then lost it to Vishy Anand in 2007, has been the most prolific cheat proclaimer. His evidence, when provided, is often obscure and unconvincing. Kramnik claimed that Naroditsky often looked away from the board when moving, implying that he had an engine connected within his vision but off camera.
Naroditsky was a 2600+ grandmaster and a blitz specialist, so did not need to prove anything, but Kramnik was his childhood hero so he tried to argue to prove his innocence. However, the long campaign took its toll. His health suffered, and he looked distressed in the second half of his final video last weekend.
Was this the game which triggered Kramnik’s campaign? Chessdom has published an encounter from Titled Tuesday 2023, with Naroditsky’s crushing queen sacrifice at move 43. Many of Kramnik’s accusations have been directed at this event, which he calls Cheating Tuesday.
The most famous case of alleged cheating, again with no clear evidence, was the then world champion Carlsen’s withdrawal from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, later alleging that his opponent Niemann had cheated. The episode led to a $100m lawsuit and an out-of-court settlement. Niemann has since played successfully for three years without complaint, and is now ranked in the world top 20, while Carlsen this week joined in the condemnation of Kramnik: “The way he was going after Naroditsky was horrible.”
Although Naroditsky was the most prominent subject of Kramnik’s investigations, he has been far from alone. The Czech Republic’s No 1, David Navara, who is autistic and is among the most polite and pleasant of all grandmasters, was accused of cheating by Kramnik and at one point was reportedly suicidal. Navara actually sent a complaint to Fide, but the ethics and disciplinary committee took no action.
England’s respected international master Tom Rendle has also been accused, as was the Ukrainian double world under-12 champion Tykhon Cherniaiev, then aged 14, who this column once singled out as among the most promising juniors of his generation. Cherniaiev was reported and blocked by Kramnik due to a single move which another GM considered “neither that strong nor too hard to find”.
One of Naroditsky’s last opponents before he died, India’s Nihal Sarin, said: “The relentless, baseless accusations and public interrogations he faced in recent months caused him immense pressure and pain. When respected figures spread unfounded allegations without accountability, real lives are destroyed.”
Naroditsky was a supremely gifted streamer and commentator, whose articulate explanations of strategy and tactics inspired many. He had more than 800,000 followers on his Twitch and YouTube channels, and there have been more than a thousand comments, a record, to his memorial article on chess.com.
He defeated the world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, in the 2021 US Championship, and in the same year he scored in an internet game against Carlsen as Black in 21 moves with a queen sacrifice.
Caruana has a mission in the current US championship, whose final round is on Friday evening (7.30pm BST start) and can be watched live on YouTube. If he wins the crown, Caruana will equal the achievements of Samuel Reshevsky in 1936-42 and Bobby Fischer in 1962-67, who both won four times in succession.
Caruana’s rival has been the world No 8 Wesley So, a three-time US champion who is in good form after his victory in the $350,000 Sinquefield Cup. When Caruana and So were paired in round six, Caruana established a winning position, but failed to spot a forced checkmate and had to settle for a draw after thinking for just 90 seconds on his 41st move.
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Caruana, with plenty of time on the clock, chose 41 Qf6?? after which the defence 41…Qg8! held the draw. Instead 41 Qd8! (41 Qb8! is just as good) Nxh4 42 Bf6! when Black is already reduced to spite check sacrifices to delay 43 Qh8 mate. Caruana admitted later that his level of concentration had dropped on reaching the time control and his false impression that White is totally winning.
Leaders after nine rounds, with two rounds to go: Caruana 6.5, So 6, Levon Aronian 5.5, Niemann 5. Niemann has been on his best behaviour, eager to rebuild bridges with the St Louis organisers following the 2024 US Championship where he trashed his hotel room after losing a game.
He was smartly dressed, avoided saying that “chess speaks for itself”, and after defeating Abhimanyu Mishra, who had been on an unbeaten streak of 71 games, reminded his interviewer that Carlsen had been on a 53-game unbeaten streak in 2022 before they met in the infamous game which led to the lawsuit.
In round seven, against his then co-leader Niemann, Caruana produced the game of the tournament, a sensational display of original strategy. After the sequence 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 d6 4 c3 f5!? 5 d3 Qf6! White should play 6 exf5! or 6 Ng5 keeping the position open and his forces mobile. After 6 0-0? f4! it is already strategically difficult as Black’s Qf6 is active.
After that Black soon got his g and h pawns rolling. White could have done better with 15 Nc4 and 16 bxa7 to create some counterplay. As the game went, Black’s attack continued smoothly. The final position is a classic tableau. The black king still sits on e8, unmoved until White’s final spite check, while Black’s pawns swarm round the exposed white king. A most original game.
England’s schoolgirl talent Bodhana Sivanandan, 10, produced the best result of her career last weekend when she defeated the former women’s world champion GM Mariya Muzychuk, rated 2485, in an impressive game at the European Club Cup in Rhodes. Sivanandan’s confident handling of her active rooks and queen in the middle game were the key.
The game as played was captured by Chessbase India, with moves sped up for the camera to produce fast but easy to follow action. What next for Bodhana? She is now holding her own against seasoned women masters, despite her narrow opening repertoire and her sometimes passive middle games. Her Muzychuk victory should give her confidence for future battles to come against elite women.
3995: 1…Bxg3+! 2 fxg3 Ra2+ 3 Kg1 h2+ and White resigned. If 4 Kh1 Ne4 when Nxg3 mate can only be delayed by rook sacrifices. If 1….Bxg3+ 2 Kxg3 Rg1+ 3 Kh2 (3 Kf4 h2 and queens) Rg2+ 4 Kh1 Nf3 soon mates.
