Vladimir Kramnik, renowned chess grandmaster and former world champion, has sparked controversy by accusing Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin of cheating in online chess. Kramnik, who previously questioned world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura’s winning streak, alleges that Sarin’s blitz results against top-ten players this year are ‘mathematically 99.9999% impossible.’ While Kramnik refrained from explicitly naming Sarin, another user did so, prompting Sarin’s manager, Priyadarshan Banjan, to respond and challenge Kramnik to an in-person playoff.
Kramnik suggested a match between Sarin and another top player, Alireza Firouzja, arguing that ‘Nihal is capable of such performances’ and a lower score would convince him of Sarin’s innocence.
Sarin, a prodigious talent who became a grandmaster at 14 and holds a blitz rating of 2704, has a strong reputation in blitz and bullet chess. Banjan dismissed Kramnik’s insinuations as ‘delusional,’ emphasizing Sarin’s hard work and the handicap he faces due to slower server speeds in India compared to Europe.
Kramnik’s concerns about cheating in online chess are not unfounded, but the chess community believes that mass public accusations and blackballing are not effective solutions. Following his allegations against Nakamura, chess.com closed Kramnik’s blog and muted his account, citing a lack of evidence to support his claims.
Paranoia over cheating has plagued chess for years. Kramnik himself faced accusations of computer assistance during his 2006 World Championship match against Veselin Topalov, leading to the infamous ‘toiletgate’ scandal. Fabiano Caruana, world No. 2, acknowledges Kramnik’s concerns but suggests that his statistical methods may be flawed, conflating different statistical models.
While Kramnik’s allegations have raised alarm, the chess community remains divided on the issue of cheating and the best approach to address it.