The most interesting and most thoughtful grandmaster of the game was Bobby Fischer, in my opinion. Yes, he was also cranky and odd, but he was more interesting than Fabiano and he was thoughtful.
Ive met some people from the top 100, Caruana was one the most chill and down-to-earth guys thats up to have a casual conversation with a fan even after a long, hard fought game (unlike some others, that just storm away without giving any autographs or talking to anyone). Also Eric Hansen is incredibly friendly and an awesome guy to talk to!
@@ArranVid The 2 Jewish Americans are equally GOAT. 1 - Levy another Jewish American said GOAT comes down to Magnus Garry Bobby. Since Magnus & Garry are cheaters, Bobby is GOAT. 2 - Fabi is the highest peak rated fide classical player. Therefore both equally GOAT. MTOAT is another story and of course I'm biased to say Bobby Fischer w/ the 3rd highest rated fide classical player
What a great interview! Ilya asking very clever questions, Fabiano giving deep insights into current professional chess with all its problems and attractions. I am very much looking forward to seeing Fabi in action in Toronto in April!
Great interviewing Mr. Levitov. For example, when Fabi was talking, and said someone's name and he wanted you to confirm that was the right name, but you didn't want to interrupt him so you just nodded your head but didn't say anything.
Just a tip, normalize the audio. Levitov's mic is much louder than Caruana, I really wanted to watch it but I can't handle 1hour and 12mins of controlling the audio volume with precision or risk waking up my family or just being able to hear Levitov. With headphones it's even worst. I really hope you guys can see the problem and how that will make people give up watching.
I understand what you mean and I agree, but normalizing audio, in audio production just means bringing the max signal to just below clipping. In this case I’d assume you’d rather want to compress the signals and get them both to something like -16 -14 lufs
He was proved right on pretty much everything about chess. Pre-arranged draws and rigged tournaments, the exclusivity and politics behind the scenes, and computers killing off the game in 100 years.
@@MaraKaspar exactly. kunalsingh4418 said 'Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats.' but for magnus, garry, hikaru - every top player saw on camera that they cheated eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares. magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC. hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
You will never prevent cheating in events like titled tuesday, and if they cared, titled tuesday would have a dramatically different format than it does. Fortunately the events that REALLY matter to professional chess are not anything like titled tuesday.
I am a long time chess spectator and also have read about criminal profiling. From what I gathered in the last 15+ years, Naka has the highest possibility of cheating. He is grandiose, magical thinking, narcissistic borderline NPD, has motive and the means. Also his chess before and after covid are totally different. First he cheated online and then went on to cheat otb. Would love to hear Fabi thought on this, but I know he can't, publicly.
Chess results before covid were different? His chess results were among highest before (grandmaster at 15, strongest US player as of 2015, winner of many top tournaments, including wejk (tata steel) in 2011, rated 2700-2780 in 2009-2012, etc. The only difference at covid is that he started to play again after break in otb chess and unexpectedly qualified for candidates. But that's not really a change, as he was one of the strongest, and he still is. For online chess, his results were also incredible on icc, playchesscom or chessplanet. So, if he is cheating we never know for sure, but I don't really see any "change".
@@AndreyPutilov not enough. You must research a lot more. For instance, do you know "this is a broken man", where did this sentence come from ? And do you know he lost a +10 position to magnus once. The story is long.
To me, Hikaru could possibly be the least likely to cheat because he has the most to lose. I wouldn't be surprised if he is currently making the most money in chess, with the exception of Levy.
@@liljackypaper yes you are right if he is deciding whether to cheat now. It's not the case. Before covid he was at the lowest of his career and he had absolute nothing to lose. After that it's all about maintaining image. But egomaniac never knows when to stop. Second spike to 2780 otb is too much, then I have no doubt about him anymore.
This idea of "objectively determining the best player" may have to go? For any other sport, it's part of the excitement when you have a lot of strong teams entering the playoffs. They worked hard to get into the playoffs, and now you have to step up and play! As a recently reborn fan of chess, I did not mind at all seeing the WC match come down to Ding going for a win after the commentators (including Fabi) all called it a draw. And he won it. When one of the best players in the world, from a comfortable chair, doesn't see the win, and this guy, at the end of a grueling process, finds the win and executes it. . . I feel not bad at all calling Ding the World Champion. Is he "objectively the best"? lol. I think he won the World Championship, and I enjoyed watching the process that led him there. Love this look at the future of chess, though. Thanks for this video, and good luck in Candidates, Fabi!
1 - chess goat/MTOAT is generally thought to be Magnus, Garry or Bobby. Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC. Garry cheated Judit in 1994 Linares. Therefore, Bobby is. 2 Or if you go by peak classical rating then it's Fabi. Either way a Jewish American is the goat/MTOAT of chess. 3 But Bobby might say Wesley So or Ian Nepomniachtchi is the MTOAT because they are the top 2 classical 9LX players (classical means 60min+) from 2019Nov to 2024Jan.
I think he is saying like Magnus has said many times that the best player in the world has to be all around chess strength for all the time controls. If you were to force me to pick one time control I would pick rapid because it's the time control in between Blitz and classical. But I also feel there needs to be some sort of tournament tour that incorporates all three.
Meh. It is always a bit awkward when individual sports have world championships to determine formal N.1 rather than just using a rating system. But while that may be true, it is "also" a fact that chess in particular associates the title with "being the absolute best" since chess is far more objective than pretty much any other sport. When you look at the history of "World Champions" they are almost never NOT considered the best player, and if not maybe second, very rarely third. Also, while they may start as lower, they pretty much all become known as the best while holding the title even if they weren't quite there originally. This association is further made by how both Kasparov and Magnus have had INCREDIBLY long stints at the top as the absolutely and clearly strongest. The title was ALWAYS going to feel hollow since Magnus gave it up rather than have it taken from him. But Ding made matters worse for himself by being merely one of the fairly equal positions 2-7 on the world rankings, not playing any chess for 6 months afterwards, losing a lot when he did, and also how he won. I apprieciate your point that, from a viewing perspective, it is fun to see a last minute underdog victory. But you'll find that treating it as a regular Chess Championship and not care about it's HEAVY symbolic history where it is only assigned to "the objective best" is very much a minority opinion within chess culture. Nobody takes Ding seriously as a world champion, precisely because it isn't in fact just another title in practice, whether you personally see it like that or not.
People want to see one god. A single person dominating over everyone. And it was happening with past world champions. Steinitz, Lasker, Cabaplanca were considered the best, and they won this title of being a world champion, and they were in fact winning other players. People find it incredible. Those are historical examples. Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen are recent examples (and other world champions). Magnus (and Garry) were dominating over everyone else, beating all other strongest grandmasters in all time controls, in fisherandom chess, etc, managing to win super drawish endings, etc. Isn't it fascinating? Isn't it magic? And people are expecting same results from anyone being called a world champion. However, what do we see now? Who can win drawish endings, who can beat strongest grandmasters? And win tournaments in all time controls? It's Magnus. And what's up with Ding? He just performs like a top grandmaster like many others, but not the best. Okay, his achievents are much higher than from Ian or Fabi, he became a WC. But he does not show qualities expected from a true champion.
@@rowanmales3430 This is interesting, and I appreciate like... all of this. I do think chess players are favorable to objectivity, and I could see that translating to a desire to have that objective best. But you nailed it - there's a fairly equal bunch of players from 2-7 (or was at the time). There would have been a bad taste in our mouth no matter what the outcome was. At least we're done with split titles (we could split off for a good college football sideline conversation here, lol). I remain a fan of the format, (for some of the historical reasons - I think the Candidates Match is a beautiful thing) and expect we'll have a new World Champion, and maybe a new one in the round after that. . . people will have to swap their Yankees hats for Dallas Cowboys hats, or what have-you. It's difficult for the folks who have lived with so few world champs in their lifetime, especially. I tihnk a little period of awkwardness is probably okay for those kiddos who have only known gods. I don't think it will interfere with people arguing that Magnus is still the best player. I'd agree, and I kind of wish he would play, but. . . I get it.
I just had a look at the rankings and I've watched the top 8 enough to have a hard time believing that any of them cheated. I don't have any familiarity with #9 and #10 so I can't comment on them. Winning a match or even a few via cheating may be possible but I don't see how you can consistently get your rating and tournament results to top levels consistently. Chess continues to evolve which makes it even harder. I have only listened to about 15 minutes so far so he might have a more detailed explanation later one.
You guy's inspired me to quickly do this sorry i just did the greatest player I could think of immediately. no research no deep thought involved: Anand, Botvinnik, Carlsen (sorry Fabiano), Dubov, Euwe, Fischer, Gulko, Heine-Nielsen, Ivanov (alex), Ju (women's world champ), Kasparov, Larsen, Morphy, Niemann, Olaffson, Petrosian, Quinteros, Rubinstein, Stein (Leonid), Trompowsky (no idea why this one), Uhlmann (had to think hard on this one), Vidit, Wei, Xu, Yermolinksy, Zaitsev
In time, when VR headsetes will be cheaper, I suggest making obligatory playing online chess prize events with a VR headset and having it on the whole time during the game. This was the chess app knows exactly what you are looking at, the environment will be controlled. And absolutely no headphones. This was no proctor or cam business is necessary.
The engine only evaluate the top line... 20+ moves deep. So a .3 is .3 at beast with a perfect understanding of the position. For pratical chess you need to evaluate the sharpness and complexity of the line. How many moves can keep the evaluation at .3 and how common those moves are in those kind of position.
I’ve been beaten down to 1800 on lichess and the reason I don’t report it is because I’m paranoid that it’s an Ai and I’m probably not playing a human So it feels like I’m alone all the time The cheating is awful but I’m getting better at beating them but they most of the time really try to win and if you get too down on time you have no chance You have to keep the game going long enough and fast enough so they get bored or cocky
Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats. Guy was caught red handed multiple times, and has a history of cheating in prize money tournaments. Steal once and thief for life, same thing here. In fact watch the last podcast, Fabi directly said cheating in online prize money tournaments is stealing, since u take prize money from the actually deserving players. So that analogy is kinda perfect for Hans.
@@kunalsingh4418 hahaha only almost - 'Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats.' but for magnus, garry, hikaru - every top players saw on camera that they cheated eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares. magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC. hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
@@nicbentulan Hans cheated with the help of a chess computer. The cheating as you call it for Magnus and Hikaru was just a touch-move incident which most chess players will experience sooner or later. Magnus had two towers next to each other and he touched the wrong tower before he regretted it and moved the other tower. All this happened within a second. You have to move the tower you took first and he gave up the game after this as it was a losing position by moving the tower he took first. Hikaru vs. Levon in 2016 candidatesdet, Hikaru touched the king without moving it. Levon informed Hikaru that he must now move the king and Hikaru moved the king. You are comparing cheating with blunders which are two completely different things.
So we are almost there with the help of computers, that a player can shut down a game using opening analysis. That is just as big a problem for chess as the cheating. What to do? Theme tournaments. 2 points for a win. And finally Chess960.
@@reconnaisance This is how all the pro players and high level players feel though. They think people have more incentives to cheat in money games, or for bragging rights beating top players. And because the cheaters stick out more at that level and because their reports are taken more seriously and they see instant results. But honestly you are wrong about Fabi, I think he understands human nature more than most chess players and feels the complete opposite. For exampel he said there is way more cheaters at the 1800 level then there is at the 2200 and above level. He believes 1 out of 4. But you are correct, the lower the level the more cheating there is. And Erik the CEO of the website also corrected Levitov on this fact in their interview. Its unfortunate that even if we tackle the cheating problem among titled players in money events. The bigger issue is the fact the website does nothing about multiple account use, and if we count that as cheating which it is, we are talking about 80% of the general pop cheat and its mostly at the low levels frustrating new players from the game. This is also bad for chess because it means less money in those pro tournaments to start with. Kramnik has also finally bought up the point about multiple account use and I'm glad he is speaking for also noobs like me. This website shows they do noot care about such issues when they make exceptions for their streamers to smurf for entertainment, which as lichess puts in their TOS - encourages rating manipulation.
The lower your rating the easier it is to catch you. That's stupid to cheat at lower levels just because the change in your play becomes obvious. And there is no point in jt, you still will not qualify for any prizes or achieve notable results, until you actually grow as a player.
@@AndreyPutilov at the lower levels people keep making new accounts like water. That is the point. They are simply cheating to cheat, not trying to have a chess career. They simply do not care and people do not instantly get caught bud.
Was Fischer lucky? Was Petrosian going down at 33 years old? Maybe Petrosian was lucky to win too, or not. Perhaps Karpov was the lucky one; he didn't even have to fight the real champion of the time. Or maybe all the champions of the past were very lucky; not even one was any good. Who knows.
When Fischer made the 3..f6 move in game 6 on the prequalify match against Petrosian. That basically ended his career. He got crushed every game after that very similar to Nepo vs Magnus. And also very similar was Petrosian telling the press he didn't know what happened. Either his mind broke, or he was too tired, or something else but he wasn't playing chess anymore according to him. Nepo telling the Press the same thing happened to him after his game 6 against Magnus, was almost identical word for word. But unlike Petrosian, Nepo bounced back which is very extraordinary.
@@MaraKaspar Yes I remember when Kasparov visited his gravesite and said as much. When Fischer was alive Kasparov would never have said such a thing because Fischer called him a cheater lol. But in his older age Kasparov has always talked about the ideas on the board he introduced to the game, and also admitted Fischer bought chess to its peak popularity and its never been the same without him. ANd this holds true because Fischer raised the purse from 250k to 2mil, increased conditions and accommodations for all players, and its never increased again since 50 years ago. Here in America chess was only popular in the 60s and 70s. It gained some traction after covid but I already see it waning.
The idea of a tour of many event for a very small group of top players is terrible for chess. You don't have that anywhere else. For example in tennis normal tournaments have 48 players in the main draw (and 8 of them are for qualifiers who play for them for 2-3 days so it's even more players). In Grand Slams it's 128 players (and again more because of qualifiers). Meanwhile top chess players want to continue the tradition of playing in a small group of say 10 players (and maybe 16-20 overall as not all play all the events). We lose a lot of drama, Cinderella stories, upsets, new stars raising through the ranks beating established players. The format of round robin tournaments is also terrible. It pays off to draw a lot and save energy. Fight for the win is about always very indirect and about who beats the bottom of the tournament more reliably. Instead of all this nonsense let's do the following: 1)get rid of classical 2)play rapid KOs (or hybrids like 3 days Swiss qualifiers + 3 days of KO) 3)make events bigger (meaning a lot of people can participate) At the end of the season play world championship. In this 8 best players would participate (like in tennis). Make it 9 day with 3 day rounds or 2 double KO groups like in ATP finals and then semis/final 3days each. Top chess players keep thinking about themselves when designing new formats. Meanwhile it would be better to think about the viewers. Make the format the most fun to watch, with most drama, potential for upsets, deep surprising runs, introducing new players into the picture. The more fun it is to watch and follow the more money and fame there is going to be for the top guys as well. Slow chess tournaments with the same group all the time is not the way to get there.
yes the exclusivity in chess is terrible and always has been. Top players tend to want to protect their ratings.. I like the idea of a tour to determine greatest player instead of a single candidates, but like Fabiano i would like a mixture of all three time formats. If I had to choose one though indeed it would be Rapid. Open tournaments definitely.
Thieves are caughet 99 ℅ off time after they commit crime if you want to make thst analogy so to put cop at everysingle household for thief is stupid and takes whole fun out of living youll get analogy
Gonna have to disagree with Fabi here. I don't think Magnus is the best Chess 969 player in the world. Wesley beat him 4-0. Hard to imagine that ever happening in traditional chess.
- fabi is jewish. - most FSU players are jewish. - fabi is generally an enemy of magnus, garry, atousa x hikaru, liren, veselin, daniil, george bush jr, george bush sr, ariel sharon, piers morgan, nemo zhou, andrea botez, lawrence trent, aryan tari, richard rapport (allies of evil) and is generally an ally of carissa x wesley, bobby, hans, nepo, vlad, sergey, donald trump, bibi netanyahu, andrew tate, tristan tate, robbi jade lew, dina belenkaya, aman hambleton, alireza, jan duda (axis of evil). - most FSU fans support axis of evil over allies of evil (at least in chess. idk about politics) - i would add fabi to the 'axis of evil' list but i don't have a corresponding member to add in the 'allies of evil' list. same for anish, vidit, ben finegold,
Kramnik put out a poll from a cyber security company that showed 37% of online gamers admit to cheating. And thats in games where it is much harder. I'd say in chess its probably double that. E-sports in general have never been seen as anything more than games for cheating children and I'd hate to see the same fate for online chess. As it is chess in general is not a valid career path for anyone and this chess website like every game platform before them is avoiding any responsibility. I almost feel like you calling Fabi Caranoia makes you suspect of taking food out of babies mouths yourself. Just your comment alone does. How many accounts do you have on the website? because anything more than one makes you another cheater.
IMO HIkaru, Magnus, Alireza, Anish, and Ian. Wesley, Ding, Fabi and Dominguez would never cheat imo, because they the only ones that have never been caught cheating OTB and have not showed a poor moral unsporting character. As far as I know lol
@@steve5nash Hikaru, Magnus, Alireza, Anish and Ian. Only ones ever caught cheating OTB. I'da say out of those 4 most likely it is Alireza. Only one ever banned from website, and only one to play an obvious rigged tournament.
@@Nyxyz999 He farmed players online to beat HIkaru's rating. Has he ever smurfed for entertainment? I was simply saying that he has been caught making illegal moves over the board. Whether he uses an engine online or not I don't know. I doubt it but wouldn't be surprised.
0:00 Yes of course. Hikaru cheated Levon in the 2016 candidates. Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk in the 2009 blitz WCC. Garry cheated Judit in 1994 Linares. Q1 - How doesn't Fabi know about these well-known well-documented FACTS? --- Edit: H1 - Hikaru cheated Levon. G1 - Garry cheated Judit. G2 - Garry cheated Vishy. G3 - Garry cheated Daniel Edelman. G4 - Garry cheated in 1999 MSN game. G5 - Garry cheated Alexei Shirov. M1 - Magnus cheated Anish. M2 - Magnus cheated Sergey. M3 - Magnus cheated Alireza. M4 - Magnus cheated Wesley M5 - Magnus cheated Danya TWICE. M6 - Magnus cheated Nepo. M7 - Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk. WBH1 - Bobby cheated no one. WBH2 - Hans cheated no one (as an adult). WBH3 - Wesley cheated no one. WBH4 - Hans supposedly cheated 100x, but Magnus definitely did. - cbarr81 asked: Do you ever log onto as an anonymous player, and just crush people for fun? - Magnus admitted in an AMA: Once in a while I’ve used some of my friends accounts and won a couple of games… or a lot… Source: p1w4Rr-jr --- Q2 - How can someone be against Alireza's LEGAL farming but not outright ILLEGAL cheating of Magnus, Garry & Hikaru?
I think because he's talking about *trends*. I don't think anyone is picturing the downfall of chess coming from players min-maxing their results through carefully targeted misuse of the touch rule. :D
@@timb8549 Thanks for answering while acknowledging that Magnus Garry & Hikaru are cheaters. Btw it's not just touch move eg when Magnus cheated Alireza 2019 blitz WCC , Anish in 2023 Superbet blitz Danya TWICE lichess. Also Garry cheated Daniel Edelman 1988, Vishy 1995, Alexei Shirov 2000 & MSN 1999. None of these were touch move.
I don't understand how a touch-move incident can be compared to getting help from engines. Aren't these on completely different scales to be labelled as similar things?
@@nicbentulani believe they are talnking about cheating as getting external help (particularly engine use) , not any type of unfair play. In any case, breaking the touch-move rule is not cheating, right? It's an illegal move that should result in the player losing.Regarding the Firouzja-Carlsen 2019 game, i agree that the result was somewhat unfair, but that was just because of FIDE ruling. Other than that i'm not familiar with the other examples, but those also might be different to the type of cheating they're talnking about.
@@dastanaskarbekov7190 1 - why are you justifying cheating? 2 - which is worse -when nikhil 'prank cheated' vishy which ultimately led to more money for the charity & publicity for chess vs when garry cheated vishy in the 1995 pca classical wcc in the same way that magnus cheate alireza in the 2019 blitz WCC? 3 - basketball has personal vs flagrant vs technical fouls ... what does chess have? i don't see anything in the rules of chess about levels of cheating. cheating is cheating. magnus, garry & hikaru are cheaters. 4 - why is it that chess players magnus, garry & hikaru have each cheated a jewish player OTB while 9LX players wesley, bobby & hans have never cheated in chess as adults? it seems suspicious like being better at 9LX (i.e. being more talented at chess) corresponds to being more moral.
Thieves are caughet 99 ℅ off time after they commit crime if you want to make thst analogy so to put cop at everysingle household for thief is stupid and takes whole fun out of living youll get analogy
what about thieves who steal in plain sight but are not punished? eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares. magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC. hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
@@nicbentulan ehhh ok just throwing random events and run with it like a f ing champ doesnt do anything what you mean cheat you have to call arbiter if something happens at board game and complain second of all if you werent that high on your horse fighting some weird ass moral fight you would have time to thought about it our society is built on certain amount of trust and if that trust is broken or someone is with ill intent and something happens only after that measures are taken
Fabi has quietly become the most interesting and thoughtful grandmaster of the game.
The most interesting and most thoughtful grandmaster of the game was Bobby Fischer, in my opinion. Yes, he was also cranky and odd, but he was more interesting than Fabiano and he was thoughtful.
he's carlsen's straight man
@@ArranVid Well Bobby Fischers time was 50 years ago so I guess we gotta be thankful for the people we have right now :)
Ive met some people from the top 100, Caruana was one the most chill and down-to-earth guys thats up to have a casual conversation with a fan even after a long, hard fought game (unlike some others, that just storm away without giving any autographs or talking to anyone). Also Eric Hansen is incredibly friendly and an awesome guy to talk to!
@@ArranVid
The 2 Jewish Americans are equally GOAT.
1 - Levy another Jewish American said GOAT comes down to Magnus Garry Bobby. Since Magnus & Garry are cheaters, Bobby is GOAT.
2 - Fabi is the highest peak rated fide classical player.
Therefore both equally GOAT.
MTOAT is another story and of course I'm biased to say Bobby Fischer w/ the 3rd highest rated fide classical player
Caruana is an intelligent, insightful, and well spoken person that is incidentally a world class chess player.
Fabi is so calm and collected.
fabi is a fucking gentleman scholar and man of sheer fucking will
Very nice and clever chessplayer. He speaks like he plays. What a difference with most of the others! Many thanks to Levitov team
What a great interview!
Ilya asking very clever questions, Fabiano giving deep insights into current professional chess with all its problems and attractions.
I am very much looking forward to seeing Fabi in action in Toronto in April!
Great interview. Fabi has become my preferred resource for pro chess. So clear spoken and thoughtful. Total respect for Fabi.
Great interviewing Mr. Levitov. For example, when Fabi was talking, and said someone's name and he wanted you to confirm that was the right name, but you didn't want to interrupt him so you just nodded your head but didn't say anything.
Great interview, thanks.
People already cheat like he described. "I could create complexity and force many blunders". We see this already
great interview yet again, pls invite him again more often. Fabi is good
Thanks for this great content, Levitov!!!❤❤❤❤
Bro, amazing interview! Easily one of the best in the chess world! Cheers!
Great interview.. thank you..❤
Fabi is so classy and well-spoken. ❤
I like the millennial GM generation. Rooting for the oldies Fabi, Ian and Hikaru on this tournament
LMAO this guy basically says "Fabi, just stop playing if you think there are cheaters in TT". What a solution 🤣🤣🤣
Give a better one
@@Roman.Imperial.Artisttweek the engines.
Amazing interview!
One of the best chess podcast episodes I’ve ever listened to
Just a tip, normalize the audio. Levitov's mic is much louder than Caruana, I really wanted to watch it but I can't handle 1hour and 12mins of controlling the audio volume with precision or risk waking up my family or just being able to hear Levitov. With headphones it's even worst. I really hope you guys can see the problem and how that will make people give up watching.
I understand what you mean and I agree, but normalizing audio, in audio production just means bringing the max signal to just below clipping. In this case I’d assume you’d rather want to compress the signals and get them both to something like -16 -14 lufs
He just seems like such a great guy
wait...didnt Fischer say 60 years ago that opening theory was killing chess?
He was proved right on pretty much everything about chess. Pre-arranged draws and rigged tournaments, the exclusivity and politics behind the scenes, and computers killing off the game in 100 years.
And they're calling him crazy because of those comments 😂
@@MaraKasparno, they were calling him crazy, because he thought Jews were ruling the world
@@MaraKaspar
exactly. kunalsingh4418 said 'Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats.' but for magnus, garry, hikaru - every top player saw on camera that they cheated
eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares.
magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC.
hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc
why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
@@nicbentulan Pls send a link to the evidence you have of Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov cheating
You will never prevent cheating in events like titled tuesday, and if they cared, titled tuesday would have a dramatically different format than it does. Fortunately the events that REALLY matter to professional chess are not anything like titled tuesday.
Best chess interview I've ever watched.
A very interesting interview. Many thanks.
I am a long time chess spectator and also have read about criminal profiling. From what I gathered in the last 15+ years, Naka has the highest possibility of cheating. He is grandiose, magical thinking, narcissistic borderline NPD, has motive and the means. Also his chess before and after covid are totally different. First he cheated online and then went on to cheat otb. Would love to hear Fabi thought on this, but I know he can't, publicly.
Chess results before covid were different? His chess results were among highest before (grandmaster at 15, strongest US player as of 2015, winner of many top tournaments, including wejk (tata steel) in 2011, rated 2700-2780 in 2009-2012, etc. The only difference at covid is that he started to play again after break in otb chess and unexpectedly qualified for candidates. But that's not really a change, as he was one of the strongest, and he still is. For online chess, his results were also incredible on icc, playchesscom or chessplanet. So, if he is cheating we never know for sure, but I don't really see any "change".
You should contact Kramnik. He might find your theory Interesting. 😂
@@AndreyPutilov not enough. You must research a lot more. For instance, do you know "this is a broken man", where did this sentence come from ? And do you know he lost a +10 position to magnus once. The story is long.
To me, Hikaru could possibly be the least likely to cheat because he has the most to lose. I wouldn't be surprised if he is currently making the most money in chess, with the exception of Levy.
@@liljackypaper yes you are right if he is deciding whether to cheat now. It's not the case. Before covid he was at the lowest of his career and he had absolute nothing to lose. After that it's all about maintaining image. But egomaniac never knows when to stop. Second spike to 2780 otb is too much, then I have no doubt about him anymore.
Wesley worked with Vladimir Tukmakov for a year
Fabi is such a down to earth cool guy
Yes.
Him, Anand and MVL are my favourites super GMs as persons
This idea of "objectively determining the best player" may have to go? For any other sport, it's part of the excitement when you have a lot of strong teams entering the playoffs. They worked hard to get into the playoffs, and now you have to step up and play! As a recently reborn fan of chess, I did not mind at all seeing the WC match come down to Ding going for a win after the commentators (including Fabi) all called it a draw. And he won it. When one of the best players in the world, from a comfortable chair, doesn't see the win, and this guy, at the end of a grueling process, finds the win and executes it. . . I feel not bad at all calling Ding the World Champion. Is he "objectively the best"? lol. I think he won the World Championship, and I enjoyed watching the process that led him there. Love this look at the future of chess, though. Thanks for this video, and good luck in Candidates, Fabi!
1 - chess goat/MTOAT is generally thought to be Magnus, Garry or Bobby.
Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC.
Garry cheated Judit in 1994 Linares.
Therefore, Bobby is.
2
Or if you go by peak classical rating then it's Fabi.
Either way a Jewish American is the goat/MTOAT of chess.
3
But Bobby might say Wesley So or Ian Nepomniachtchi is the MTOAT because they are the top 2 classical 9LX players (classical means 60min+) from 2019Nov to 2024Jan.
I think he is saying like Magnus has said many times that the best player in the world has to be all around chess strength for all the time controls. If you were to force me to pick one time control I would pick rapid because it's the time control in between Blitz and classical. But I also feel there needs to be some sort of tournament tour that incorporates all three.
Meh. It is always a bit awkward when individual sports have world championships to determine formal N.1 rather than just using a rating system. But while that may be true, it is "also" a fact that chess in particular associates the title with "being the absolute best" since chess is far more objective than pretty much any other sport. When you look at the history of "World Champions" they are almost never NOT considered the best player, and if not maybe second, very rarely third. Also, while they may start as lower, they pretty much all become known as the best while holding the title even if they weren't quite there originally. This association is further made by how both Kasparov and Magnus have had INCREDIBLY long stints at the top as the absolutely and clearly strongest. The title was ALWAYS going to feel hollow since Magnus gave it up rather than have it taken from him. But Ding made matters worse for himself by being merely one of the fairly equal positions 2-7 on the world rankings, not playing any chess for 6 months afterwards, losing a lot when he did, and also how he won.
I apprieciate your point that, from a viewing perspective, it is fun to see a last minute underdog victory. But you'll find that treating it as a regular Chess Championship and not care about it's HEAVY symbolic history where it is only assigned to "the objective best" is very much a minority opinion within chess culture. Nobody takes Ding seriously as a world champion, precisely because it isn't in fact just another title in practice, whether you personally see it like that or not.
People want to see one god. A single person dominating over everyone. And it was happening with past world champions. Steinitz, Lasker, Cabaplanca were considered the best, and they won this title of being a world champion, and they were in fact winning other players. People find it incredible. Those are historical examples. Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen are recent examples (and other world champions). Magnus (and Garry) were dominating over everyone else, beating all other strongest grandmasters in all time controls, in fisherandom chess, etc, managing to win super drawish endings, etc. Isn't it fascinating? Isn't it magic? And people are expecting same results from anyone being called a world champion. However, what do we see now? Who can win drawish endings, who can beat strongest grandmasters? And win tournaments in all time controls? It's Magnus. And what's up with Ding? He just performs like a top grandmaster like many others, but not the best. Okay, his achievents are much higher than from Ian or Fabi, he became a WC. But he does not show qualities expected from a true champion.
@@rowanmales3430 This is interesting, and I appreciate like... all of this. I do think chess players are favorable to objectivity, and I could see that translating to a desire to have that objective best. But you nailed it - there's a fairly equal bunch of players from 2-7 (or was at the time). There would have been a bad taste in our mouth no matter what the outcome was. At least we're done with split titles (we could split off for a good college football sideline conversation here, lol). I remain a fan of the format, (for some of the historical reasons - I think the Candidates Match is a beautiful thing) and expect we'll have a new World Champion, and maybe a new one in the round after that. . . people will have to swap their Yankees hats for Dallas Cowboys hats, or what have-you. It's difficult for the folks who have lived with so few world champs in their lifetime, especially. I tihnk a little period of awkwardness is probably okay for those kiddos who have only known gods. I don't think it will interfere with people arguing that Magnus is still the best player. I'd agree, and I kind of wish he would play, but. . . I get it.
I just had a look at the rankings and I've watched the top 8 enough to have a hard time believing that any of them cheated. I don't have any familiarity with #9 and #10 so I can't comment on them. Winning a match or even a few via cheating may be possible but I don't see how you can consistently get your rating and tournament results to top levels consistently. Chess continues to evolve which makes it even harder. I have only listened to about 15 minutes so far so he might have a more detailed explanation later one.
You guy's inspired me to quickly do this sorry i just did the greatest player I could think of immediately. no research no deep thought involved: Anand, Botvinnik, Carlsen (sorry Fabiano), Dubov, Euwe, Fischer, Gulko, Heine-Nielsen, Ivanov (alex), Ju (women's world champ), Kasparov, Larsen, Morphy, Niemann, Olaffson, Petrosian, Quinteros, Rubinstein, Stein (Leonid), Trompowsky (no idea why this one), Uhlmann (had to think hard on this one), Vidit, Wei, Xu, Yermolinksy, Zaitsev
In time, when VR headsetes will be cheaper, I suggest making obligatory playing online chess prize events with a VR headset and having it on the whole time during the game. This was the chess app knows exactly what you are looking at, the environment will be controlled. And absolutely no headphones. This was no proctor or cam business is necessary.
Ilya, please shout less. Fabi talks in a pleasant quiet tone so I turn up my volume and then you come in "SO WHAT DO YOU SINK..."
The engine only evaluate the top line... 20+ moves deep.
So a .3 is .3 at beast with a perfect understanding of the position.
For pratical chess you need to evaluate the sharpness and complexity of the line.
How many moves can keep the evaluation at .3 and how common those moves are in those kind of position.
I’ve been beaten down to 1800 on lichess and the reason I don’t report it is because I’m paranoid that it’s an Ai and I’m probably not playing a human
So it feels like I’m alone all the time
The cheating is awful but I’m getting better at beating them but they most of the time really try to win and if you get too down on time you have no chance
You have to keep the game going long enough and fast enough so they get bored or cocky
Love the portion on calculation. What modern nook fo you think explains this method and is good for a 2000 player to try?
interesting that he doesn't mention Rustam
46:21 this is gotta be a hans accusation
Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats. Guy was caught red handed multiple times, and has a history of cheating in prize money tournaments. Steal once and thief for life, same thing here. In fact watch the last podcast, Fabi directly said cheating in online prize money tournaments is stealing, since u take prize money from the actually deserving players. So that analogy is kinda perfect for Hans.
@@kunalsingh4418
hahaha only almost - 'Almost every top player thinks Hans cheats.' but for magnus, garry, hikaru - every top players saw on camera that they cheated
eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares.
magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC.
hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc
why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
@@nicbentulan Hans cheated with the help of a chess computer.
The cheating as you call it for Magnus and Hikaru was just a touch-move incident which most chess players will experience sooner or later.
Magnus had two towers next to each other and he touched the wrong tower before he regretted it and moved the other tower. All this happened within a second.
You have to move the tower you took first and he gave up the game after this as it was a losing position by moving the tower he took first.
Hikaru vs. Levon in 2016 candidatesdet, Hikaru touched the king without moving it. Levon informed Hikaru that he must now move the king and Hikaru moved the king.
You are comparing cheating with blunders which are two completely different things.
cheaters in top 10... he's obviously talking about Hikaru
Tweek the engines.
Timestamps
So we are almost there with the help of computers, that a player can shut down a game using opening analysis. That is just as big a problem for chess as the cheating. What to do? Theme tournaments. 2 points for a win. And finally Chess960.
I face cheaters often at 2100 elo, I imagine how many cheaters at higher levels.
the higher the level the lower the number due to higher risk. Fabi is out of his mind
@@reconnaisance This is how all the pro players and high level players feel though. They think people have more incentives to cheat in money games, or for bragging rights beating top players. And because the cheaters stick out more at that level and because their reports are taken more seriously and they see instant results. But honestly you are wrong about Fabi, I think he understands human nature more than most chess players and feels the complete opposite. For exampel he said there is way more cheaters at the 1800 level then there is at the 2200 and above level. He believes 1 out of 4. But you are correct, the lower the level the more cheating there is. And Erik the CEO of the website also corrected Levitov on this fact in their interview. Its unfortunate that even if we tackle the cheating problem among titled players in money events. The bigger issue is the fact the website does nothing about multiple account use, and if we count that as cheating which it is, we are talking about 80% of the general pop cheat and its mostly at the low levels frustrating new players from the game. This is also bad for chess because it means less money in those pro tournaments to start with. Kramnik has also finally bought up the point about multiple account use and I'm glad he is speaking for also noobs like me. This website shows they do noot care about such issues when they make exceptions for their streamers to smurf for entertainment, which as lichess puts in their TOS - encourages rating manipulation.
There are many at 300-700. Some lower their rating to beat more people in tournaments.
The lower your rating the easier it is to catch you. That's stupid to cheat at lower levels just because the change in your play becomes obvious. And there is no point in jt, you still will not qualify for any prizes or achieve notable results, until you actually grow as a player.
@@AndreyPutilov at the lower levels people keep making new accounts like water. That is the point. They are simply cheating to cheat, not trying to have a chess career. They simply do not care and people do not instantly get caught bud.
You must blame a business for turning a blind eye. We need alternatives and to vote with our eyes and $.
I think I face cheaters but hard to say.
"believe in yourself" wow i am inspired!
Fischer was lucky that no one could play near his level?...get serious
I noticed this guy's hate as well. High respect to Fabi for defending it well, one of the nicest top players today.
Is there any chance for GM Putin to play in The Hague next year?
Well he certainly loves a gambit
Was Fischer lucky? Was Petrosian going down at 33 years old? Maybe Petrosian was lucky to win too, or not. Perhaps Karpov was the lucky one; he didn't even have to fight the real champion of the time. Or maybe all the champions of the past were very lucky; not even one was any good. Who knows.
When Fischer made the 3..f6 move in game 6 on the prequalify match against Petrosian. That basically ended his career. He got crushed every game after that very similar to Nepo vs Magnus. And also very similar was Petrosian telling the press he didn't know what happened. Either his mind broke, or he was too tired, or something else but he wasn't playing chess anymore according to him. Nepo telling the Press the same thing happened to him after his game 6 against Magnus, was almost identical word for word. But unlike Petrosian, Nepo bounced back which is very extraordinary.
The guy doesn't know what he's saying. Even Kasparov and Carlsen admitted Fischer at his peak may be the best ever.
@@MaraKaspar Yes I remember when Kasparov visited his gravesite and said as much. When Fischer was alive Kasparov would never have said such a thing because Fischer called him a cheater lol. But in his older age Kasparov has always talked about the ideas on the board he introduced to the game, and also admitted Fischer bought chess to its peak popularity and its never been the same without him. ANd this holds true because Fischer raised the purse from 250k to 2mil, increased conditions and accommodations for all players, and its never increased again since 50 years ago. Here in America chess was only popular in the 60s and 70s. It gained some traction after covid but I already see it waning.
He's cheating about the 5 indians... not quite beating Magnus, but picking tens on k of $
The idea of a tour of many event for a very small group of top players is terrible for chess. You don't have that anywhere else. For example in tennis normal tournaments have 48 players in the main draw (and 8 of them are for qualifiers who play for them for 2-3 days so it's even more players). In Grand Slams it's 128 players (and again more because of qualifiers). Meanwhile top chess players want to continue the tradition of playing in a small group of say 10 players (and maybe 16-20 overall as not all play all the events).
We lose a lot of drama, Cinderella stories, upsets, new stars raising through the ranks beating established players. The format of round robin tournaments is also terrible. It pays off to draw a lot and save energy. Fight for the win is about always very indirect and about who beats the bottom of the tournament more reliably. Instead of all this nonsense let's do the following:
1)get rid of classical
2)play rapid KOs (or hybrids like 3 days Swiss qualifiers + 3 days of KO)
3)make events bigger (meaning a lot of people can participate)
At the end of the season play world championship. In this 8 best players would participate (like in tennis). Make it 9 day with 3 day rounds or 2 double KO groups like in ATP finals and then semis/final 3days each.
Top chess players keep thinking about themselves when designing new formats. Meanwhile it would be better to think about the viewers. Make the format the most fun to watch, with most drama, potential for upsets, deep surprising runs, introducing new players into the picture. The more fun it is to watch and follow the more money and fame there is going to be for the top guys as well. Slow chess tournaments with the same group all the time is not the way to get there.
yes the exclusivity in chess is terrible and always has been. Top players tend to want to protect their ratings.. I like the idea of a tour to determine greatest player instead of a single candidates, but like Fabiano i would like a mixture of all three time formats. If I had to choose one though indeed it would be Rapid. Open tournaments definitely.
Sorry, but chess isn't about drama, if you want that go watch WWE.
@alvarohigino unfortunately I think that's what the streaming Community is turning chess into.
Who are these cheaters in the top 10?😂
so much time of this interview was wasted on cheating talk
Said cheater
Thieves are caughet 99 ℅ off time after they commit crime if you want to make thst analogy so to put cop at everysingle household for thief is stupid and takes whole fun out of living youll get analogy
Gonna have to disagree with Fabi here. I don't think Magnus is the best Chess 969 player in the world. Wesley beat him 4-0. Hard to imagine that ever happening in traditional chess.
Wait. Are many many people in Russia really rooting for fabi? Lol
@@honeycatcher9565 I didn’t know if it was tongue in cheek or not. Figured they’d be rooting for Ian
- fabi is jewish.
- most FSU players are jewish.
- fabi is generally an enemy of magnus, garry, atousa x hikaru, liren, veselin, daniil, george bush jr, george bush sr, ariel sharon, piers morgan, nemo zhou, andrea botez, lawrence trent, aryan tari, richard rapport (allies of evil) and is generally an ally of carissa x wesley, bobby, hans, nepo, vlad, sergey, donald trump, bibi netanyahu, andrew tate, tristan tate, robbi jade lew, dina belenkaya, aman hambleton, alireza, jan duda (axis of evil).
- most FSU fans support axis of evil over allies of evil (at least in chess. idk about politics)
- i would add fabi to the 'axis of evil' list but i don't have a corresponding member to add in the 'allies of evil' list. same for anish, vidit, ben finegold,
Фаби точно тот кто импонирует русским) подтверждаю!
@@Ruslan_Polyakov
В лучшем случае: является ли Fabi евреем?
Confirming Fabi has a lot of fans.
Caranoia...
Kramnik put out a poll from a cyber security company that showed 37% of online gamers admit to cheating. And thats in games where it is much harder. I'd say in chess its probably double that. E-sports in general have never been seen as anything more than games for cheating children and I'd hate to see the same fate for online chess. As it is chess in general is not a valid career path for anyone and this chess website like every game platform before them is avoiding any responsibility. I almost feel like you calling Fabi Caranoia makes you suspect of taking food out of babies mouths yourself. Just your comment alone does. How many accounts do you have on the website? because anything more than one makes you another cheater.
Delusional fan of someone is triggered
@@yurin7099Welcome.
Irony .. the interviewer who doesn’t even have FIDE rating thinks for a second and says “ yes Anand can play chess “ .. 🤡
Top 10? Hikaru?
IMO HIkaru, Magnus, Alireza, Anish, and Ian. Wesley, Ding, Fabi and Dominguez would never cheat imo, because they the only ones that have never been caught cheating OTB and have not showed a poor moral unsporting character. As far as I know lol
so who?@@cooloutac
@@steve5nash Hikaru, Magnus, Alireza, Anish and Ian. Only ones ever caught cheating OTB. I'da say out of those 4 most likely it is Alireza. Only one ever banned from website, and only one to play an obvious rigged tournament.
@@cooloutac you think magnus would be satisfied to win by cheating? Lol
@@Nyxyz999 He farmed players online to beat HIkaru's rating. Has he ever smurfed for entertainment? I was simply saying that he has been caught making illegal moves over the board. Whether he uses an engine online or not I don't know. I doubt it but wouldn't be surprised.
0:00 Yes of course. Hikaru cheated Levon in the 2016 candidates.
Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk in the 2009 blitz WCC.
Garry cheated Judit in 1994 Linares.
Q1 - How doesn't Fabi know about these well-known well-documented FACTS?
---
Edit:
H1 - Hikaru cheated Levon.
G1 - Garry cheated Judit.
G2 - Garry cheated Vishy.
G3 - Garry cheated Daniel Edelman.
G4 - Garry cheated in 1999 MSN game.
G5 - Garry cheated Alexei Shirov.
M1 - Magnus cheated Anish.
M2 - Magnus cheated Sergey.
M3 - Magnus cheated Alireza.
M4 - Magnus cheated Wesley
M5 - Magnus cheated Danya TWICE.
M6 - Magnus cheated Nepo.
M7 - Magnus cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk.
WBH1 - Bobby cheated no one.
WBH2 - Hans cheated no one (as an adult).
WBH3 - Wesley cheated no one.
WBH4 - Hans supposedly cheated 100x, but Magnus definitely did.
- cbarr81 asked:
Do you ever log onto as an anonymous player, and just crush people for fun?
- Magnus admitted in an AMA:
Once in a while I’ve used some of my friends accounts and won a couple of games… or a lot…
Source:
p1w4Rr-jr
---
Q2 - How can someone be against Alireza's LEGAL farming but not outright ILLEGAL cheating of Magnus, Garry & Hikaru?
I think because he's talking about *trends*. I don't think anyone is picturing the downfall of chess coming from players min-maxing their results through carefully targeted misuse of the touch rule. :D
@@timb8549
Thanks for answering while acknowledging that Magnus Garry & Hikaru are cheaters. Btw it's not just touch move eg when Magnus cheated Alireza 2019 blitz WCC , Anish in 2023 Superbet blitz Danya TWICE lichess. Also Garry cheated Daniel Edelman 1988, Vishy 1995, Alexei Shirov 2000 & MSN 1999. None of these were touch move.
I don't understand how a touch-move incident can be compared to getting help from engines. Aren't these on completely different scales to be labelled as similar things?
@@nicbentulani believe they are talnking about cheating as getting external help (particularly engine use) , not any type of unfair play. In any case, breaking the touch-move rule is not cheating, right? It's an illegal move that should result in the player losing.Regarding the Firouzja-Carlsen 2019 game, i agree that the result was somewhat unfair, but that was just because of FIDE ruling. Other than that i'm not familiar with the other examples, but those also might be different to the type of cheating they're talnking about.
@@dastanaskarbekov7190
1 - why are you justifying cheating?
2 - which is worse -when nikhil 'prank cheated' vishy which ultimately led to more money for the charity & publicity for chess vs when garry cheated vishy in the 1995 pca classical wcc in the same way that magnus cheate alireza in the 2019 blitz WCC?
3 - basketball has personal vs flagrant vs technical fouls ... what does chess have? i don't see anything in the rules of chess about levels of cheating. cheating is cheating. magnus, garry & hikaru are cheaters.
4 - why is it that chess players magnus, garry & hikaru have each cheated a jewish player OTB while 9LX players wesley, bobby & hans have never cheated in chess as adults? it seems suspicious like being better at 9LX (i.e. being more talented at chess) corresponds to being more moral.
i fucking lvoe this
I am rated around 1550 AND THERE ARE FUCKING LOADS OF CHEATERS
i think ur just bad, there are not a lot of cheaters.
Thieves are caughet 99 ℅ off time after they commit crime if you want to make thst analogy so to put cop at everysingle household for thief is stupid and takes whole fun out of living youll get analogy
what about thieves who steal in plain sight but are not punished?
eg garry cheated judit in 1994 linares.
magnus cheated alexandra kosteniuk in 2009 blitz WCC.
hikaru cheated levon in 2016 candidates. etc etc
why are 9LX players like wesley so bobby fischer & hans niemann more honest than chess players like magnus carlsen, garry kasparov & hikaru nakamura?
@@nicbentulan ehhh ok just throwing random events and run with it like a f ing champ doesnt do anything what you mean cheat you have to call arbiter if something happens at board game and complain second of all if you werent that high on your horse fighting some weird ass moral fight you would have time to thought about it our society is built on certain amount of trust and if that trust is broken or someone is with ill intent and something happens only after that measures are taken