Hans Neimann beating Magnus Carlsen, Robbi Jade Lew bluffing Garrett Adelstein, and John Runyan & Chase Cominsky stuffing their fish with weights: cheating is everywhere in the U.S. these days, and it's getting caught.
In this episode, Nick and Chris discuss this whole mess.
How brazenly stupid these cheaters were/are, the future of cheating, and why some cheating just feels worse than others. Also, what got them caught: glory.
From Episode 42 of Game Theory:
Listen to episode 31 wherever podcasts are found.
The Scandals
Chess: Experts Back Magnus Without Proof; Chess.Com Finds Widespread Cheating
Chess world champ GM Magnus Carlsen's shocking resignation from the Sinquefield Cup created a firestorm of cheating accusations against GM Hans Niemann that culminated in a Chess.com investigation which found that American teenager Neimann likely cheated in as many as 100 games, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Essentially, Neimann, a known, documented, and admitted cheater, is believed to have hid an RFID receiver somewhere on his person that alerted him to which moves he should make in response to Carlsen, the greatest player (by rating) of all time.
Neimann obliterated Carlsen. Carlsen resigned. The chess world took sides. Carlsen didn't offer much evidence to cheating other than something along the lines of he's not good enough to beat me that badly.
And his mega-elite chess peers agreed. Hans, a known and admitted cheat, is not good enough to be the GOAT like that. In fact, he's not good enough to be the rest of the top 10 like that.
The part of this that feels somewhat messy, is that the American chess apparatus largely supports Niemann -- which seems like nationalism and Xenophobia.
And while the U.S. hasn't produced as many Chess titans as the Soviet Union/Russia, we do boast two of the greatest ever (Paul Morphy, Bobby Fisher) as well as 6 of the current top 12 and 3 of the top eight: Fabiano Caruana (2018 World Champ Runner Up), Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura - the richest and arguably most famous player of all time -- a chess megastar.
He is a staunch rival of Carlsen (Carlsen owns him) and they are certainly not close friends. But, he's been in Carlsen's camp the whole time.
The daunting beauty of chess is that general consensus among the greatest players is, basically, as good as hard evidence.
Nakamura isn't the only one coming to Magnus' defense. Players like Anish Giri, Hikaru and current World Champ Runner-up Ian Nepomniathi who asked for extra counter-cheating measures against Hans Niemann following the Magnus game.
The issue is that the chess world, myself included, has been obsessing and hyping Magnus so much that he believes his word is enough. We've created a bit of a brat who appears to be acting like a sore loser.
In this case, though; both are clearly true.
Chess isn't the only corner of the competitive landscape dealing with cheating scandals, though. In a 72-hour period, scandals rocked the worlds of high-stakes poker and competitive angling, respectively.
Poker: Bluff or Intel - Why Give the Money Back?
In poker, rising star Robbi Jade Lew made an all-in call against high-rolling mainstay Garrett Adelstein that left her co-players shocked and her opponent in silence.
You can watch the hand below:
Lew was holding a garbage hand of 4, Jack unsuited. Adelstein had the 7 and 8 of clubs. When the flop came out with 9, 10, 10, Adelstein just needed a J or a 7 for a straight.
But, because Lew's highest card was just a J, Adelstein could also win with a 7, 8, Q, K, or Ace. So, for Lew to call, is absolutely crazy. Still, she did. And when the cards ran, Adelstein didn't get any of the cards he needed. Lew pulled off a hero call so crazy that Adelstein just stared off into space.
In the post-hand discussion, the other players appeared incredibly complimentary of Lew for her gumption. But, when Adelstein asks why Lew made the call that she did, she seems to contradict herself. She said that she thought that Adelstein was holding an Ace, But, if he was, that would make her hand bad. Adelstein asked her why, if she thought he had an Ace, she still bet.
Moments later, off-camera, Adelstein is believed to have confronted Lew saying that the clip would be viewed by millions of people (which it has). So, Lew gave the money back, which screams guilt. In the clip below, you can hear the players around the table analyzing the situation between the two players.
But, just like with Magnus Carlsen and Hans Neimann, Adelstein's reaction prompted him to dive a little deeper. Had he just taken his loss and not confronted Lew, maybe nothing comes of this other than speculation.
Still, the clip generated its own internet investigators. It appears Lew had a big red gem on a ring on her right hand. LEW SEEMED TO HAVE REMOVED THE GEM AFTER THE HAND! That makes it look very much like she was using the ring to receive signals.
One of my favorite poker TikTokers breaks it down here:
Now, Lew is being investigated. And you can bet your ass, clothing is going to be searched. Ripping someone off for more than $150k is a felony.
The internet played huge roles in the investigations and analysis of both Niemann and Lew, the only role the internet played in the fishing scandal was rage.
Fishing: Scales of Justice (Get it??)
At the 2022 Lake Erie Walley Trail fishing tournament in northern Ohio, two men turned in reasonably big fish. But, they weighed in significantly higher than expected and higher than other, bigger fish turned in by other angling teams.
In a now mega-viral video, you can see the two men -- Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky -- watching sheepishly as tournament director Jason Fischer searched through their fish.
It's pretty crazy, check it out:
Fischer told news outlets that the fish felt misshapen and clunky, as if they'd been stuffed with something.
Well, they had. They'd been stuffed with weights and with -- get this -- store-bought fish fillets.
The moment Fischer shouts "We got weights in fish" the crowd watching the search turned into a mob and Fischer can be heard telling the pair, in kinder words, get the F*ck outta here, I can't protect you.
Unlike the slick, technology-driven scandals created by Neimann and Lew, this one was simple to do and simple to catch. But, that doesn't mean that fishing tournaments aren't trying to ramp up their sophistication. NPR reported that many tournaments are adding lie detector tests to their qualifications.
And wouldn't you know it, Cominsky and Runyan just last year had a winning bounty stripped from them from failing the lie detector test.
While that kind of tech should be debated as a means to DQ someone from winning large sums of money, competitive fishing is at a huge disadvantage to cheaters unlike over-the-board chess (OTB) and live, high-stakes poker. You can't film an entire lake.
But, you can film every boat.
With camera technology becoming cheaper and more commonplace, one imagines, anglers will all be required to wear some sort of life preservers with a live-streamed camera similar to police body cameras. Or, you could just check every single fish that places in the money?
Too Good, Too Brazen, Too Public
The three cheating scandals appear to have at least one big thing in common: they bit off more than they could chew.
Had Lew bluffed with K high instead of J high, had Hans simply got a draw against Magnus, or had Cominsky & Runyan finished in the top 3 or top 5, maybe none of this happens.
But cheating does more than win - it makes you famous. These guys (and woman) went for a big enough payout to draw suspicion -- enough suspicion to launch investigations by their respective governing bodies.
And, ripping professionals off of winnings is a felony. For example, fishermen have been charged with federal crimes before.
The real question is how many cheaters are out there flying under the radar? Just grinding out enough wins to make a living. And, how would we ever know?
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