My updated vocab list I've learned from watching Danya's videos: Ensconce Circumspect Convoluted Endemic Gradation Revulsion Enthralled Phalanx Conflating Myopic Scant Crux Excoriate Peeve Foible Obviate Predilection Antediluvian Vocab rating: 3200 elo

Now every time my opponent goes into the tank, I think they're just explaining to chat how they're about to kick my ass. Thanks Danya

Spoiler: I love the way that the ediyor didn't put cheater news to the title, so I watched it like an episode of a series and I really appreciate it :)

GM Naroditsky: keeping up his dignity against a-holes since 1995.

Same guy who lost to a 1200 earlier today absolutely found the sauce against Danya...

Cheating imo. The move where he thought for 2 minutes was a situation where he’s thinking “why can’t I just take the knight and take the pawn?” Then decides he’ll probably win anyway so goes for it despite the computer not recommending it

You’re too nice to opponents who cheat. As someone in the rating range of your opponent, I could play 1000 games against a grandmaster and not come within spitting distance of a game like that. It is noticeable that the only moves that were inaccurate were the ones where they spent time deciding upon. Every top engine move was made within seconds.

genuinely gained hundreds of elo from watching these speedruns thank you so much danya

A draw against Stockfish is a remarkable result

That moment at the end of the game where it looked like black might try and go on for a win, but then went for a draw anyways. That's him choosing a slightly different move out of frustration that the engine was repeating moves

Danyas diplomatic way of saying he thinks opponent might be cheating "I'm getting that hopeless feeling"

5:56 one of the voice cracks of our time

Danya is being super charitable here, but as a 2600 GM wouldn’t he pretty much know all of the players by name who can outplay him like this? Also as one of the best online blitz players in the world it seems super suspicious that someone would blitz out moves and surprise Danya with their strength. Seems pretty superhuman to me but impossible to prove anything for sure

In about 1/3 of these videos Danya says "1/500 games I will be outplayed, it's not that crazy".

The guy has a 1959 puzzle rating with over 3,500 puzzles attempted. I have a 2549 rating on puzzles with 4,200 attempted and am a USCF 1406. Tactically he's much worse than me and no way could I come close to hanging with a GM for 68 moves.

When the opponent plays a lot of "immediate consternation" moves and still has 15 mins

39:22 And the word of the day is "ensconce". I love that he's both a GM at chess and a GM at English. I can't tell you the last time I heard that word used.

Looking at their games, the opponent has reached the position after 5.d4 12 times. They have played 5...c5 exactly once in those 12 games, and that was against Danya.

He played a complex end game in a matter of minutes. Each serious move in the end game took about 7 seconds. That is extremely suspicious.

What a game, and as always, handled with class. I like these games where it's about trying to find minor chances out of an equalish opening with an open position.

I watched as he came into chat. The fact that he knew Frankfurt Airport is your speedrun name shows that there was at least the possibility that he knew who he was playing during the match. So in putting this match into that perspective it does lend to skepticism of his play being legitimate, as opposed to if he had no idea who you were.

daniel vs stockfish | a series

1900 here so I guess not too far from the current speedrun level. I’ve noticed that around 1900-2000, everyone is still terrible at the endgame. While the middlegame and opening were definitely suspicious, the endgame is what made it for me. Can’t seem to believe that someone just a couple hundred rating above my level would be able to play that endgame so accurately.

The "terrible" 94.3% accuracy game... I bet my right kidney, the opponent cheated...

This guy is proof that you can cheat for ages if you do it selectively. His peak puzzle rating is 2349 (currently 1959!) and here he is putting together insane strings of engine moves at breakneck speed, including inhuman moves like fxe6 and dodging the queen trade. He's 1719 bullet so he's a pretty good player, but the cheating is incredibly blatant here.

When I realize the opponent is cheating, I know it discourages Danya, but I actually enjoy watching it because I know he still stands a chance.

I don't care what anybody says; the way Danya handles these situations is objectively good. He states when he is suspicious and does not make any allegations unless he has sufficient circumstantial evidence that is probative of foul play. You have to understand that Chess is one of the few games that involve 0 luck; its all about skill. A 2000 rated player drawing a 60 move game against Danya (a grandmaster who's spent his ENTIRE LIFE playing and studying the game, and one of the best bullet players on the platform) with 9 minutes to spare is insanely suspicious. I believe 1 of 3 things is true: (1) he is extremely underrated, (2) his rating is correct and he miraculously found all the right moves immediately and played them with nearly no calculation, or (3) he is a cheater. I choose (3) based off of the other games he has played (ex: he lost to a 1600 today and the accuracy was 69-75) and the engine evaluation. Please don't pay attention to the comments that trash your method of handling "such positions," Danya. They are probably just trolling.

I’d guess 99% cheater lol. You’re incredibly generous with your suspicion levels but it does set a good example. Just the other day I had a game against someone my level where the opponent sacrificed a knight immediately for no obvious compensation then quickly began outplaying me. My first instinct was “cheater” but then he started playing garbage moves so I don’t know

Love the speed run Danya!!! Look forward to your videos daily

Congrats Danya for drawing this! Even if the game was less analysed, I feel like we learned a lot from watching you play for a draw and trying to find the best moves who gave you chances. The opponent might have been lucky with his moves, which happens. Thanks for the game

I wish we got to see the part where Decode comes on the chat to say that he's only played d5 and danya busted him for never having c5 once before

"This has been a very humbling experience for me" bless him

It is actually quite obvious that the first mistake is made once the opponent starts thinking. So he wants to make the cheating less obvious and choses a move that is not top computer or calculates himself that it is not a complete blunder. But it is a direct outlier to the rest of his play.

thank you for these great insightful tutorial videos, Daniel!

I'm a new subscriber, and haven't known about you for very long. But I want to commend you, and tell you how much I appreciate the tenacity with which you defend your opponent's honor, even when you *do* suspect cheating; refusing to make (or even entertain) any accusations until you've had time to dig in with the engine. I admire the display of character you show in these scenarios.

I’d love to see another Grunfeld game soon Danya, I know you recommended it against d4. Studying it has been quite difficult for me on my own. As always, I appreciate the value you give to the online chess community.

Thank you danya for all of the videos. You have helped me love the game of chess, and improve a lot!

Interesting time usage and accuracy at 94%~ from Mr. Decode

Ke8 in 15 seconds gives it away here 🤖🤖🤖

Stopped shooting for a checkmate and have been gaining ELO. Loving chess right now.

Classy Danya, always measured and without ego. Inspirational

just got to 1300 watching your games and analysis. thanks for all your content!!

A few comments: 1) Danya's videos, teaching and attitude are incredible. He's exemplary in the chess community and handles potential cheaters extremely well. 2) There are many different levels of what could be called "rare". Every move changes the odds. Playing 3 best moves in a row might be a 1 in 10 chance for a certain player, for example. But then 6 moves would be a 1 in 100 chance and 9 moves would be 1 in 1000. It all depends on the factors and the odds tend to grow exponentially. Someone playing a pretty good game is one thing. Someone playing 600 points above their ELO sustained for 30 or 40 moves is basically impossible. On the level of 1 in a million million, not just 1 in 10 or 1 in 100. 3) It doesn't matter if the moves can be rationalised afterwards. Anything becomes easier to explain after the fact. The question is whether the player actually came up with them and how plausible it is based on their rating. Again, a 1 in 100 possibility can be given the benefit of the doubt while a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 is basically proof. 4) Based on this, I'd say this guy cheated. He might be a legit player most of the time, but that doesn't change the fact that he chose to cheat in this game which ruins the game and his reputation. Way too many factors point to cheating - the speed of the moves, the consistent high accuracy, the intuition of Danya (like you're getting squeezed), the unintuitive moves, etc. 5) The pause needn't indicate "thinking", it could also be that they're distracted or had computer issues. 6) Cheaters often turn the engine on and off. So overall accuracy is less significant than long streaks of perfect moves during the game, regardless of a few mistakes.

Danya has to be my favorite GM. Not only does he handle everything with such class but he allows us to watch and learn from him like this for completely free.

It's always funny to hear someone younger than you say "back in my day"

This was a solid game!!!!! Very strategic fight for a Draw.

This whole game gave me so much anxiety but I loved how you handled it.

I searched up this opponent and found that I have played him once quite some time ago and I lost in like 20 moves. Mind you we're both 1800-2000 at that time and they are playing at 90+% accuracy. I don't want to say anything but I have had this scenarios for quite some time with a few opponents.

Danya displays pure class and that's one of main things to take away from this pairing.

My rating has been up to 2050 , but anything above 2000 and I suffer from altitude sickness.I mention this to say I thought the game played by this opponent grew gradually more suspect , I think some of the good moves I would have found - avoiding the early Queen exchange , moving the bishop to the long Diagonal , even retreating the knight. Some of the weaker moves Rb2 ? , BxN ? I noticed and hope I would have avoided.But overall the speed and quality of his game , especially endgame -? report the guy with a clear conscience.

ok, that looked like high level, selective cheater to me at least xD 11 Great moves and a brilliancy and up on starting time at the end of a 60 odd move game with 95% accuracy vs a GM xD

This is easily the best part of my day :)

Haha I like how you say how could someone play this fast and this good as if you weren't one of the best blitz and bullet players on the planet.

golly gee willickers a daniel naroditsky video

1 Brilliant, 6 Great, 40 Best, 10 Excellent, 5 Good, 0 inaccuracy, 1 mistake and barely more than 2 minutes of clock time used against a world class GM. Decode is a fucking legend and deserves to be world champion!!!

Danya is just so classy his dealing with cheaters is really measured and understanding who knows if this was cheating or not but either way this was an incredibly sharp game and incredible to watch danya play when he’s being really stretched which for 95% of these speed run games he isn’t being stretched this much

It's funny the moves people are pointing to, I think the most damning is actually 43. ...Ke8 over ...Ke7. The latter being completely natural, and still drawing, the prior being the top engine move, completely unnatural, almost instantly for a slight edge.

congrats on the domineering warriors victory today! watched it live at the gym between sets, excellent comeback into domination.

It's interesting to hear his thoughts on how likely it is to get 95% accuracy. I've had plenty of 95% accuracy games in bullet and blitz and it's because opponents are moving fast, making mistakes, and falling for opening traps that I've studied and know the automatic answers to. I've had a few 100% games just because the guy fell for the exact opening trap I've learned - it doesn't mean I'm amazing, just that they blundered a lot because they weren't familiar with it. But a long, drawn out, 95% accuracy game in longer time controls vs a very strong opponent who also is playing at 95% is a whole other story.

I vote for cheater. The two red flags are the quickness of the moves, as well as the accuracy of the endgame play.

Keeping up with Danya is one thing, doing it while making your moves in 15 seconds is ridiculous. Once they got out of “theory” they still made moves extremely quick, relative to the complexity of each decision.

This speedrun has been so helpful for me. I went from 2051 elo to 2053 and i wont stop here 🔥

Due to people like that and since i don't like bullet or 3/0 blitz, I never play humans online, only against the computers. Thank you for your very instructive videos.

it's quite awesome that he would not just blatantly say that he's cheating, etc =) truly honorable from him and shows also why he is where he is.

13:59 says a top 3 bullet player lol

If you don't realize he's talking to Twitch chat he comes across as a crazy person!

Yea I'm sure this random nobody legitimately makes several key moves that turn out to be strong surprises to a world class GM, all the while spending less time than the increment amount

"I dont really know much about chess and people so if you think you know better, you know better" - Daniel Nariditsky

Awesome video, loved the inclusion of a counter not widely known.

That was a good game. I always want to play the Scandi but don't want positions like that lol

34:40 True, sometimes it feels like streamer GMs insinuate cheating so many times, that when it happens it’s met with suspicion

Danya says it's only statistically unlikely that a 2000 beats a 2600 in a 15 minute game and it's only suspicious. But didn't it happen 3 times in a row? that's gotta be super-mega-suspicious. And it's always people with perfect opening theory in obscure lines. Keep in mind that Danya didn't play bad neither. 94% accuracy is not bad. Maybe people have found a new way to cheat in the opening and not get caught. or maybe 2000 is the new 2600. I don't know.

This guy clearly used the computer to get a good position and then decided to try and finish off a 2000 rated player on his own as he started taking more time at the end. Selective cheating. Then he didn’t want a draw so he ignored the computer and moved his king away only to see the computer flash one drawing line and a bunch of losing ones. So he took the draw. Plain as day and all too common.

Good thumbnail for this kind of opponent

For this opening I do something similar but different. 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bc4 basically forcing black to expend more tempi or another pawn to get the nasty d5 pawn out of their doorway.

42:59 "I would estimate this as more than -0.70" [Engine reevaluates to -0.81]

I really want to see Danya playing against the 3200 engine and then together with us viewers, try to explore how it outplayed us and what we can learn from it.

danya you are too nice, this guy is giga cheating, and there is an increase with these players at every elo that get away with it

honestly i'm literally going to now copy black's opening prep. i'm pretty sure unlike danya me or people at my level would never hold against it

Wife just had first born son. Now this video pops up. What a great day!

I reallly want to see another grunfeld defense or at least to go more in depth in the strategy because i havent felt confident playing

You know the analysis is bugged when it said that both Naroditsky and the cheated played like a 1400.

It’s really not obvious is the opponent cheating or not. Very instructive game btw, keep it up!

I find the Ke8 move far more suspicious than the Nf6, because, to me, as a bad chess player, I'd move Nf6 there, too. But I'd do it for all the wrong reasons... mainly just because it felt very loose and out of play on the rim and I wouldn't have been considering Nf4 in that position.

Commenting before u watch is like premoving

Spoiler for video: Im 2-2 vs this guy. He cheated lol I’m utterly trash compared to Danya

Danya puts the caffeine in speedrun

I think Danya should start playing speedruns offline, because there are a lot of streamsnipers, cheaters and smurfs who wants to test themselves against Danya with deep opening preparation knowing which lines he is playing in the speedrun

In the rook endgame why did Danya let go of the h2 pawn instead of playing h4. Did I miss a tactic? Or king activity?

Dania has a point. He is also smurfing. From the other guys perspective its super GM level moves, also suspicious for a 2000s (in this case, in disguise). I would report Dania if I was playing against this Frankfurt acount not knowing it was a GM in disguise, because it would be suspicious.

I feel like there is been a lot more cheaters recently. The quality of play you'll see on a given day is wild.

Damn these 2000s r good

I really wouldn't say that he was cheating on the basis of opening play alone. The previous 2 games were also hard for Dania because opponents knew theory better! But, I was 99.99% sure about the opponent's cheating with his endgame play. The basic reason for not doubting opening play is because of the enormous number of courses and free videos out there. Also, positional play is complex but some aspects of it like color complexes, backward pawn weakness, knight vs bishop choices etc. are understood to some extent at 1800-2000 level already. But, in an endgame, GMs turn into monsters and 2000s would be 2500s if their endgame play was this good.

nice

Danya's opponent lost to a 900 3 years ago and now plays on equal footing with a top GM? That guy is very sus

He obviously took the limitless pill

If you sort his games by first game played, he started off at 900 elo 2 years ago, lost 2 games, then went on a winning streak of about 25 games with 95% accuracy. Definitely a cheater.

i wouldnt rule out substance use im on an edible and instead of really feeling high maybe this is just more possible from seeing your perspective and not actively being in the game but I was finding a lot of blacks moves and it weirdly just becomes an intuitive math game that i cant explain why i was as accurate as i was, actually that might be what makes chess so hard damn

If it was a pet line, the C5 and FxE6 pawn moves are early enough to be prep, I would think. But my ELO is waaaay too low to comment with any authority.

Danya great job as always, too bad these intermittent engine users ruin the game. No way I could play 95% accurate in such complicated positions but I try to get something from the game, still a huge fan of this speed run!