“Either he’s the best player to have ever lived or he’s cheating.” “I NEVER ACCUSED HIKARU OF CHEATING!” Lmaooo

Kramnik is going to sue you?? Falsely accused someone of cheating and then sue them if they defend themselves, what a nice guy.

Kramnik playing the reputation gambit declined

Kramnik speaks for himself.

One thing I don’t think people are considering. For Hikaru to be cheating on stream, he would not only have to be one of the best chess players of all time, but also one of the best cheaters of all time, to be able to conceal it with such efficiency.

Statistics also don't account for players on tilt, opponents having a bad day, time of day, rating difference etc. etc. It's easy to punish blunders when your opponent _makes_ blunders to begin with. For people who don't cheat, those moments will be more crucial. For a cheater _any_ moment is good enough to cause a game to (slowly or quickly) turn into a winning game. It's why usually one or two weird computer moves decide the game a dozen moves later, when someone is cheating. Nothing like that is visible in any games by Hikaru. It's pretty obvious the guy doesn't cheat, makes plenty mistakes or inaccuracies or even blunders and doesn't always get punished for them in games. And of course Hikaru is a huge favorite to win when farming 2500s.

I am glad you mentioned "no comment" being disingenuous. At work we have had reporters put that in their article despite not reaching out to us, reaching out by bizzare methods, or reaching out to press room with like 15 minutes to respond to a very complex set of questions. Then in the article they have a multi-paragraph hit piece and close it with "[Work] refused to comment," intentionally making it seem like we are being recalcitrant. We have actually considered legal action recently, it is infuriating.

Hikaru, I don't buy that one has to take into account Kramnik's age and era of where he has come from. I'm nearly 61 and I get it. He behaves more like someone who is losing his marbles.

Kramnik has gone full Fischer/Steinitz/Morphy. He seems to be paranoid and losing it.

Hikaru saying, "SMASH that subscribe button!", just cracked me up🤣🤣 But in all seriousness, i hope you get through this whole ordeal unharmed, and I hope Kramnik comes to his senses.

Kramnik is not from a different age hikaru. He’s 48. Tom Brady is 46. Eminem is 51. Joe Rogan is 56. These guys know how the internet works and grew up in the time when the internet was growing and eventually took over. They would not get this type of explanation for dumb stuff they did over the internet. This excuse everyone gives Kramnik is not valid.

I have always just assumed "did not respond to a request for comment on this article" is a lie when it appears. Nice to see some evidence for this long-held belief of mine.

Hikaru flexing his legal team on kramnik is fantastic 😂😂 kramnik would get laughed out of any reputable law firm with this sort of suit because hikaru would win BIG in a countersuit.

This is why chess is a weird game

I haven’t won a single FIDE tournament, and I find it very interesting. VERY interesting.

Accusing a 12 yo boy is sick. A man with such a big platform as a former world champion doing that is a really bad look.

I think Hikaru has softened his stance by putting out Kramnik's perspective as an old over-the-board player towards the online chess community which is good. Kramnik's just a relic of the past who is unadvertedly hurting the game he loves.

That boy Hikaru joined in by accusing Neimann when there is no evidence he cheated over the board!!!

People who overly accuse people of cheating in relationships are often the ones cheating themselves. I say investigate Kramnik. That's sussy behaviour.

Kramnik is on the Fischer arc

As someone new to chess, it’s amazing to me that cheating, at the highest levels especially, is so prevalent and easy. I think only in person tournaments with the most strict security measures should be allowed to count towards any metric of greatness

Chess speaks for itself

Kramnik: I am suing you for defamation! Hikaru: UNO REVERSE CARD

Year 3000: "Hey have you heard of this game? It's played with 16 white and 16 black pieces on an 8x8 board, it's called Cheat"

Magnus opened the flood gates, now it is the trendy thing to do.

*Kramnik sends his trolls as he cries*

Hikaru's win streak was beyond suspicious. It was downright _interesting._

Kramnik really needs to stop this BS!!

I'm older than Kramnik. That doesn't make me an tech-clueless bloviating dotard.

there's one simple metric to judge any cheating allegation. did i lose? if yes, cheating. if no, no cheating

it's like Animal House. Belushi jumps into the middle of the cafeteria and yells "foooood fiiiiiiight!" and the melee is on.

It’s like the Spider-Man meme that keep pointing at each other 😭

I took it to mean that something was fishy, but what was fishy was up to interpretation. It could mean the players you face is afraid to cheat against you, or tries to mix it up more, because those who cheat against you get caught. That means you may be playing a lot of worse performing players than their rating would suggest.

Cheating in chess is like stealing money in monopoly. Why even play?

Kram didn't specify it was Hikaru's streak to be fair. Could have been mine against Martin

Kramnik trying to gaslight the entire chess world because of his utter failure to grasp basic statistics is pretty hilarious, ngl.

hikaru needs to adopt kramnik

Thank you for clarifying the issue. I have seen headlines but not delved into the issue.

I can't believe that is a real news headline, this is truly one of the chess incidents of all time

With this all the tournament will be played butt naked to ensure cheating be avoided 😳

Imagine having the audacity of accusing a top player of cheating and threatening to sue them when they defend themselves 😂

On the day the machines finally take over we'll be found bickering with each other over who said what 😂

Hope you’re doing well Hikaru. We are missing you at the Championship!

Paranoia is real in chess 😂

My motivation for clicking into the video is drastically reduced proportionally to how much kramnik is in the thumbnail

Kramnik is the vice principal who walks into the room when all the students are just working quietly and suddenly starts accusing everyone of cheating and then the teacher says "Um, they're just writing their autobiographies" so he goes "But that kid was looking at the other kid's paper!!!" And the teacher says "If you don't mind, I'm teaching a lesson here. Could you leave?" And Kramnik goes "BUT THEN WHO WILL PAY ATTENTION TO ME??"

Mittens claims Kramnik is cheating, too.

It's very likely that sending the message to Hikaru's step-father instead of Hikaru himself was a mistake by the author and not some deliberate devilry.

Even with my buttplug in, my rating is still around 1600... what am I doing wrong?

I have never lost game of chess in my life... All my opponents were cheating 😂😂😂

At this point there is only one way out… head to head in all time controls.

How is Kramnik complaining about his image when he's accusing other players of cheating?! smh

Maybe everyone's a cheater and nobody is really above 900 Elo.

Glad you spoke on this. Great video

I was going to go to bed, but now gotta watch this!

In the ten years I've played RTCW online (return to castle wolfenstein) I've been called a cheater hundreds of times, without exaggerating. Always without proof. Meanwhile, I had a pretty clear understanding of how many people were actually cheating in the game, since I caught a bunch of cheaters in the game, with proof. Because I spent time in spectator mode when I thought someone was cheating, and then I recorded the gameplay footage. Being able to make rough estimations on how many people were cheating and how many people were accusing people of cheating I came to the conclusion that the problem of 'accusers' is actually far worse than the problem of actual 'cheaters'. The cheaters may have instigated the problem, but the people who then use accusations to quell the damage to their ego after losing, those are the ones who truly ruin the game the most. So you have to catch people red handed or STFU in my opinion. It's the only way.

I saw the title and immediately thought of that one meme of the different Spidermen pointing at each other.

I agree with kramnik that he was never making an accusation. Hes allowed to express his concerns.

Hans really was the Joker Some men just want to watch the world burn

I think it's cheating to accuse other people of cheating

I just watched a video last night where you missed a hanging queen and had to pick it up a move later. Ive never seen anything suspicious from you. Youre easily my favorite player and id love to play you one day 😂 see if i can survive for 20 moves 😂

Just add a back cam when u stream to end it

The sleazy tactics of journalists are so disgusting

Cheating in Poker, Cheating in Chess fun times to be living in!

Nobody cheated like the Soviets against Bobby Fisher

Kramnik's candyass ego won't let him fade gracefully into irrelevence.

Wow, I though you were being hyperbolic when you said Kramnik lost it.

Despite lacking the status of an elite player, I really must join in. Jeffery Xiong cheats in Titled Tuesday events.

dude has actually lost his mind

Regarding reputational damage on the internet, this from The Godfather Part 2: "This is the business we've chosen."

Hikaru is Gandalf NYT reporter is Gollum

10:47 Not like you aren't already worth of at least million of dollars 🤣

It's very easy to get paranoid about cheating, but there's an additional motivation: losing to a cheater is less of an intellectual insult than losing fair and square.

Excellent commentary. I don't normally follow chess but appreciated this review of the issue. Much respect.

I love how Kramnik's photo is from 2018 because he hasn't been relevant for years.

You don't cheat ! I hope to meet you one day . You are humble and have a great personality

I'm a huge fan Boss. Started noticing you saying umm a lot and obviously laughed harder & harder til the end. But like the Bruce Willis Movie - I don't wanna miss a thing. Happy New Near

Why is there this much drama in the game of chess? More drama then a high school

Kramnik trying to schrodinger out of this situation...no no no

Clearly there needs to be a classical match between you two. There needs to be an end of this WWE era.

he is not satisfied with just providing free content, he is now planning to provide money directly by taking this to the court. if kramnik is not your #1 fan then I don't know who is.

Why are people keep trying to sue hikaru for covering the news

It’s a crazy solution but for you to avoid any accusations you got to surpass stockfish .

Kramnik never accused anyone. He simply pointed out interesting things. It’s really very clear.

ngl that game against magnus, hans did, was very sus.

Haha we gotta get rid of stockfish, komodo..and all those other engines. I mean Fisher was already upset about the engines back then. I wonder what he would say now in with all of this! He would lose his mind haha

What's 'Old Man Kramnick to do, His lawn is over run with kids ; -)

[Kramnik laughs indignantly]

nah what it just keeps going

It's a direct consequence of Hans Niemann not being banned forever

Most common chess moves: 1) D4 2) Accuse opponent of cheating 3) Do not respond to request for comment

8:15 one of the sacking's you must make.

Merry Christmas, chess pros!

Cue the spiderman gif

Kramnik: 1 + 1 = 3, that's why you logically cheating

Nakamura wasn't in the tournament but Nakamura Jr was surely was🌚👏 Congratulations to that little kid

I heard that russian oligarks brought in a lounge tent for Nepo for the blitz section. Now he will retaliate for sure..😂

I'm 1200 and beating me is a reportable offense

Don't bring someone's parents into your problem with them. It is messed up.

Nakamura shouldn't be so upset about the accusation. It was just the year before when Naka jumped on the band wagon against Niemann