"It’s a problem we will continue to deal with" - Viswanathan Anand on cheating claims in Chess
India's first grandmaster and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice president Viswanathan Anand expressed his views on recent cheating allegations by top players. The five-time world champion thinks that claims and counter-claims of this type will continue to flow.
In September 2022, former world champion Magnus Carlsen pulled out of the $50,000 Sinquefield Cup after a defeat against America's Hans Niemann. Accusations of cheating followed up soon.
The FIDE recently found that Niemann was innocent against the accusations and the world sporting body asked the Norwegian to pay a fine of €10,000 for skipping the tournament. He was, though, cleared from other charges.
Speaking on the measures that can help FIDE tackle the cheating allegations, Viswanathan Anand said that it won't be eradicated. He was quoted by The Indian Express as saying:
"Cheating allegations have been around for a while. But now, everything goes public very fast. Last year, the Carlsen-Niemann thing lit a fire under this topic. Now, it’s in the air. We continue to work on how to prevent it. It’s a technological thing so it means it will not be solved ever. It will be an arms race which will just keep escalating. But we keep enhancing our steps, our measures to fight it."
Anand added:
"There will be no final measure. You know how technology shrinks. Once you feel that you have screened for all these things, imagine suddenly in a couple of years, people will think, ‘Well you haven’t screened for this', because everything has shrunk. It’s a problem we will continue to deal with. I don’t think it will completely go away."
When Hikaru Nakamura accused Indian GM Arjun Erigiasi of cheating
The recent Vladimir Kramnik vs Hikaru Nakamura controversy led to a reaction from Indian grandmaster Srinath Narayanan also. He revealed to The Indian Express that the American used to make constant allegations against Arjun Erigiasi.
Hikaru would write to Arjun in a direct message on an online chess portal but only stopped when the Indian lodged an official complaint with the respective portal. Arjun was cleared of any kind of misconduct.