International chess federation sanctions Kramnik

I am happy about the outcome of this investigation, but I think it's far more important to highlight the other people mentioned in this decision statement. I'm not so familiar with Navara, who I understand was also under a lot of pressure because of this, so I will speak about Daniel and his impact on me.

Daniel Naroditsky was one of the most influential figures in chess: arguably the best chess educator on the internet; one of the most talented commentators out there; and an absolute demon at speed chess, who could go toe to toe with the best to ever do it. It's hard to come across someone as passionate, knowledgeable and generous about something as Daniel was about chess. And most importantly he appeared to be such a kind soul.

I find it hard to enjoy and engage with chess after his passing. He was the main reason to keep coming back for me. I wholeheartedly recommend every video in his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DanielNaroditskyGM.

So Kramnik, being a chess player and not a statistician, invented various methods of "detecting" cheating which seemed convincing for for a layman but questionable mathematically.

Then he started attacking Daniel, Hikaru and some other players online. This all led to pretty tragic consequences.

Kramnik still believes that he's in the right.

The only good thing out of this is numerous funny videos by chess players trying to figure out intricacies of statistics and math.

For non-chess players - imagine if Geoffrey hinton used AI detectors (GPT zero, pangram etc) to accuse and punish people of using AI in their writing and bad mouth them publicly. That's what kramnik (former world chess champion) did to Danya and other players. I miss Danya.

For those who don't follow chess, what were the allegations? This article is intentionally vague on all the details.

Kramnik is an asshole and this action is far too little far too late. His actions have possibly already led to the loss of a life.

At the same time, FIDE also needs to look back at the behavior of some of the most powerful people in the sport in the whole Hans saga. What Hans was put through was ridiculous even if all the allegations were true, given how many actions were simply the result of the most powerful player in the sport throwing his weight around.

I’m not a fan of Hans but I absolutely admire how he managed to continue and grow his career despite the top 2 biggest individuals in the sport, and a whole other set of powerbrokers (for example, the wealthiest tournament in the Sinquefeld cup) teaming up to destroy his career.

Kramnik undeniably pushed Naroditsky into developing an addiction which ultimately contributed to his death. Whether it was intentional suicide or accidental overdose(both are possible) seems to me to be completely irrelevant.

Kramnik engaged in a dedicated bullying and a smear campaign against Danya for a prolonged period, without substantive evidence, and never let up. When Danya explicitly stated in multiple interviews that Kramnik was seriously affecting his mental health, Kramnik persisted in his harassment. When Danya's mental health ultimately led to his death, Kramnik tried to put the blame on everyone but himself, including Danya, his friends and family, even the entire chess community. According to Kramnik, it seems like he is the only one who's completely blameless. It's good that he's being punished, but I think the punishment is too mild. In my opinion he should be stripped of all his titles, including his world titles.

The sad fact is that Kramnik is a pathetic narcissist, who because he's a shadow of his former strength, and a slow old man, gets easily beaten in online blitz, and then accuses people of cheating to protect his wounded ego, because he wants to pretend he hasn't declined.

For anyone new, Kramnik has been accusing players left and right of cheating without any proof. His accusations have done huge harm to the chess community as a whole. Daniel Naroditsky was harrassed so much, that he eventually went into depression and committed suicide. And he had proven ability as one of the best chess players out there, and probably the best chess teacher on YouTube. These are facts.

Now onto my probably crazy conspiracy theory: Russian players like Danil, Nepo and Kramnik have accused American and Indian players baselessly of cheating multiple times over the past few years. They have went to podcasts and implied that their opponents have cheated. Idk if it's some lost national pride in chess or something but accusing others does more harm than good. We've seen how it hurt Hans when he was accused by Magnus of cheating without any evidence. Multiple top level tournaments stopped calling him due to magnus throwing a tantrum cuz he lost.

That’s a lot of words to say very little. What is this about?

> In addition, the Chamber imposed 12 months of unpaid service for the benefit of the chess community as a supplementary sanction.

I wonder how this is enforced.

He basically pushed a player going through a crisis to suicide with his baseless accusations. Proceeded to make public derogatory remarks right after they passed while the family barely started grieving. This is a slap on the wrist.

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