Player Nakamura: 'You have to be crazy to think I cheated'

On September 14, Nakamura beat world number two player Fabiano Caruana 18.5-8.5 in the quarterfinals of the online Speed ​​Chess Championship. He wore headphones throughout this match, without being reminded by the organizers. After the match, world number six player Ian Nepomniachtchi posted on social networks a photo of Nakamura with the comment: "It's unimaginable that nowadays a chess player can still wear headphones during competition."

Nepomniachtchi did not say anything more about suspicions of Nakamura cheating. But while recording a streaming video after the match, the Japanese-American player said: "If Nepomniachtchi says I want to cheat, you should say it directly."

Nakamura added that Nepomniachtchi once suspected another player, Hans Niemann, of cheating, but did not say so publicly. This time the Russian player felt there was a problem when Nakamura wore headphones.

Nakamura also mentioned the story related to former Chess King Vladimir Kramnik, when he suspected Nakamura and another American player, Daniel Naroditsky, of cheating. "That shows how crazy Kramnik is," said the reigning Speed ​​Chess Championship champion.

Speed ​​Chess Championship is the online chess tournament currently most highly rated by Magnus Carlsen, organized annually by the Chess platform. After the first two years of Carlsen winning the tournament, Nakamura has won all five recent editions.

Nakamura is 36 years old, has a high standard Elo of 2,816, when he is ranked second in the world. In addition, he once ranked number one in blitz chess. In online chess tournaments over the years, Nakamura has achieved equally high results as Carlsen, and outperformed the remaining players. He considers himself a professional streamer, just a semi-professional chess player. His accounts on streaming platforms attract several million followers, the highest numbers in the chess industry.

Naroditsky is 28 years old and is also a leading player in online blitz and super blitz chess, although the highest standard chess Elo is not more than 2,650. Over the years, he spent a lot of time commenting, writing articles or streaming about chess, rarely playing standard chess. Naroditsky has never been in the Top 100 in the world.

Recently, 20-year-old American chess player Hans Niemann was also accused, and he also admitted to cheating in online games on Chess. Carlsen or Nakamura have publicly talked about suspecting Niemann of cheating even at board games, but there is no evidence.

Kramnik, 48 years old, held the throne from 2000 to 2007. Recently, he often participated in online tournaments but the results were not good, sometimes losing to players who were not Grandmasters. In his recent loss to Niemann at an online tournament, Kramnik said that he suspected his opponent of cheating in this game.

Speed ​​Chess Championship 2023 is more than halfway over. Defending world champion Ding Liren withdrew, and Nepomniachtchi was chosen to replace him. In the first match, Nepomniachtchi beat Erigaisi Arjun to enter the quarterfinals against Carlsen. Another quarter-final match took place between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nihal Sarin. And Nakamura and Wesley So have reached the semi-finals.

The match between Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi takes place from 7:30 p.m. today, September 15, Hanoi time.