Is GM Hikaru Cheating? Chess.com Reaches Conclusion on GM Hikaru Cheating Allegations

Kick Streamer and Chess Grandmaster Hikaru has been under fire from the community after Vladimir Kramnuk, another Grandmaster, accused him of cheating.

Initially, Hikaru called these allegations' garbage' and total rubbish. He went on a hot win streak to prove he was innocent, yet it was absolute chaos as Kramnik deleted comments defending Hikaru.

However, the situation has finally ended as Chess.com has given its verdict on the issue and states that there are 'no incidents' of cheating after generating 2,000 individual reports on Nakamura's games. 

Chess.com Slams GM Hikaru Cheating Allegations

If you're unaware of the situation, Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik took to this Chess.com profile last week and accused Hikaru of cheating in a cryptic message.

Kramnik referenced an individual's extraordinary performance in three-minute blitz games and shared his statistics, which he believed many people would find 'interesting.' The post clearly threw shade towards Hikaru's recent performance and raised cheating concerns. As back-and-forth ensured, Hikaru called these allegations "garbage" on the very same day Kramnik made these claims. The community was thrown into chaos, and many other player performances also came under scrutiny.

However, Chess.com has officially stepped in and addressed Kramnik's claim that Hikaru cheated while reiterating its commitment to taking all cheating accusations on the platform seriously.

"In the case of the recent accusations against Hikaru Nakamura by Vladimir Kramnik, we have generated nearly 2,000 individual reports on Hikaru's games in our Fair Play system and have found no incidents of cheating." the post reads. "As to the allegations about Hikaru's incredible performance streaks (including winning 45.5 games out of 46), we have also looked at the statistics behind this. "

The team at Chess.com did simulations to test the probability of Hikaru's 45 Game win streak and came to a conclusion as someone who has played over 50,000 Chess games, Hikaru's streak was not something out of the ordinary, it was a legit run. 

The post added, "We have confirmed these results with external statisticians, including a professor of statistics at a top-10 university. With the deepest respect for former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, in our opinion, his accusations lack statistical merit."

It's not the first time we've seen chess cheating scandals. There's been an uproar in the community ever since Magnus Carlsen accused Hans Niemann of cheating in an offline tournament, making it a headline around the globe, and even started a controversy about whether Hans used an adult toy to cheat in the match.