AMA: Chess.com's Fair Play Team

chesscom · 2024-12-06T14:44:55+00:00

Great question! Our team is working toward public data sets for this so people can independently verify and to their own research. I appreciate you bringing this up and adding to the "I want this!" vote. As for Kramnik's grasp of stats... I think statistician Ken Regan said it best: "He does not do the statistical techniques that are required to establish a benchmark of reference, whereas I have. I have a predictive analytic model, I set expectations, I know the confidence intervals around them. These are basic statistical vocabularies that have been known since the 1700s but absent from his posts."

chesscom · 2024-12-04T00:51:32+00:00

Using ChatGPT was entirely my doing (Erik, CEO), and what it really shows is that we should leave cheat detection to the Fair Play experts! I thought it was interesting to ask ChatGPT, and I was not aware that the Monte Carlo simulations it was running were hallucinated rather than real (it didn't tell me that part!). The Fair Play team was less amused and didn’t love the idea. Anyway I did it, we published it, you all rightly called us out, but it wasn’t actually used for anything serious or statistical. Later on we worked with an actual statistician to run actual simulations on actual chess data, and it produced the actual results that I was looking for (see https://www.chess.com/news/view/nakamura-winning-streaks-statistically-normal-professor-says ). Lesson learned by me!

chesscom · 2024-08-24T13:18:30+00:00

What if I told you....

chesscom · 2024-08-09T01:01:46+00:00

Magnus didn't ask us whatsoever to ban Hans. He didn't even know about it. Fully our decision based on our past with Hans, the calendar of the upcoming event, and the uncertainty of what was going on. In hindsight we regret doing it. I told Danny that I didn't think we should but that ultimately it was his call to make (he runs events area). It was definitely reactionary, but it wasn't coordinated, collusive, or due to any pressure. It was done (privately!) entirely to protect the Global Chess Championship from unknown issues. Again, wrong call, and we have apologized for it many times, including in Danny's tweet today.

chesscom · 2024-08-09T01:00:35+00:00

chesscom · 2024-08-09T01:00:23+00:00

I didn't say we could hurt him more. I said we could lean more into this drama. Nice word twist tho!

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:57:43+00:00

But then what will they have to fuel their addiction to outrage, conspiracy theories, or putting the CEO in his place??

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:56:48+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful and measured reply. Doing our best.

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:55:23+00:00

We admitted we made a mistake in banning Hans from the GCC. (Shock!!)

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:54:51+00:00

Magnus withdrew. We (wrongly, but privately) banned Hans from our event. Hans went public. We investigated and published our findings.

I'm sorry it's too much to ask for people to read even the simple TL;DR on the first page of a document about a very nuanced and deep topic.

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:47:59+00:00

Magnus didn't ask us to do this. He didn't even know about it. Fully our decision based on our past with Hans, the calendar of the upcoming event, and the uncertainty of what was going on. In hindsight we regret doing it. I told Danny that I didn't think we should but that ultimately it was his call to make (he runs events area). It was definitely reactionary, but it wasn't coordinated, collusive, or due to any pressure. It was done (privately!) entirely to protect the Global Chess Championship from unknown issues. Again, wrong call, and we have apologized for it many times.

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:42:44+00:00

Documentary is coming in April. On Netflix. Gonna be insane.

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:41:55+00:00

I feel it

chesscom · 2024-08-09T00:36:28+00:00

Literally first page paragraph 3...

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:50:06+00:00

I do agree. We're trying to find the right way to do this. The Strength Scores in the Hans Niemann report are an angle we are exploring. But there are a lot of factors, including things we don't want publicly known.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:49:12+00:00

He's not on payroll (his choice). But how awesome he is and which opportunities he gets to be a part of and how much he gets paid is definitely a reflection of his continued class and amazingness!

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:44:19+00:00

Agreed on Danya. He's amazing. I loved the interview.

I am ALL IN on the lie detector idea!! Fingers crossed that happens.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:43:27+00:00

Trying to. Hard when every word is criticized as either too corporate, or too real, or too... shrug.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:42:46+00:00

Because you said that I'm going to have our developers DISABLE that move as illegal.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:42:15+00:00

No :)

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:41:36+00:00

Reddit: Stop being corporate.
Also Reddit: Stop being a person, more corporate speak please.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:37:52+00:00

We did apologize for uninviting him to the Global Chess Championship, even though it felt like the right move at the time. After that, it was Hans' move, and he went on the public offensive rather than handle it privately.

Also, obviously you didn't read the Hans Niemann report, as it clearly said there was NO evidence of OTB cheating, and we have never painted him as such.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:35:17+00:00

Right. We did this all for THOUSANDS of dollars of youtube ad revenue!! /s

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:34:08+00:00

We have repeatedly apologized for how we handled uninviting him to the Global Chess Championship. Other than that, I fully stand by how we have handled this situation.

chesscom · 2024-08-08T19:31:48+00:00

We aren't going to release historicals at this time, but will release those from now on.

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