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Someone on Niemann's team could have been feeding him info which "coincidentally" happens to be very useful, without Niemann suspecting where the info came from

Someone on Niemann's team could have been feeding him info which "coincidentally" happens to be very useful, without Niemann suspecting where the info came from. (A bug in Carlsen's hotel room?) Someone on Carlsen's team could be encouraging him to focus on lines which they've discovered (through a bug in the hotel room) that Niemann's team is preparing counters for. In both of these cases, the corrupt team member could be motivated by the possibility of winning a large bet on the outcome of the chess match, without either player being in on it. (I admit that the idea of Stockfish giving deliberately bad information only to Carlsen, to weaken his prep, is not very plausible, but we don't know how rational Carlsen is being here).

morelisp 4y ago
While these are both unsportsmanlike (and probably illegal) I'm not actually sure they're cheating.
- dane-pgp 4y ago
  You might be right, but Carlsen hasn't accused anyone of cheating, or unsportsmanlike behaviour, or criminality. He's just chosen not to play against Hans, which he has every right to do.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
First of all I don't think Niemann has much of a team yet. But the prep leak idea makes no sense. If someone's on Carlsen's team gives Hans "leaked prep", why should he believe them? It could be a red herring. Pretty much every grandmaster who has commented on the prep leak idea has stated it just makes no sense on the face of it.
- dane-pgp 4y ago
  > First of all I don't think Niemann has much of a team yet. Maybe he does, or maybe Carlsen thinks he does. > the prep leak idea makes no sense. The "malicious person on Carlsen's team" hypothesis I was putting forward didn't involve them leaking the prep to Niemann. I merely supposed that someone in such a position could negatively influence Carlsen's performance, and profit from it through betting.

morelisp 4y ago

While these are both unsportsmanlike (and probably illegal) I'm not actually sure they're cheating.

dane-pgp 4y ago
You might be right, but Carlsen hasn't accused anyone of cheating, or unsportsmanlike behaviour, or criminality. He's just chosen not to play against Hans, which he has every right to do.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago

First of all I don't think Niemann has much of a team yet. But the prep leak idea makes no sense. If someone's on Carlsen's team gives Hans "leaked prep", why should he believe them? It could be a red herring. Pretty much every grandmaster who has commented on the prep leak idea has stated it just makes no sense on the face of it.

dane-pgp 4y ago
> First of all I don't think Niemann has much of a team yet. Maybe he does, or maybe Carlsen thinks he does. > the prep leak idea makes no sense. The "malicious person on Carlsen's team" hypothesis I was putting forward didn't involve them leaking the prep to Niemann. I merely supposed that someone in such a position could negatively influence Carlsen's performance, and profit from it through betting.