I also thought it sounded like a plausible explanation, but it's been dismissed as exceedingly less likely than engine assistance by those who know far more tha

I also thought it sounded like a plausible explanation, but it's been dismissed as exceedingly less likely than engine assistance by those who know far more than I. At the Sinquefield (the tournament in question), Magnus had just one team member with him and it's someone who has worked with for many years. The breakdown in the logic of the 'leaked prep' is that no one can come up with a plausible motivation for it to have been leaked - and no serious chess GMs seem to think it is a plausible theory.