Calling this guy out like this without any concrete proof is really harmful to his reputation. It is possible that even 1800 players can play book moves very deeply into an opening, so it is possible that Danov is doing this also, and when caught off guard in an opening he does not know, then he messes up.
+mrjohnp555 Harmful or not, he refused to be checked for devices and he was banned. As I mentioned earlier, the point of this lecture was to prov ide theories on how witty cheaters may go about cheating in chess. The Danov case is closed for now.
This guy and his brother are well- known on the Bulgarian chess circuit. Radi's brother Lyubomir is 2 years older. They are from the town of Pernik, close to Sofia, which has somewhat of a shady reputation. They both have almost the same ratings and they have been getting a lot of prizes in tournaments all over the country in the last few years. They are both very good blitz players. Radi's appearance is not of a traditional chess player, he has been practicing bodybuilding and has very pumped up muscles. I am not sure if he is cheating and I am not convinced by the video about this matter.
Regarding the draws - obviously when you play someone 100-200 points higher rated you want to make a draw by trading all the pieces. GM Chatalbashev would never agree to a draw with some up-and-coming kid until all other options are exhausted.
+Fraxxinus Excelsior Interesting, because one of the defenders of a particular Ivanov performance pointed to exactly those two players (the brothers) saying that their performance was just as unlikely as Ivanov's, so we should not cast suspicion on Ivanov.
+G Cobb I think Ivanov case was much more obvious as he was a 25-year old with a history of average results in the past who suddenly went to Zadar and crushed half of the Croatian national team. Here we are talking about a guy who has been steadily improving over a period of approximately 5-6 years, and now he is just 20 years old, so this could be simply the result of intensive training. Very hard to prove anything suspicious with such case.
While it is true a lower rated player wants to exchange off all the pieces, the fact that EVERY draw happens that way is very suspicious. If there were a few perpetuals here or there I would understand, but this is clearly an engine cheat!
+Fcstfan This is exactly what I was thinking... He's cheating awfully quickly if he's cheating. Though I do agree that there are a couple suspicious games in here... Not even so much on the games where he's playing terribly, but more on the ones which are actually flawless.
I agree with most of the points here, especially that Nh5?? move when he was black(not even 1600 players do that) but his blitz rating really doubts me again.
You're right about lichess ratings being massively inflated. On the other hand, I feel that ICC ratings are actually slightly DEflated. You get some really bloody solid 1300 players and even 1000 players sometimes. It doesn't make sense.
Actually Valeri there is a much simpler way to detect cheaters. You have seen the post-game interviews of top GMS like Nakamura,Carlsen or Anand where thy analyse variants after the game etc... Imagine the analysis a cheater can provide. Simply if you suspect somebody of cheating simply direct after the game make an invitation to analyse the game in the presence f GMs....and see what happens. The only flaw in this system is if the cheater is a(real) 2500 ...he may have understood the subtleties of the game but if a 1900 (like Danov) tries a post game analysis will be laughable.
This is a great method. However i don't agree with that last statement. Have u seen norway chess challenge where john ludwig hammer(rated 2630) was playing? his post match press conferences were not very impressive. He seemed lost for words while his opponents(like anand, carlsen etc) analyzed variations after variations(he lost all games ofc so nothing to doubt). I highly doubt a 2500 would be able to hide his cheating in the post match conference(assuming he wins or atleast draws a super GM). He would be forced to lose to hide behind that "oh idk this position well" facade at the press conference.
Great video Mister Lilov. Please, keep chasing the cheaters. You are one of the very few people on planet earth that actually takes his time in doing it and as a big chess fan I really appreciate it!. Best regards from the TH-cam channel "Experimentar En Casa" - Pozdrav ot Ispaniq :P
+Abreanna Bananna Weasel words are very popular. Some people throw "sort uv" liberally into their speech. Others end sentences with "okay?" "Basically" is another weasel word. The worst is probably the most frequently used, namely "like." The weasel-worders do not know they are doing it.
The solution is obvious. In the future all masters level tournaments must be played at nudist camps. Livoli's next video would then be: Women's Chess Soars in Popularity, Viewers Fight For Seats.
I disliked the video because I wanted to see a video, not listen to somebody blathering on and on. I gave up after 5 minutes, maybe it got better, I will never know.
Speaking of ratings, what do we speculate is the highest possible chess rating? Has the study been done, showing what rating would tend to result from infinite-ply searches?
I'm not sure the commentary about engine choice is relevant. You could be a club A player or rated expert, and just use the engine for specific tactical situations and blunder checking, and your moves will look nothing like any engine and you'd probably take out a lot of GM's.
Well, a good video highlighting strange inconsistencies in play. The point is, if he plays like a 2400 in one game and then like an 1800 in another game etc, this does raise suspicion. In this day and age, it should be possible with recorded moves to have some sort of audit of the games of prize winners in all categories even if it is done post tournament. Afterall the only motivation, in my opinion, for cheaters is to win prize money. To start with, announcing an audit procedure of prize winners' games will put off thoughts of cheating I would have thought.
You can not speculate like this. If you have concerns about some-ones play then report it to FIDE. What you cant do is post a vid like this where you name people you think are cheating with no more proof than is already available to FIDE. Let the people who are responsible for this kind of thing do there jobs.
I’ve played in USCF tournaments and literally have seen people sliding phones in and out of their pockets and have seen nothing done on many occasions. So let’s not be naive and think it’ll just get fixed.. If you were smart you’d listen to this master, these top players don’t just go accusing everyone who beats them. It’s an epidemic right now and Livov is fighting the good fight. Unless you cheat, it’s hard to not be upset at this.
Yeah, I concur. Most likely a cheater with tanking games and winning almost flawlessly, etc. A huge like for the video. FIDE needs to step up their anti-cheating measures and check all players more often and much more thoroughly. And there's a huge number of cheaters online, most of them would hate a video like this.
Somebody that plays at the high level can defend at the same level when he/she commits a mistake. I am not an expert by any chance but I can see the different patterns of play in both the losses and the wins.
This is a comment from a chessbase article on the Ivanov cheating suspicion: "Peter Jameson This article alleging that Ivanov is a cheat provides no real evidence. How does he cheat even in rapid games watched by a horde of observers? And what are we to make of the two other amazing players in the table displayed after nine rounds? Lyubomir Danov ranked 16th initially sits in seventh place above many titled players! Even more dramatic is Radi Danov who sits in sixth place though initially seeded 28th! And above many titled players. His performance is remarkable too, possibly puts Ivanov in the shade! And both of these players with very lowly ratings. So is your correspondent Alex Karaivanov now demanding an investigation of these players too? If not why not? Or has Alex Karaivanov shot himself in both feet?" - en.chessbase.com/post/experts-weigh-in-on-ivanovs-performance-060613 Lyubomir Danov is Radi Danov's brother
I don't know. My play is pretty inconsistent, and I feel psychological pressure when playing stronger players. Sometimes I have beaten stronger players when I did not knew who they were and their rating. My play is so inconsistent that even I don't know if I'm the same person playing those games, I can be "brilliant" and stupid. But there is a pattern, usually I' m stupid against stronger players. Why? Because stronger players pressure, give me little problems and easily prevent me from making progress of my stupid plans. I don't get your drawing argument, I think exchange tons of pieces is the most obvious strategy when you want to draw a game, with no pieces and symetrical pawn structure the draw is almost assured...Well, of course cheating is a real problem and I see you have a real concern with some valid points against the guy, the only thing is that maybe he could be innocent and before acusing I thing would be better to have a definete proof. Maybe you could have reported to your federation who could investigate the case in silence the next tournment this player would attend, then if he got caught the case would be close and would be no room for speculation...
Dude, you are full of logical fallacies... how can I even begin to take you seriously when you say stuff like: "if one gets 5 out of 5 it's a circumstantial evidence he's a cheater", I played like an idiot on my first chess tournament and have been an avid online player for 5 years, and due to my aspergers I got overwhelmed by stimuli and lost 3 won positions out of 7, drew one and got a miserable rating of 1490, whilst my online rating is 2200+ rapid, 2400+ blitz, 2000+ bullet. I have developed defensive mechanisms for the overwhelming stimuli and the next tournament I am planning to crush some GM's and IM's so when I do so, should I be declared cheater just because of bad "past" play? That is ridiculous.
That only indicates that your chess levels are far below IM and GM level. Also I don't need luck crushing IM's, I crush them easily, I also don't need luck crushing GM's I crush them with some difficulty. I would only need luck in crushing super GM's, as they would need luck too.
Joke? No. A reality. Both on lichess and chess.com But definitely far far faaaaar away from yours, you jealous, envious, worthless piece of hating excrement.
My kind? No my kind is of superior kind than that of yours. They were acquired fair and square loser. My blitz now is 2450+ idiot. So shut your worthless poison mouth, and get your degenerate ass out of here, I am your superior I tell you to shut up or put up, you are a nobody. Get put in your place kid.
+TopherOGR Blitz is very different, as opposed to classical chess. Besides, he refused to be checked for deviced through a metal detector, so he has been banned for good.
Agreeing with a draw in a few moves is not cheating? Sometimes when this happens someone else is losing something.Not playing in one of the rounds and losing by KO and therefore changing the tiebreak is not cheating? Chess is a game where a draw may be agreed beforehand and many times prizes are shared by the players.I just played a tournament where a strong player did not show for a game and another one lost the opportunity to get a prize. Isn't it unfair?
+Saint Dufus I know that cheating is somewhat different, but chess allows one to arrange results and this is a flaw, a serious one, in the competitions.Usually pre-arranged draws or even throwing away a result is damaging someone else.
+David Bor Pre-arranged draws may indeed be a flaw in the system, but they are not a serious one--especially in the context of the current discussion. Some of these computer-cheaters are stealing tens of thousands of dollars in undeserved prize money. Comparing pre-arranged draws to that is like comparing minor shoplifting to a million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Yes, it's still dishonest; but no, it's not anywhere near as serious.
It might be helpful to mention, for those unfamiliar how the rating system works, what the numbers mean on a practical and probabilistic basis. That is, with a rating differential of only 400 points between players, the higher rated player (assuming the ratings are true and established) should win every single game with no draws or losses to within less than a 1% statistical variance. Of course, the human condition and human frailty is going to cause human beings to exhibit a considerably significantly higher standard deviation in performance than a calculating machine, and a clever human would, as you mentioned, obscure their performances and results by various tactics if their intention was to cheat other players out of their hard-earned prize money. As a former chess player, it bothers me to hear the comments of non-players who ask 'why is it such a big deal about others cheating at chess?' and to learn that there are others who think that those who cheat should be congratulated for getting away with it. The reason it is so bad is simply this: chess is not an easy game for humans. Many strong players spend tens or hundreds of thousands of hours working very hard and devoting most of their life for the love of a pastime which, at most levels, does not and cannot ever compensate them for their efforts - at least, not financially. Literally, decades of their life if not their whole lives are spent becoming good at chess. Then to have some cheating scumbag clown walk off with your section's prize money who spent no more than ten minutes learning to move the pieces and fitting a hidden earpiece is just beyond contemptible. i would not be the least bit sorry for someone who was caught cheating if the other players dragged him into an alley and beat him to a bloody pulp as he deserves.
Actually a 400 rating difference translates to 92% of points, not 100%. That should be roughly 5 wins and 1 draw for each six games, played between two players 400 elo points apart, that is 5 wins and 1 draw for the highest rated one, obviously.
I'm no master but the way he played in the wins seemed perfectly natural. The Nh5 move in the Benoni loss was very strange for a strong player though. It would still be worth analysing against a super strong engine though, lichess style. If the pattern of inaccuracies/mistakes/blunders is radically different in different game results it would be suggestive.
just watched the first game and I have to say having played some chess myself one thing I do is spend a lot of time with the engines and that first game is a classical way that engines play the game, no counter play, very strong clean planning leading into a completely winning simple endgame, the whole way a computer plays is very smooth, its like people think that's its all tactics and no strategy, this is wrong, that is not how chess engines play, they have this very smooth calculated long term approach to the game that just always happens to completely destroy you and give you no chance to do anything yourself, I would say that was definitively the work of an engine, also with the blitz thing you can easlily use an engine to play blitz.
Cheating to seems very risky since before long you would need to keep cheating just to maintain your rating. It only takes one mistake for your reputation to be ruined.
I'm shocked Mister Lilov can afford to just throw a player's name here, as if it's a people's court. First, even if 99% of viewers here were of the opinion it's a cheating case, thousand (or billions) of opinions do not form an evidence in any way. Whatever you think you need a clear proof. Here there is no clear cheating but a clear case of defamation.
+busho1231 The lecture goal is to provide just theories. The case has been identified as cheating and the player in question (Danov) was banned after declining to perform a metal detector check before a game in a serious tournament.
It's all very circumstancial. The biggest point for Danov is his Blitz rating being up so high. I understand Lilovs doubts, yet if he is wrong the name of a young talent is always seen together with this accusation. Was there no way to confront Danov in any other way. Take all the facts and send it to the Bulgarian Chess Association or something like that? Maybe confront Danov personally to give him time to reply before making it public (something like: I will post this next week on youtube, what do you have to say about it...).
+Katzenblick Danov has clearly refused checking at a big tournament without providing any reason/s, so he was expelled. According to the country's ethical laws in sport, this is equal to admitting guilt. Here is what the law says about doping control: "If an athlete refuses or evades drug testing, they can be sanctioned. This sanction can be the same as if an athlete tested positive for a prohibited substance or method." This is absolutely the same for refusing an official (FIDE rule sanctioned) performed check. So, he has been banned for good.
+Valeri Lilov Yes, I admit that looks pretty bad for him. But still there are so many strange and complex characters playing our game, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Nontheless, this kind of doping will haunt us for years to come and it will grow more sophisticated as you pointed out.
that is the truth because i don't play much in tournaments but i once chose to try my chance and my game is quite good and i was way ahead of my opponent then the cheating and confusing started, i actually ended up losing the game, after that i keep away from tournaments because you just can't trust anyone nowadays too bad for my chess career anyway,
Lilov is suggesting ways that players could cheat more intelligently at some points in this video. Maybe he doesn't realise that some of these cheats may watch this, and actually gain useful tips.
I like how the chessmaster software plays. You can create your own personalities. It doesn't came anywhere near 2600 strength though. Probably 2300 tops. You can fine tune some programs to appear to play as humans and still be very strong, even throwing in the occasional blunder for good measure.
+Cyric Renner (Abraxas79) I agree, but time management is horrendous. It will spend 20 minutes on the first out-of-book move, yet still lose on time. An engine should never lose on time. I believe the King engine was better in older versions of CM.
In the end, accusing someone of cheating can ruin someone's reputation for the rest of their life. So unless you have hard evidence you should think about the consequences your accusations will have.--This guy could be cheating, but I don't see any evidence in this video to suggest that this is the case
if you evaluate moves of top super GM's you can trace their moves to some of the very strong programs as well. So now what?You have to catch person actually cheat.
+Ritvik Radhakrishnan Yeah, that "Banov" is misleading...I spent several minutes trying to Google that name before realizing it was an error. You might want to fix it Tiger.
thanks for your work, may I point out that Bulgarian chess has a poor reputation and I'm not suprosed when I tried to organise a friendly game with burgas chess club they ignored all my emails , very rude !
This whole argument is poorly supported and unconvincing. Any number of things could cause the psychology of a player to go haywire: playing a position he/she doesn't usually play, being intimidated by a higher rated player, and as anyone whose played chess in tournaments can tell you, players can frequently go into modes in which they cannot defeat certain opponents. That, and I get the impression that the author of this video is trying to convince himself more than everyone else.
+bosonichadron1 It looks like you have not played many professional chess games :) If you had, you would know that things like "being intimidated by a higher rated player" are only valid for less rated players. The case here is proven, the cheater in question is banned and I am simply giving some more arguments from the perspective of a professional player, which many of my colleagues easily share.
I think most of what he is saying is nonsense , I played thousands of people on blitz chess and of have sometimes beaten chess masters and another time lost to 1300s people don't always play consistently
+Nick Heshmati MD Classical and Blitz chess are very different.Also, we are talking about purposefully manipulating results, like losing without a fight, going for engine-type draws and engine-type victories (perfect from start to finish), without any fluctuations. The player has been banned as well. What more is necesarry as a proof?
If you wanted to cheat more intelligently you would use an engine with adjustable strength and slowly ramp up the strength of the engine. Your rating would naturally follow, and you wouldn't have odd pasterns like these because your results from game to game would not be fixed.
+Tomek Duresov I am happy he is raising awareness. It's useful that he makes these videos until FIDE develops a way to combat it. If that is even possible that is.
I believe ,what you are saying. But I think only a grandmaster or very good player can follow your arguments. I am only playing internet blitz and there I am rated between 1500 and 1650. I can't judge, if someone plays flawless. And the next game is bad, but he may have a very bad day. And playing many exchanges means, that the other player allows that. In my internet bltz games some games are really very good. I play great kombinations and even really good endgames. Sometimes I outplay better players. But then I play disgusting and awfull games the next time. I am not playing constandly. I don't use engines, but someone who comepares the very different games may think that. So I never accuse or insult other players and take them like it comes. I lost against some 1200, who played good in that game and I won against an 1800, who played rather weak in that game.
Greetings all from California. Valeri, you keep saying I am not accusing anyone of cheating, but this is exactly what you are doing! Sorry to say this, but your arguments are naive and flawed. Until someone is caught cheating, you can't just "speculate" about him. This is very harmful to individual players and to the chess generally. What you are doing is WRONG; a group of top GMs should not be randomly justifying their losses against rising youngsters like this.
+Silver The purpose of this lecture is to provide ideas on how witty cheaters do cheat. They have all been caught now, including Danov. There is circumsnacial and concrete evidence on the case. The video is supposed to provide only a viewpoint and suggestions on the chess cheating in general, not just Danov's case.
OmegaKent, okay Omega. Lol, but yeah the rest of us have to deal with em in all different kinds of sport, and even wider areas of activities. That remark was just to show my interest in what drives people to cheat, it's like second nature to some, while others just _leave it (cheating) be._
The videos you showed are horrible evidence. White's play wasn't that great. Black blundered. I saw the moves coming. And in the videos where white supposed loses on purpose, you cannot say he plays "horribly". He doesn't make horrific blunders like a 1800 cheater would. When you stopped the game I'd like to see the engine evaluation. I'm not saying the guy is legit..,but is this your best evidence?!
+Andy Sanders The video is only supposed to provide an insight in the new cheating methods. The guy is an official cheater and he was officially banned after refusing a metal detector check. Do I really need to bring any extra evidence in a TH-cam video? I was just sharing my opinion.
You don't have to bring anything. It's TH-cam. You're perfectly welcome to post anything within their rules. I'm not responding to any comments or updates. I'm not responding to the fact that he was caught cheating. I'm responding to the evidence/information within the video. And after reviewing it twice more with engine help, there is little to no evidence of cheating in his play. That's the info you gave us, was his gameplay...so that's the info i went on. Was i supposed to use different info?
+Valeriy Huz While that is true, since they dont belong to the same pool, the engines rantings are rather agreeable in the sense that is more or less what we would expect in a mixed pool, i dont think you can undermine his argument in that manner. I however find Lilov's speculation mean and of poor judgement. His so-called "evidence" is ridiculously thin and subjective, and now the poor young man that he attacks will be hunted by these accusations for years regardless of whether or not they are true.
They dont need to belong to the same pool as ELO ratings are self correcting. For example if i just play chess with all members in my house and let all of them start with 1200, i cant just keep on winning games and reach 2800 in my pool(my own house). There will be a point after which ill start to get less than 1 point per win. What you are saying is that if there is a person who just plays 2/3 opponents in his chess club(and vice versa), then his rating wont be comparable with the rest of the world as he is not playing anyone else? This is a false statement, their ratings are similar.
Also keep in mind that ELO ratings are nothing but probability of a person beating another person. Every official chess engine is assigned this rating based on the players it plays. If i develop my chess engine and let it play against a 2500 player and if 2500 player wins approx 1/10 matches and loses 7/10 matches, then my engine would be roughly 325 points higher than him. So my chess engine will start with a rating of 2825. This is how the chess engines are assigned ratings.
Valeriy Huz You did not get me, if i come to a chess club and strictly just play against you and vice versa, will our ratings lose relevance as we are just playing against each other? Also kindly note how chess engines are assigned ratings which i mentioned in my earlier post.
So you are SPECULATING that he is cheating, but even if he isn't, every third game of his is EXACTLY what a computer assisted game would look like and there aren't even little mistakes thrown in to throw people off, and that you are sure of. Additionally, the combination of wins and losses always amounts to an increase in rating in line with someone that is trying to slowly increase their rating strength without suspicion. The only thing I don't get is why you point out that he could be using a different engine, as if people haven't already acknowledged this in respect to computer cheating. Do cheat games usual follow the best move of the engines you randomly try immediately? Or are they always not in line with one specific engine? How do people catch people's moves matching engines ever if there are too many to check? Has anyone else ever been proved to be using engines that no one could actually match to engine moves? What I don't get is why people don't throw in bad moves with their damn cheating, and vary the time it takes for them to move online. It sounds simple to me.
There is a woman chess player who is wearing a very opened neckline when playing against men , & from time to time the boy in front of her could see her teets . Usually the guy was turning red & felt that his pants were too tight . She won many games this way , & when game were over & the male opponent stood up , you could see that some uncontrolable phenomenon printed the map of Antarctica on his trousers . Isn't that completely unfair ?
Calling this guy out like this without any concrete proof is really harmful to his reputation. It is possible that even 1800 players can play book moves very deeply into an opening, so it is possible that Danov is doing this also, and when caught off guard in an opening he does not know, then he messes up.
+mrjohnp555 Harmful or not, he refused to be checked for devices and he was banned. As I mentioned earlier, the point of this lecture was to prov ide theories on how witty cheaters may go about cheating in chess. The Danov case is closed for now.
This guy and his brother are well- known on the Bulgarian chess circuit. Radi's brother Lyubomir is 2 years older. They are from the town of Pernik, close to Sofia, which has somewhat of a shady reputation. They both have almost the same ratings and they have been getting a lot of prizes in tournaments all over the country in the last few years. They are both very good blitz players. Radi's appearance is not of a traditional chess player, he has been practicing bodybuilding and has very pumped up muscles. I am not sure if he is cheating and I am not convinced by the video about this matter.
Regarding the draws - obviously when you play someone 100-200 points higher rated you want to make a draw by trading all the pieces. GM Chatalbashev would never agree to a draw with some up-and-coming kid until all other options are exhausted.
+Fraxxinus Excelsior Interesting, because one of the defenders of a particular Ivanov performance pointed to exactly those two players (the brothers) saying that their performance was just as unlikely as Ivanov's, so we should not cast suspicion on Ivanov.
+G Cobb I think Ivanov case was much more obvious as he was a 25-year old with a history of average results in the past who suddenly went to Zadar and crushed half of the Croatian national team. Here we are talking about a guy who has been steadily improving over a period of approximately 5-6 years, and now he is just 20 years old, so this could be simply the result of intensive training. Very hard to prove anything suspicious with such case.
And surprise surprise, this guy you defended is now banned.
While it is true a lower rated player wants to exchange off all the pieces, the fact that EVERY draw happens that way is very suspicious. If there were a few perpetuals here or there I would understand, but this is clearly an engine cheat!
how do you explain his blitzrating?
+Fcstfan This is exactly what I was thinking... He's cheating awfully quickly if he's cheating. Though I do agree that there are a couple suspicious games in here... Not even so much on the games where he's playing terribly, but more on the ones which are actually flawless.
+TopherOGR Blitz is not the same as real chess. I know 1700 players who have as high as 2300 in Blitz. Classical chess is very different.
I agree with most of the points here, especially that Nh5?? move when he was black(not even 1600 players do that) but his blitz rating really doubts me again.
You're right about lichess ratings being massively inflated. On the other hand, I feel that ICC ratings are actually slightly DEflated. You get some really bloody solid 1300 players and even 1000 players sometimes. It doesn't make sense.
You do it essentially!
Actually Valeri there is a much simpler way to detect cheaters.
You have seen the post-game interviews of top GMS like Nakamura,Carlsen or Anand where thy analyse variants after the game etc... Imagine the analysis a cheater can provide.
Simply if you suspect somebody of cheating simply direct after the game make an invitation to analyse the game in the presence f GMs....and see what happens.
The only flaw in this system is if the cheater is a(real) 2500 ...he may have understood the subtleties of the game
but if a 1900 (like Danov) tries a post game analysis will be laughable.
This is a great method. However i don't agree with that last statement. Have u seen norway chess challenge where john ludwig hammer(rated 2630) was playing? his post match press conferences were not very impressive. He seemed lost for words while his opponents(like anand, carlsen etc) analyzed variations after variations(he lost all games ofc so nothing to doubt).
I highly doubt a 2500 would be able to hide his cheating in the post match conference(assuming he wins or atleast draws a super GM). He would be forced to lose to hide behind that "oh idk this position well" facade at the press conference.
My Elo rating is a negative number. Is that bad?
You should avoid using "essentially" as often as you do.
Great video Mister Lilov. Please, keep chasing the cheaters. You are one of the very few people on planet earth that actually takes his time in doing it and as a big chess fan I really appreciate it!. Best regards from the TH-cam channel "Experimentar En Casa" - Pozdrav ot Ispaniq :P
omg how cool to see you here
they also do not have to play the #1 computer move.. maybe play move 3-4 even, depending on position
Essentially?
+Abreanna Bananna yeah :D
+Abreanna Bananna
Weasel words are very popular. Some people throw "sort uv" liberally into their speech. Others end sentences with "okay?" "Basically" is another weasel word. The worst is probably the most frequently used, namely "like." The weasel-worders do not know they are doing it.
+Abreanna Bananna "Essentially?"
Basically.
+JiveDadson for the most part.
Bananna?
I hate it when you think that you are playing a fantastic game, and then get destroyed.
56 online cheaters disliked this video.
+profd65 lol
The solution is obvious. In the future all masters level tournaments must be played at nudist camps. Livoli's next video would then be: Women's Chess Soars in Popularity, Viewers Fight For Seats.
I disliked the video because I wanted to see a video, not listen to somebody blathering on and on. I gave up after 5 minutes, maybe it got better, I will never know.
Alan Williams nah..it didn't, he kept justifying his lack of chess related achievements
Stop saying "essentially" dude. :)
Speaking of ratings, what do we speculate is the highest possible chess rating?
Has the study been done, showing what rating would tend to result from infinite-ply searches?
>Have 1500 elo friend enter world open
>Provide 2000 elo cell phone engine moves to friend with hand, wink and nod signals
>Share $10,000 prize
im around 1500 to 1600 elo :D sign me up
Is this guy actually giving advice how to cheat?
Added bonus: strip searches keep out the suicide bombers.
"I didn't win, so the opponent must be cheating."
I'm not sure the commentary about engine choice is relevant. You could be a club A player or rated expert, and just use the engine for specific tactical situations and blunder checking, and your moves will look nothing like any engine and you'd probably take out a lot of GM's.
How in the world you can get a signal from your shoes???????
Well, a good video highlighting strange inconsistencies in play. The point is, if he plays like a 2400 in one game and then like an 1800 in another game etc, this does raise suspicion. In this day and age, it should be possible with recorded moves to have some sort of audit of the games of prize winners in all categories even if it is done post tournament. Afterall the only motivation, in my opinion, for cheaters is to win prize money. To start with, announcing an audit procedure of prize winners' games will put off thoughts of cheating I would have thought.
So how does he cheat in blitz? His rating is very high but if you need to go to bathroom there is no time in blitz right?
You can not speculate like this. If you have concerns about some-ones play then report it to FIDE. What you cant do is post a vid like this where you name people you think are cheating with no more proof than is already available to FIDE. Let the people who are responsible for this kind of thing do there jobs.
+Max Pheby Banov has been banned already for refusing a check. Is there any other proof necesarry?
I’ve played in USCF tournaments and literally have seen people sliding phones in and out of their pockets and have seen nothing done on many occasions. So let’s not be naive and think it’ll just get fixed.. If you were smart you’d listen to this master, these top players don’t just go accusing everyone who beats them. It’s an epidemic right now and Livov is fighting the good fight. Unless you cheat, it’s hard to not be upset at this.
I don't know. Maybe.
I have to admit the game as black against Rusev is especially suspicious. I can't imagine any 2300 ever playing like this.
Yeah, I concur. Most likely a cheater with tanking games and winning almost flawlessly, etc. A huge like for the video. FIDE needs to step up their anti-cheating measures and check all players more often and much more thoroughly. And there's a huge number of cheaters online, most of them would hate a video like this.
a stronger mover for black was 24....Bf7. There was no need to open up the position by ...exd4.
it's the same PATH-ern!!!
Approximately mentioned about a TTousand times!
Somebody that plays at the high level can defend at the same level when he/she commits a mistake. I am not an expert by any chance but I can see the different patterns of play in both the losses and the wins.
This is a comment from a chessbase article on the Ivanov cheating suspicion:
"Peter Jameson
This article alleging that Ivanov is a cheat provides no real evidence. How does he cheat even in rapid games watched by a horde of observers? And what are we to make of the two other amazing players in the table displayed after nine rounds? Lyubomir Danov ranked 16th initially sits in seventh place above many titled players! Even more dramatic is Radi Danov who sits in sixth place though initially seeded 28th! And above many titled players. His performance is remarkable too, possibly puts Ivanov in the shade! And both of these players with very lowly ratings. So is your correspondent Alex Karaivanov now demanding an investigation of these players too? If not why not? Or has Alex Karaivanov shot himself in both feet?" - en.chessbase.com/post/experts-weigh-in-on-ivanovs-performance-060613
Lyubomir Danov is Radi Danov's brother
I don't know. My play is pretty inconsistent, and I feel psychological pressure when playing stronger players. Sometimes I have beaten stronger players when I did not knew who they were and their rating. My play is so inconsistent that even I don't know if I'm the same person playing those games, I can be "brilliant" and stupid. But there is a pattern, usually I' m stupid against stronger players. Why? Because stronger players pressure, give me little problems and easily prevent me from making progress of my stupid plans. I don't get your drawing argument, I think exchange tons of pieces is the most obvious strategy when you want to draw a game, with no pieces and symetrical pawn structure the draw is almost assured...Well, of course cheating is a real problem and I see you have a real concern with some valid points against the guy, the only thing is that maybe he could be innocent and before acusing I thing would be better to have a definete proof. Maybe you could have reported to your federation who could investigate the case in silence the next tournment this player would attend, then if he got caught the case would be close and would be no room for speculation...
+Alexandre Freitas They did and they banned the guy already, as he didn't want to allow a metal detector check before a game.
Dude, you are full of logical fallacies... how can I even begin to take you seriously when you say stuff like: "if one gets 5 out of 5 it's a circumstantial evidence he's a cheater", I played like an idiot on my first chess tournament and have been an avid online player for 5 years, and due to my aspergers I got overwhelmed by stimuli and lost 3 won positions out of 7, drew one and got a miserable rating of 1490, whilst my online rating is 2200+ rapid, 2400+ blitz, 2000+ bullet. I have developed defensive mechanisms for the overwhelming stimuli and the next tournament I am planning to crush some GM's and IM's so when I do so, should I be declared cheater just because of bad "past" play? That is ridiculous.
That only indicates that your chess levels are far below IM and GM level.
Also I don't need luck crushing IM's, I crush them easily, I also don't need luck crushing GM's I crush them with some difficulty. I would only need luck in crushing super GM's, as they would need luck too.
Joke? No. A reality. Both on lichess and chess.com
But definitely far far faaaaar away from yours, you jealous, envious, worthless piece of hating excrement.
My kind? No my kind is of superior kind than that of yours.
They were acquired fair and square loser. My blitz now is 2450+ idiot.
So shut your worthless poison mouth, and get your degenerate ass out of here, I am your superior I tell you to shut up or put up, you are a nobody. Get put in your place kid.
Also the rating are comparable, they use the Glicko RD system which is even more accurate than Fide's elo one.
And the online concensus agrees that it is worth negative 200 points from your OTB rating.
He cheats awfully quickly on his blitz games as well?
+TopherOGR Blitz is very different, as opposed to classical chess. Besides, he refused to be checked for deviced through a metal detector, so he has been banned for good.
Agreeing with a draw in a few moves is not cheating? Sometimes when this happens someone else is losing something.Not playing in one of the rounds and losing by KO and therefore changing the tiebreak is not cheating? Chess is a game where a draw may be agreed beforehand and many times prizes are shared by the players.I just played a tournament where a strong player did not show for a game and another one lost the opportunity to get a prize. Isn't it unfair?
+David Bor None of the things you're describing are cheating.
+Saint Dufus I know that cheating is somewhat different, but chess allows one to arrange results and this is a flaw, a serious one, in the competitions.Usually pre-arranged draws or even throwing away a result is damaging someone else.
+David Bor Pre-arranged draws may indeed be a flaw in the system, but they are not a serious one--especially in the context of the current discussion. Some of these computer-cheaters are stealing tens of thousands of dollars in undeserved prize money. Comparing pre-arranged draws to that is like comparing minor shoplifting to a million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Yes, it's still dishonest; but no, it's not anywhere near as serious.
It might be helpful to mention, for those unfamiliar how the rating system works, what the numbers mean on a practical and probabilistic basis. That is, with a rating differential of only 400 points between players, the higher rated player (assuming the ratings are true and established) should win every single game with no draws or losses to within less than a 1% statistical variance.
Of course, the human condition and human frailty is going to cause human beings to exhibit a considerably significantly higher standard deviation in performance than a calculating machine, and a clever human would, as you mentioned, obscure their performances and results by various tactics if their intention was to cheat other players out of their hard-earned prize money.
As a former chess player, it bothers me to hear the comments of non-players who ask 'why is it such a big deal about others cheating at chess?' and to learn that there are others who think that those who cheat should be congratulated for getting away with it.
The reason it is so bad is simply this: chess is not an easy game for humans. Many strong players spend tens or hundreds of thousands of hours working very hard and devoting most of their life for the love of a pastime which, at most levels, does not and cannot ever compensate them for their efforts - at least, not financially. Literally, decades of their life if not their whole lives are spent becoming good at chess. Then to have some cheating scumbag clown walk off with your section's prize money who spent no more than ten minutes learning to move the pieces and fitting a hidden earpiece is just beyond contemptible.
i would not be the least bit sorry for someone who was caught cheating if the other players dragged him into an alley and beat him to a bloody pulp as he deserves.
Actually a 400 rating difference translates to 92% of points, not 100%. That should be roughly 5 wins and 1 draw for each six games, played between two players 400 elo points apart, that is 5 wins and 1 draw for the highest rated one, obviously.
why so many dislikes? if someone plays suspiciously is it not worth investigating?
because of using the words essentially and basically more than whats necessary... so annoying
Looks very convincing, if I was to cheat it would look the same.
I'm no master but the way he played in the wins seemed perfectly natural.
The Nh5 move in the Benoni loss was very strange for a strong player though.
It would still be worth analysing against a super strong engine though, lichess style. If the pattern of inaccuracies/mistakes/blunders is radically different in different game results it would be suggestive.
just watched the first game and I have to say having played some chess myself one thing I do is spend a lot of time with the engines and that first game is a classical way that engines play the game, no counter play, very strong clean planning leading into a completely winning simple endgame, the whole way a computer plays is very smooth, its like people think that's its all tactics and no strategy, this is wrong, that is not how chess engines play, they have this very smooth calculated long term approach to the game that just always happens to completely destroy you and give you no chance to do anything yourself, I would say that was definitively the work of an engine, also with the blitz thing you can easlily use an engine to play blitz.
+david holleran i totally agreed with you. that's how engine work! no strategy, no tactic, no counter play. perfect and boring.
Description says Banov, title says Danov
Cheating to seems very risky since before long you would need to keep cheating just to maintain your rating. It only takes one mistake for your reputation to be ruined.
I'm shocked Mister Lilov can afford to just throw a player's name here, as if it's a people's court. First, even if 99% of viewers here were of the opinion it's a cheating case, thousand (or billions) of opinions do not form an evidence in any way. Whatever you think you need a clear proof. Here there is no clear cheating but a clear case of defamation.
+busho1231 The lecture goal is to provide just theories. The case has been identified as cheating and the player in question (Danov) was banned after declining to perform a metal detector check before a game in a serious tournament.
18:51 this system is bad I think Danov not using cheating at this game
It's all very circumstancial. The biggest point for Danov is his Blitz rating being up so high. I understand Lilovs doubts, yet if he is wrong the name of a young talent is always seen together with this accusation. Was there no way to confront Danov in any other way. Take all the facts and send it to the Bulgarian Chess Association or something like that? Maybe confront Danov personally to give him time to reply before making it public (something like: I will post this next week on youtube, what do you have to say about it...).
+Katzenblick Danov has clearly refused checking at a big tournament without providing any reason/s, so he was expelled. According to the country's ethical laws in sport, this is equal to admitting guilt. Here is what the law says about doping control: "If an athlete refuses or evades drug testing, they can be sanctioned. This sanction can be the same as if an athlete tested positive for a prohibited substance or method." This is absolutely the same for refusing an official (FIDE rule sanctioned) performed check. So, he has been banned for good.
+Valeri Lilov Yes, I admit that looks pretty bad for him. But still there are so many strange and complex characters playing our game, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Nontheless, this kind of doping will haunt us for years to come and it will grow more sophisticated as you pointed out.
I don't get your accent. Its a mix between british english and american english. Where are you from?
he's from Bulgaria, however, I'd say his accent is 90% american
Is this boy teaching people how to cheat successfully?
that is the truth because i don't play much in tournaments but i once chose to try my chance and my game is quite good and i was way ahead of my opponent then the cheating and confusing started, i actually ended up losing the game, after that i keep away from tournaments because you just can't trust anyone nowadays too bad for my chess career anyway,
there is many on chesscom sadly
So he's a master cheat but plays really quickly like a noob. Conclusive proof I reckon.
Lilov is suggesting ways that players could cheat more intelligently at some points in this video. Maybe he doesn't realise that some of these cheats may watch this, and actually gain useful tips.
I wonder if Bobby Fischer would be accused of cheating if he had replicated his 6-0, 6-0 in the modern era. Not hating, just wondering.
31:55 lol @ the game description "BUL-chT"
I like how the chessmaster software plays. You can create your own personalities. It doesn't came anywhere near 2600 strength though. Probably 2300 tops. You can fine tune some programs to appear to play as humans and still be very strong, even throwing in the occasional blunder for good measure.
+Cyric Renner (Abraxas79) I agree, but time management is horrendous. It will spend 20 minutes on the first out-of-book move, yet still lose on time. An engine should never lose on time. I believe the King engine was better in older versions of CM.
In the end, accusing someone of cheating can ruin someone's reputation for the rest of their life. So unless you have hard evidence you should think about the consequences your accusations will have.--This guy could be cheating, but I don't see any evidence in this video to suggest that this is the case
What is a pathern?
There's no H in pattern. It's not pathern
it's pattern
just a t sound, not th
+Doc Apollo say whip !
if you evaluate moves of top super GM's you can trace their moves to some of the very strong programs as well. So now what?You have to catch person actually cheat.
+El Okim They did catch him.
yeah you couldnt see it that much out of the wins but the losses and especially the draws were obvious
Poor man, you have to be more careful next time. Just use weaker engines and it will be ok.
Very on point video. Also, he was drawing every time against pleyers rated higher than him. Never against a weaker one. ;)
Take off your shoes! NO
Banov or Danov? You meant Danov in the description.
+Ritvik Radhakrishnan Yeah, that "Banov" is misleading...I spent several minutes trying to Google that name before realizing it was an error. You might want to fix it Tiger.
thanks for your work, may I point out that Bulgarian chess has a poor reputation and I'm not suprosed when I tried to organise a friendly game with burgas chess club they ignored all my emails , very rude !
Funny enough on lichess I beat someone rated 2200 I'm only 1800
That's because lichess ratings are unbelievably inflated. About 500 points higher than FIDE ratings I would say.
some 1300 players beat 2000 players ( horriable blunders at game)
was this match online
Kobbie Amoah .
This whole argument is poorly supported and unconvincing. Any number of things could cause the psychology of a player to go haywire: playing a position he/she doesn't usually play, being intimidated by a higher rated player, and as anyone whose played chess in tournaments can tell you, players can frequently go into modes in which they cannot defeat certain opponents. That, and I get the impression that the author of this video is trying to convince himself more than everyone else.
+bosonichadron1 It looks like you have not played many professional chess games :) If you had, you would know that things like "being intimidated by a higher rated player" are only valid for less rated players. The case here is proven, the cheater in question is banned and I am simply giving some more arguments from the perspective of a professional player, which many of my colleagues easily share.
I think most of what he is saying is nonsense , I played thousands of people on blitz chess and of have sometimes beaten chess masters and another time lost to 1300s people don't always play consistently
+Nick Heshmati MD Classical and Blitz chess are very different.Also, we are talking about purposefully manipulating results, like losing without a fight, going for engine-type draws and engine-type victories (perfect from start to finish), without any fluctuations. The player has been banned as well. What more is necesarry as a proof?
If you wanted to cheat more intelligently you would use an engine with adjustable strength and slowly ramp up the strength of the engine. Your rating would naturally follow, and you wouldn't have odd pasterns like these because your results from game to game would not be fixed.
I was thinking the exact same thing, it's a much better way to be a cheater
Isaac Michelsen but you would never make an inaccuracy
The problem with that is that you have to have the engine with you at all tournaments, which makes it much more likely you will get caught
Hikaru No Chess
Why are you so obsessed with cheating??
+Tomek Duresov You have to admit it's an interesting subject and it happens in all sports... Most sports have some form of performance enhancements...
Offcourse it is, but there are people who are paid to fight against that, he is not one of them..
+Tomek Duresov I am happy he is raising awareness. It's useful that he makes these videos until FIDE develops a way to combat it. If that is even possible that is.
I believe ,what you are saying. But I think only a grandmaster or very good player can follow your arguments. I am only playing internet blitz and there I am rated between 1500 and 1650. I can't judge, if someone plays flawless. And the next game is bad, but he may have a very bad day. And playing many exchanges means, that the other player allows that. In my internet bltz games some games are really very good. I play great kombinations and even really good endgames. Sometimes I outplay better players. But then I play disgusting and awfull games the next time. I am not playing constandly. I don't use engines, but someone who comepares the very different games may think that. So I never accuse or insult other players and take them like it comes. I lost against some 1200, who played good in that game and I won against an 1800, who played rather weak in that game.
Greetings all from California. Valeri, you keep saying I am not accusing anyone of cheating, but this is exactly what you are doing! Sorry to say this, but your arguments are naive and flawed. Until someone is caught cheating, you can't just "speculate" about him. This is very harmful to individual players and to the chess generally. What you are doing is WRONG; a group of top GMs should not be randomly justifying their losses against rising youngsters like this.
+Silver The purpose of this lecture is to provide ideas on how witty cheaters do cheat. They have all been caught now, including Danov. There is circumsnacial and concrete evidence on the case. The video is supposed to provide only a viewpoint and suggestions on the chess cheating in general, not just Danov's case.
pathern?
keep up the amazing work.
who if not you?
+oink ooink And who if not you?
X-ray all chess players
your english is very good , and so is the video . cheers!
'Cheaters' -they're _everywhere._
They're not everywhere. They're an endangered species. Lions always killing them off.
OmegaKent, okay Omega.
Lol, but yeah the rest of us have to deal with em in all different kinds of sport, and even wider areas of activities. That remark was just to show my interest in what drives people to cheat, it's like second nature to some, while others just _leave it (cheating) be._
Good vid, but you could have shortened it to 10 minutes without repeating the same thing so much.
The videos you showed are horrible evidence. White's play wasn't that great. Black blundered. I saw the moves coming. And in the videos where white supposed loses on purpose, you cannot say he plays "horribly". He doesn't make horrific blunders like a 1800 cheater would. When you stopped the game I'd like to see the engine evaluation. I'm not saying the guy is legit..,but is this your best evidence?!
+Andy Sanders The video is only supposed to provide an insight in the new cheating methods. The guy is an official cheater and he was officially banned after refusing a metal detector check. Do I really need to bring any extra evidence in a TH-cam video? I was just sharing my opinion.
You don't have to bring anything. It's TH-cam. You're perfectly welcome to post anything within their rules. I'm not responding to any comments or updates. I'm not responding to the fact that he was caught cheating. I'm responding to the evidence/information within the video. And after reviewing it twice more with engine help, there is little to no evidence of cheating in his play. That's the info you gave us, was his gameplay...so that's the info i went on. Was i supposed to use different info?
There is one guy cheating using Chess Titan , but nobody noticed ...
Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.
Human and engine ratings aren't comparable.
+Valeriy Huz While that is true, since they dont belong to the same pool, the engines rantings are rather agreeable in the sense that is more or less what we would expect in a mixed pool, i dont think you can undermine his argument in that manner.
I however find Lilov's speculation mean and of poor judgement. His so-called "evidence" is ridiculously thin and subjective, and now the poor young man that he attacks will be hunted by these accusations for years regardless of whether or not they are true.
They dont need to belong to the same pool as ELO ratings are self correcting. For example if i just play chess with all members in my house and let all of them start with 1200, i cant just keep on winning games and reach 2800 in my pool(my own house). There will be a point after which ill start to get less than 1 point per win.
What you are saying is that if there is a person who just plays 2/3 opponents in his chess club(and vice versa), then his rating wont be comparable with the rest of the world as he is not playing anyone else? This is a false statement, their ratings are similar.
Also keep in mind that ELO ratings are nothing but probability of a person beating another person. Every official chess engine is assigned this rating based on the players it plays. If i develop my chess engine and let it play against a 2500 player and if 2500 player wins approx 1/10 matches and loses 7/10 matches, then my engine would be roughly 325 points higher than him. So my chess engine will start with a rating of 2825. This is how the chess engines are assigned ratings.
Chess clubs aren't totally isolated from the world. But engines are. Their ratings estimates only on games which played between engines.
Valeriy Huz You did not get me, if i come to a chess club and strictly just play against you and vice versa, will our ratings lose relevance as we are just playing against each other?
Also kindly note how chess engines are assigned ratings which i mentioned in my earlier post.
now,even i can be an IM
even IM an IM in certain sentances
Interesting.
Hi Valeri, I know this guy isn't Bulgarian but what do you think of the German phenom Vincent Keymer. Real or Fake?
So you are SPECULATING that he is cheating, but even if he isn't, every third game of his is EXACTLY what a computer assisted game would look like and there aren't even little mistakes thrown in to throw people off, and that you are sure of. Additionally, the combination of wins and losses always amounts to an increase in rating in line with someone that is trying to slowly increase their rating strength without suspicion.
The only thing I don't get is why you point out that he could be using a different engine, as if people haven't already acknowledged this in respect to computer cheating. Do cheat games usual follow the best move of the engines you randomly try immediately? Or are they always not in line with one specific engine? How do people catch people's moves matching engines ever if there are too many to check? Has anyone else ever been proved to be using engines that no one could actually match to engine moves?
What I don't get is why people don't throw in bad moves with their damn cheating, and vary the time it takes for them to move online. It sounds simple to me.
They never "Proved' anything against Ivanov. It was always alleged. People should be more careful in their language.
nice analyze.
Thx 4 the Video
a pothern?!?....Lmao
There is a woman chess player who is wearing a very opened neckline when playing against men , & from time to time the boy in front of her could see her teets . Usually the guy was turning red & felt that his pants were too tight . She won many games this way , & when game were over & the male opponent stood up , you could see that some uncontrolable phenomenon printed the map of Antarctica on his trousers . Isn't that completely unfair ?