Recently, Levy Rozman a.k.a. GothamChess, a chess streamer and teacher who is also an IM (International Master) played a chess match against Indonesian Dewa Kipas. GothamChess went on to lose the match, but suspected Dewa Kipas of cheating by using a chess engine to find the best moves. His suspicions were not out of nowhere, as during the match, Kipas was taking at least ten seconds to make each move, even the ones that were very easy and should have been spotted right away by someone of his level.
Before publicly accusing Kipas of cheating, GothamChess looked at the account of Kipas on Chess.com and found that Kipas went up 2000 elo in 11 days which is basically impossible. He also found that Kipas had a 90% accuracy rate with the chess engine which is also almost impossible, so GothamChess reported Kipas to chess.com and made public claims about Kipas cheating, which eventually led to Kipas’ account getting taken down.
But, this is not where the story ends. After getting taken down, Kipas’ son, who has a large social media following in Indonesia advocated for his father to get his account back and claimed that his father did not cheat. This led to GothamChess getting tons of hate mail, tweets, and even some death threats by followers of Kipas’ son. The hate got so bad that GothamChess had to pause his social media accounts.
Shortly after, to prove his innocence, Kipas accepted an in person challenge against another highly rated chess player named Irene Sukandar. The suspense leading up to this match was so high that this became the most viewed chess match of all time. Eventually what ended up happening was that Sukandar beat Kipas 3 games to none and Kipas only had an accuracy rate of 40% with the chess engine. If this isn’t enough to prove anything, Chess.com also estimated the elo of Kipas during these games to be in the low 1000s.
Kipas still claims that he didn’t cheat but to me I don’t think that I believe Kipas. Do you think that Kipas cheated, and if he did cheat, do you think that his account should be banned from Chess.com for it?
Also if you want to get into chess, GothamChess has a very helpful channel on YouTube that goes into high depth of how to get better at chess.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/most-watched-chess-stream-in-history-dewa-kipas
GothamChess channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQHX6ViZmPsWiYSFAyS0a3Q
Hey Isaac, I think that Kipas cheated and should be banned from Cheess.com for it. If people are able to get away with something like that, then what is the point of having rules to any game at all?
ReplyDeleteHi Isaac,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I could make any assumptions, but people should definitely look into it and find out the truth. Someone with a following and title in chess should face the consequences for cheating, if they did so.
Hi Isaac, to me it seems like Kipas cheated. I think that cheaters should be removed from chess.com because it takes away the whole purpose and fun of the game. Also, I have watched GothamChess in the past and I agree that he is very fun to watch. I would want to play him in a challenge match to see how quickly he can beat me.
ReplyDelete