Hmm.. if time allows in the next hour or so, I will find his exact quotes from the interview and will definitely edit this out if it is unfair. But my recollection is that Hans stated explicitly that he had never cheated in a serious tournament since he was 12, that he only cheated thereafter in "unrated" games, that he only cheated twice overall, and that he hadn't cheated at all in the ~2.5 years (since he was 16) preceding his game against Carlsen in Sinquefield this year. From the report, chess.com is saying any or all of those statements are outright lies.
But it's good to call this out and it sucks to unfairly malign anyone so I'll follow-up if other obligations allow me to scrub through the post-game interviews videos quickly.
> Expecting a perfect verbal 72 page report from him under these circumstances fells pretty cruel.
To be equally fair, 'a perfect verbal 72 page report from him' is not at all what I stated or implied as a standard, and saying so is a strawman.
I don’t think he claimed “twice overall” as in “twice exactly”, to be fair, just within a period of time.
I listened to the entirety of Hans' interview again, and also read a transcript thereof. But I could've saved some time because the chess.com report itself quotes (and paraphrases, separately) Hans' statements about his play there, and calls Hans' statements false outright.[1,2,3]
Here is a selection of Hans' direct quotes from the post-Sinquefield interview which are outright falsehoods according to chess.com:[4]
"I have never, ever in my life cheated in an over the board game, or in an online tournament. They were in unrated games."
"Other than when I was 12 years old, I have never, ever, ever--and I would never do that, that is the worst thing I could ever do--cheat in a tournament with prize money."
"Never when I was streaming did I cheat."
"I did this when I was 12 years old. And then when I, and then the second, the other times I did it, it was not even in an over the board tournament, it was not even a prize money online tournament. It was in absolutely random games."
According not only to chess.com's analysis and the evidence they present, but apparently to Niemann's own admissions to them, each of these statements is outright false on their own. (And if they are false, then together they also grossly misrepresent the overall picture of his behavior.) It appears Hans did in fact cheat in rated games, and in cash prize games, as well as cheating while streaming, and while playing against highly rated players in "real" games.
1: "Consistent with the letter we sent Hans privately on September 8, 2022, we are prepared to show within this report that he, in fact, appears to have cheated against multiple opponents in Chess.com prize events (beyond the Titled Tuesday event that Hans admitted to having cheated in when he was 12), Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers, and the PRO Chess League. We also have evidence that he appears to have cheated in sets of rated games on Chess.com against highly-rated, well-known figures in the chess community, some of which he streamed online. These findings contradict Hans’ public statements.
In particular, in interviews given during the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Hans made several comments to the press about alleged instances of prior cheating :
• “Other than when I was 12 years old, I have never, ever, ever – and I would never do that, that is the worst thing that I could ever do – cheat in a tournament with prize money.”
• “Never when I was streaming did I cheat.”
• “Keep in mind I was 16 years old, I never wanted to hurt anyone, these were random games. I would never – could even fathom d doing it – in a real game.”" -Page 4 of the chess.com report on Neimann.
2:"If you are willing to correct the false statements you made about having never cheated when it mattered (now that you have said these untruths publicly), acknowledge the full breadth of the above violations, and cooperate with us to compete under strict Fair Play measures, Chess.com would be happy to consider bringing you back to our events. In fact, I think it would be a wonderful redemption story for the full truth to come out, for the chess world to see this and acknowledge your talent regardless of your past, and give the community what they deserve: The truth." -Page 58 of the chess.com report on Neimann.
3: "In your interview you mentioned (paraphrased) that you “cheated when you were 12” and then “later when you were 16 in an unrated game”. This directly contradicts our statistical evidence, as well as the conversation you and I had in our private call when you confessed to cheating, and there is written evidence from you that substantially corroborates this. You also contradicted your own statement that you had only cheated in unrated games in the interview by later stating that you did it to gain rating points, which obviously indicates cheating in rated games." -Page 57 of the chess.com report on Neimann.
I am not even a little averse to that
Or why exactly the two persons Carlsen mentioned were exposed, but not the other GMs who cheated.
Yeah, personally, I do believe the report as it does seem to match a lot of other online analysis of his game history (this isn't the greatest video, but it is compelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjtbXxA8Fcc).
And sure, it does seem cruel to call him out in an interview, but so is cheating to get to the top. Yeah, someone who cheated on this scale has robbed those players of the recognition and prize money they worked so hard to deserve. Honest players who have probably devoted way more time than Niemann had (the two years of study you mentioned is impressive, but maybe others have studied like this for decades??)
Hopefully you mean, "a 72 page report"... each.
Yeah, not really. He's 19 and is a non-native English speaker. He understands that he's under siege and has to show some vulnerability to gain trust in listeners. IMO, the way he spoke was completely in accordance with all of this, while also remaining coherent.