interview
The feud between world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and US teenager Hans Niemann has put the “Julius Baer Generation Cup” in the news worldwide and sparked discussions about cheating in chess. Germany’s top player Vincent Keymer made sporting headlines amid the unrest of the online tournament. It was only in the semi-finals that the 17-year-old was over – against eventual tournament winner Carlsen, whom he put under severe pressure in several games. Germany’s youngest grandmaster (since 2020) speaks in an interview with Sportschau about his duels with the world champion and about security precautions in professional chess against attempts at cheating.
Mr. Keymer, in the “Julius Baer Generation Cup” you only lost out to Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals. You did well against the world champion and even managed to get him into serious trouble in a few games. You received a lot of praise for your performance, including from Carlsen himself. What is your conclusion as you look back on your tournament?
Vincent Keymer: It’s been a success for me to finish in the top eight in a very, very strong field of 16 exceptional players and then to beat another very strong young player in the quarter-finals: Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. The match against Magnus Carlsen was of course a wonderful experience. Of course I knew it was going to be very difficult. There’s a reason he’s been number one for ten years. I can live with the result, but of course you always wish you could play a little better. But I still have a little time.
through the Dispute between Carlsen and Niemann is very loudly talked about cheating problems in chess, both online and on the board. In your opinion, how big are these problems?
Keymer: In itself one thinks that the problem shouldn’t exist at all in the professional sector, but one never really knows. Detecting cheating is not a perfect science. Of course you have algorithms that can filter something out, but even if an algorithm says that there was no cheating at one point, it can still be the case that cheating took place there. It’s very difficult to filter that out, especially when it comes to very good players. When amateurs suddenly start playing at a crazy high level, you know something is wrong. When a top player plays a particularly good game, you don’t know for sure. Very good players can also play very strong games. It’s difficult to work only with these algorithms – and that makes it complicated. You could ask a strong player for their assessment of whether or not a player has cheated in certain situations, simply because you know there are certain moves that humans would never actually make. It is clear that this is not enough to convict people. You have to present some kind of evidence. So one can only hope that strong games just keep stepping back from it and keep playing fair.
Have you personally experienced cheating when playing games against you?
Keymer: I didn’t notice that so much. I was shocked that in tournaments where it was just for fun, you sometimes get the feeling that there was cheating – not by strong players. I can’t understand that, because it doesn’t actually do you any good. But it’s definitely a problem. Theoretically, you can play a game online and enter the game into a second computer, cell phone or other machine at the same time – the engine wins against everyone in the world. Of course, there were measures for the “Generation Cup”: there was a front camera, a side camera for anti-cheating that films the room, and ears are also partially scanned. Measures are already in place to avoid cheating because there is a lot of money and prestige at stake. But in normal online tournaments there are no real problems [Hürden, Anm.d.Red.] placed.
What other measures are there for top tournaments on the net? Is there sufficient prevention?
Keymer: I would say if someone thinks very carefully about how they want to cheat online, they can definitely pull it off. Even if cameras are there: You can place them differently – you can’t prevent that. You can only have so many problems [Hürden] as possible. In this case, the second camera had the obligation in the “Generation Cup” to show part of the room, the player on the laptop and the mouse – also to ensure that the player who is supposed to be sitting there is playing and not someone else . At most top tournaments there are these regulations that the organizers reserve the right to carry out room, ear or other scans on randomly selected people. They always write in there: This has nothing to do with suspicions. I think that’s pretty hard to cheat with. Of course you can still manage it somehow, but there are hurdles.
Is that primarily a problem in online chess or are the obstacles not that big even in smaller board tournaments?
Keymer: It’s more difficult on the board, but I’m also not very familiar with the possibilities of how it can work there. At the Chess Olympiad, there were metal detectors. Often there are even scanners that detect radio waves. A lot is already being done to prevent fraud. The problem is quite big because the engines are so much stronger than the humans.
To what extent are you satisfied with your own development (ELO rating 2700)? You are 17 years old and in the top 50 in the world – where do you want to go?
Keymer: Gladly further up. In chess you can never know exactly how things will develop. In the last year and a half, things have been going very well for me more or less consistently, apart from setbacks caused by illness. I can’t complain at all about my development. I’ll keep working hard and then I’ll see what it’s enough for.
You graduated from high school in March and are no longer students, but have more time to devote yourself to life as a chess professional. Do you see that paying off?
Keymer: Definitely! On the one hand you have more time for yourself to work on chess. But what is also a big difference is that I can rest after tournaments when I come back. Otherwise, after a tournament, I was initially busy revising school content. Now I can play a lot more tournaments in a row.
How are things going for you in the coming months? What goals have you set yourself?
Keymer: Right now I’m a little less busy. In the last three, three and a half months I’ve played a lot of tournaments with only a short break, which was very exhausting. Because I finished in the top eight at the last tournament, I also qualified for the next event in October. I’ll probably play that too. Then I’ll have a look. I plan to play the Blitz and Rapid World Championships for the first time at the end of the year.