fling wrote on 05/07/13 at 13:28:11:


As I see it, the statistics only show that he is generally playing strong moves. The conclusion that he is a strong player would be more obvious than that he's in telepathic contact with a chess engine. Especially since there seems to be no other suspicious behaviour reported (as far as I know - but I haven't gone thru all 19 pages of this thread)

Btw, at what rating does the statistical cheating accusation stop? Would you still be accused if you're a 2400 IM, a 2500 GM, a 2900 GM? 
i.e. at what rating would it be safe to cheat if you wanted to?

TalJechin wrote on 05/07/13 at 11:31:36:

Nope.

Quote:

It is hard, I agree! That's one reason this case is so fascinating. Usually things are resolved one way or the other pretty rapidly.

Quote:

The main evidence that makes me deeply suspicious of Ivanov is Ken Regan's analysis (PDF link), which, using the same engine-based techniques he has used to assess historical strength of chess players, concludes that Ivanov's move-by-move performance (as opposed to just his results) in the 2012 Zadar Open is well above 3000, making it one of the strongest performances of all time by anyone (that has been measured).

Of course this is purely a statistical analysis and doesn't prove anything. But it, combined with his further adventures, certainly makes me quite suspicious.

Vass wrote on 05/07/13 at 10:06:39:


This thread has been here for a while now, so what is the conclusion - are there any real proof of cheating at all? 

It's hard to imagine that someone could be consistently cheating in rapid play tournament after tournament, and despite all accusations and being scrutinized by everybody, nobody has still found any real evidence at all... 

Maybe he's just a very talented player, whom prefers to play rapid events. Not being a professional chess player shouldn't mean that you're completely useless at the game and must be cheating every time you beat a higher rated player.

So, without evidence, isn't the whole thread just libel??

From the info on the link above, I don't see why it would be so incriminating - for one thing, isn't it just as suspect that Black maintains an 86% score? After all, it's usually harder to defend and white seems to have the advantage from early on, so just maintaining it would probably result in a better compliance score even though the moves be natural.

Look at the bottom of this page
http://chess-db.com/public/game.jsp?id=2903741.815837.32628736
for the statistics of this game! 

Markovich wrote on 05/07/13 at 02:46:53:


Interesting. Guess pawns v piece (slightly less than 3 'points' v 3 or so 'points') plus opponent weak king may have been slightly overweighted. 
Mind you - how much advantage? Less than 0.5? 
As long as we turn our brain on too, and remain critical, which so many do not, not so much an issue....

Nice! This chess-db site does more or less what I was looking for in this previous thread http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1349706883 : Show "real playing strength" in a game, with all the moves that deviate from perfect or near-perfect play easy to identify. The % measure rather than rating is a bit strange, but I can live with that.

I found a few of my games there, but none of them had been analyzed this way yet. Do they go through and analyze all the games in the database, or would I have to suggest games to them?

I still think someone should implement something like this with either the Regan method or Guid/Bratko method in one of the commercial chess GUIs. Very useful feature for training!

Vass wrote on 05/06/13 at 15:09:25:
No need to tell me that this is a great website. Look at the bottom of http://chess-db.com/public/perfprob.jsp  
I've been in contact with the owner of the website and the guy can really create something beautiful.

I find this analysispresentation very funny, just like we are sitting in a sportcar and looking to the dashboard.

brabo wrote on 05/06/13 at 13:35:57:


The chess-results page was dismissed by the organizers. I know this info from my friends that took part in this event. As for the the organizers, I know them personally - they are very decent people.
Well, I don't know why they dismissed the page...and it's not convenient to call them by phone right now. And what is more, I think they are somehow frustrated by how the things went..
In fact, I was in Veliko Tarnovo (the town where this event is happening) with my 8-year old son (who is playing chess too) just 5 days ago. My son took part in a tournament they perfectly organized - there were more than 200 children with their parents and trainers, you know..
As long as I know, "the hero" was not amongst the prize winners. First prize went to IM Velislav Kukov, one of his teammates and a friend of his - the only one that has a draw with "the hero" (except the 1800+ girl that drew with him in the first round  ). Anyway, as soon as I learn some more info about this particular case, I'll post it here.

Stay tuned!