Hans Niemann, the American chess grandmaster, is believed to have cheated in at least 100 online matches, according to a Chess.com report cited by the international press.

chess. com: Hans Niemann cheated at least 100 times in online chess matches

“I think Niemann has been cheating recently, which he hasn’t admitted publicly,” Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen said in late September.

Chess.com, a chess platform with more than 100 million users worldwide, confirmed Carlsen’s claims this week.

Chess.com’s 72-page report, based on match analysis, performances, match behavior and various detection methods, shows that by 2020, Niemann “probably received illegal assistance in more than 100 online matches,” including matches in which the horse had cash prizes, notes The Guardian.

L’Equipe writes that one of the matches was against Russian world runner-up Yan Nepomniaschi, who at the Sinquefield Cup in September asked organizers to step up surveillance when he learned Niemann was going to participate.

Based on the analyzed data, Chess.com considers the progress of the American, who became a grandmaster in January 2021, “extraordinary from a statistical point of view” and surpasses the progress of such chess geniuses as Bobby Fischer or Magnus Carlsen.

However, Chess.com clarifies that there is no evidence of Niemann cheating in head-to-head matches and has asked the international federation to deepen its investigation into Hans Niemann, News.ro reports.

Niemann has now admitted to cheating in two matches, when he was 12 and when he was 16. The grandmaster is now 19 years old.