Kramnik turned to the EU with claims to the Chess.com platform
A very loud scandal may erupt in chess in the near future. It was initiated by the 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who reported that he sent a complaint to the largest chess online platform Chess.com, which has recently been organizing topovors in its form of tournaments. According to Kommersant, Mr. Kramnik, who has long been conflicting with the platform because of his exceptionally tough position in the matter of the fight against cheating, is ready to make claims to it on a number of points. Among them – abuse of almost monopoly position in the market. Chess.com has recently survived one noticeable trial, which ended with a settlement agreement, in which the plaintiff was the American Grossmaster Hans Niman. He argued that the company and the leader of the world ranking Magnus Carlsen were also colossal – by $ 100 million – damage to his reputation.
In the account of the X 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who owned the main title in chess from 2000 to 2007, a short post appeared in which he informs that “the relevant regulatory authorities of the EU” “received” and “began to analyze” the “requirement of investigation”, based on the “actual documentation” of more than 60 “more than 60, the“ requirement for the investigation ”, which was sentenced by Russian grandmaster. pages « . The message also says that the “decision to open an official case” in such cases “is usually made about a month later”. In addition, the post contains a photo of two pages of documents in question. True, most of the text is smeared with them.
- From the first photo it follows that the official complaint concerns the “systematic violations of numerous provisions of the EU regulations with a chess online platform Chess.com”.
- On the second – the provision of the company registered in the American state of the company in the European Union market is called « dominant. » The numbers are also visible there – from 1 to 14.
Vladimir Kramnik, who contacted Kommersant, confirmed his intentions to initiate the process against Chess.com, but refused detailed comments. He also noted that 14 is the number of claims that appear in his complaint. She, of course, can provoke a very loud scandal in chess.
Chess.com has recently turned into one of the largest players in the chess market. This online platform, the number of users of which exceeded 100 million two years ago, is an unconditional leader in its segment. And it is not even a matter of its demand for fans of chess as a playground. The pandemic of coronavirus with its restrictions led to a sharp take-off of the online Shahmat. Their “specific gravity” is now quite comparable with the fact that they have “living”, behind the board, chess. So, in this genre, Ches.com holds many competitions with the participation of stars. For example, every week they perform in tournaments called Titled Tuesday, in which chess players who do not occupy high places in the ranking take part along with them. They constantly play the first issue of the world ranking Magnus Karlsen, whose company – Play Magnus Group – Chess.com acquired in 2022 for $ 82.9 million.
But the platform is also arranged by truly top-end, not inferior in terms of the public attention of the “classic” supervenues of the competition. The message of Vladimir Kramnik, say, was published before the start of Chess.com Classic. Its composition is entirely chess celebrities, such as the same Carlsen, who won the title of world champion Indian Gukesh Dommaraj, the Americans Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Karuana, Russian Yan Nepomnya, Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattor. At stake in the tournament extremely valuable prizes in the form of vouchers on Esports World Cup. It will take place in the summer and represents something like the Olympiad in computer games with a huge-about $ 60 million-a prize pool.
For some time, the name of Vladimir Kramnik was often mentioned precisely in the context of his relationship with the Chess.com platform in Russia in 2022. In this decade, Mr. Kramnik showed a close interest in the online format, which he had not previously been fond of. Moreover, almost immediately, he focused on an extremely relevant topic. This is the topic of chess cheating. The fact that he flourishes in an online game, because of which phenomena appear in it, showing modest results behind the board, but “remotely” winning even frontmen, avoiding mistakes, many said, but Vladimir Kramnik, especially actively. He repeatedly identified “strange” parties and “strange” careers of various chess players – both known only on the Internet and without the reservation of elite, like Hikaru Nakamura. Moreover, most often in the field of view of Mr. Kramnik, performances fell on Ches.com.
His activity resulted in a public conflict between the platform and the 14th world champion. She closed his blog, and then began to forbid Vladimir Kramnik to play in her competitions. The latest round of conflict dates back to December 2024. Then Mr. Kramnik was struck by six wins in six parties, won at the next Titled Tuesday with an unknown British Thomas Rendle. The fact that Chess.com allows such chess players to participate in their tournaments, he called the « shame ». The platform reacted to the disqualification of Vladimir Kramnik for six months. Her statement said that he “violates the policy” of the company, “publicly questioning” the honesty of the players, instead of “directly” to contact Chess.com. Mr. Kramnik, having learned about the sanctions, threatened the claim with a platform prohibiting him to “freely express his own opinion”, which, in particular, “leads to a loss of profit”. He claimed that he sent requests about disputed parties to Chess.com, but she did not answer them.
The source “Kommersant”, familiar with the preparation of the current complaint of Vladimir Kramnik, says that the 14th world champion wants to prove that the platform “takes a close to the monopoly position in the market and grossly abuses it”, “surviving the players objectionable to it” and “depriving them of the right to engage in the main activity”.
The authors of the complaints are sure that “business is bogged down in the cheat” and Chess.com, in essence, “supports it, refusing to recognize the existence of a problem,” since the recognition “will destroy its reputation and pour into countless claims from the deceived participants of previous competitions with a revision of the results.” At the same time, the interlocutor of Kommersant knows that Mr. Kramnik and his team conducted a “deep statistical analysis of the situation, collecting a huge array of information.” He suggests that the proof of the existence of such a practice may turn out to be a “catastrophic blow” for the platform, especially if Vladimir Kramnik realizes the idea of applying with claims not only in the EU, but also to the American court.
Ilya Merenzon, the head of the World Chess company, which is also extremely noticeable in the chess market, indicated “Kommersant” that “Chess.com, having a strong influence on sports, does not report to anyone.” “The fact that, even if it has anti -citing mechanisms, the company does not disclose them. There must be transparent and understandable procedures for verification, control or in order to be able to refute unfair accusations. But they are not visible. » According to Mr. Merenzon, the statements and actions of Vladimir Kramnik “in any case are beneficial chess, since he turned the fight against fraudsters, who had an urgent discussion about her into the mainstream, having made more for anti -official than all the structures combined.” Ilya Merenzon added that “most of the assumptions of the grandmaster about the cheaters were confirmed” and that “he is not just throwing accusations, but represents suspicious cases attributed to those according to the results of careful and professional analysis.”
In Chess.com, on Tuesday, they did not answer the request of Kommersant on the statements of Vladimir Kramnik. Meanwhile, in the history of the platform there was already one trial made a noise. Its initiator was the young American grandmaster Hans Niman, whom Magnus Karlsen accused of cheating in 2022. The Norwegian accusations supported the study of Chess.com. His conclusions were based on the study of the parties in Hans Niman. Chess.com experts stated that, “very likely,” Mr. Niman took advantage of the “illegal help” “more than one hundred online parties”, including party within the framework of tournaments with prize money at the stake.
The conflict continued the lawsuit from Hans Niman, filed in the Federal District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri. In it, the American grandmaster demanded to recover $ 100 million record for its sport from a group of defendants who allegedly damaged his reputation and career.
Magnus Karlsen, Chess.com, its executive director Daniel Rensch and the famous American chess player Hikaru Nakamura were included in the list. Hans Niman, of course, accused the defendants of slander. Chess.com, according to him, used her website in order to prove his dishonesty, even if she had any specific facts and had never appeared. The process, however, ended with a settlement agreement with the abandonment of mutual claims and the recognition of the chess platform that she really had no “decisive evidence” of the artist’s side.
