https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)the_chesscom_report/Main Takeaways from the Chess.com ReportIn case you didn't have time to read the whole 72 page document, here are most important points to note:
Hans cheated on chess.com in over 100 games, from 2015 to Aug 2020. Some of these were prize money tournaments like Titled Tuesday. Some of these were against notable grandmasters like Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniel Naroditsky. He has also been cheating on stream. This directly contradicts the claims made by Hans in his statement in the Sinquefield cup.
Hans has privately confessed to chess.com about this in Aug 2020, after which he was allowed to play on a new account. He has played thousands of games in this new account and it is unlikely that he has cheated in any of them due to either learning from his mistake or the fear of being watched under a microscope. He was also allowed to play in prize money tournaments.
Chess.com uses a metric known as a 'strength score' to determine strength of play (ranges from 0 - 150). This metric is determined by using best moves, player rating and centipawn loss. The cheating instances were confirmed by both chess.com's fair play team and Ken Regan (the FIDE approved statistician).
Other factors in determining cheating are time usage during play and browser behaviour (eg. whether the player has toggled to another tab when playing a game etc.)
Confessed GM cheaters caught by chess.com have a strength score that ranges from 69 to 103, with an mean of 83. Hans had a strength score of 85.5.
The report details Hans' meteoric rise in OTB chess. His strength score increase from ages 11 to 19 have been the highest recorded (20) among top GMs. For instance, Carlsen increased only 15 points during that time.
Hans also has the least amount of time between achieving 2500 elo and 2700 elo. With only a bit above a year and a half seperating the two achievements. This is an anomaly with players like Carlsen achieving this in just over 2 years and Praggnanandhaa around 5!
Hans is known to have plateaus in his progressions which is uncommon in young prodigies who rise in elo rapidly.
Hans is the only player in the top 50 who is under 25 and has achieved the GM title after the ages of 16. The normal range is from 12 - 16. This seems to be a newer trend as earlier super GMs like Spassky became GM at 18. However, it is also important to note that the pandemic may have slowed his progress to becoming a GM.
Hans has an OTB aggregate strength score which is expected of GMs at his level.
Hans has a OTB strength score distribution per game that follows a fairly even, unimodal normal distribution curve. This shows us that it is unlikely that Hans chose to cheat in some games and not to in others. This would result in a bimodal curve which has two peaks indicative of mean playing ability with and without cheating. Hans' curve is also one of the more normal ones in the other distributions shown in the appendix.
Chess.com condemns statistical evidence of cheating using engine correlation as it is not up to their standards. Instead proposes an alternative by showing the percentage of games which have a strength score of above 100. Hans has around 18% of his games played to be above 100+ strength score, this is seemingly normal when compared to his peers (Carlsen with around 30%, Keymer around 19% etc).
Hans has had the biggest difference in play when comparing rounds 1-3 and 4-9 in the Sinquefield Cup (strength score of 97.17 to 86.31). This may be because of further tension and stress after accusations from the chess community. There is no evidence that this is due to not cheating in rounds 4-9. Other players have also had weird changes when comparing this. MVL has reduced 7.1 strength in this metric which is close to Han's 10.86 loss. While Alireza gained 12.71 strength score in this metric.
Magnus reveals in a private conversation that this a game unlike any that he has ever had as Han's victory seemed "effortless" to him. They also show examples of reactions of players after beating Magnus to compare it with Han's reaction. Found this kinda funny lmao.
Hans' OTB strength score by age looks suspicious and unlike other players shown in the appendix. Han's curve follows a clear linear path while other players have a more logarithmic curve with a plateau towards the end.
Chess.com does not say that there is definitive evidence that Hans cheated in any OTB games as their strength score metric is created to only measure performance in 1-60 minute online games. However, they highlight six events that they find suspicious, they have sent information regarding that to FIDE for further action.
Emails from Rensch to Hans shows that he condemns Han's statement in the Sinquefield cup. He states that Hans' removal from the Chess.com Global Championship after the Carlsen incident was bad timing and was due to reconsidering Hans' rampant cheating when there is prize money of over $1million on the line.
Rensch offers a chance for Hans to redeem himself and consider bringing him back to chess.com events by acknowledging and confessing publicly to all the accusations made by chess.com. This email regarding this offer was sent on the same day as when chess.com put out a statement which dismissed Hans' claims in his interview.