The popular YouTuber Levy Rozman aka GothamChess pointed out that a strange anon GM account by the name Viih_Sou was playing even stranger openings and absolutely crashed the popular creator and commentator GM Daniel Naroditsky.
GothamChess published the video “GM BANNED FOR CHEATING?!?!?!” (watch below) where he analyzed the strange chess that Viih_Sou played in 70 games with time control 3+0 against Naroditsky.
Amazingly, Viih_Sou started each game with 1.a4 and 2.Ra3 (with white), or 1…a5 and 2…Ra6 (with black), giving away an exchange for no compensation and thus granting an early material advantage to the opponent. Yet he managed to soundly beat the online-chess demon Naroditsky by more then 10 points difference.
Apparently, in the middle of one game Viih_Sou was banned by Chess.com and kicked from the site. Fast forward few days later GM Brandon Jacobson revealed in a lengthy post on Reddit that it was him playing under the account Viih_Sou.
Jacobson denied that he was cheating and attributed the great result to his recent chess progress and secret analysis of an early exchange sacrifice.
I’m tired of it all, I’m tired of being assumed guilty until you’re proven innocent. I’m tired of being anxious every time I’m performing well that people will start harassing me too. And unfortunately, I don’t think any of us know what the true extent of the cheating problem in chess is, and I don’t even see a great solution to this. I hate cheaters as much as everyone else, and I believe it ruins the integrity of the game for hard working people.
Chess drama never ends…
