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Comment by WastingMyTime89 | Hacker News Reader

My key take away from this sorry mess of a story is that the world of competitive chess is extremely toxic.

What's happened is extremely unusual.

I haven't followed very closely, but isn't it only in the past 1-2 years some top players have also become popular streamers/youtubers? And they are becoming more and more popular. Which would imply that there will be more and more useless drama like this in the future.

it’s not that unusual. Tigran L. Petrosian[1] - a grandmaster - was caught cheating in a competitive online game fairly recently, and plenty of drama ensued

[1] - no relation to the former world champion

I’m more concerned by the reaction of supposedly pro players than by the actual events. The whole thing was handled very childishly by the community as whole. I was very thankful for the MVL interview which showed that some sanity might prevail but I fear irreparable damage have been done to the reputation of the game.

You think the game of chess may not survive this?

I think the world champion withdrawing from a major tournament and accusing a young player of cheating seemingly out of spite causing an overall very childish reaction in the community as a whole will tarnish the reputation of the game significantly, yes.

I don’t think chess is in any risk of disappearing but it was on a significantly upward trajectory when it comes to popularity that this kind of antic may noticeably dent if not reverse.

I for one can’t take it seriously anymore.

I think there is two pronged issues here. First is reputation of the players involved. Specially those attacking.

And then overall putting even the events in question. If he cheated? Who else have cheated? And how common is cheating? Could it even be that the popular names are cheaters too? After all it takes one to know one...

It just hasn't been the same since von Kempelen cheated against the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa with the Mechanical Turk in 1770.

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