This article appeared as "Chess Mates" in the Summer 2023 issue of Independent School.Like many chess fans around the world, two Charlotte Latin School (NC) students were puzzled about a reported cheating scandal in a major chess tournament last year. The scandal, which sparked a lot of debate in the chess community, alleged that Grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann cheated by using a hidden device relaying moves to him in his decisive victory against eight-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in September 2022. But Jack Hollingsworth and Teddy Warner, recent Charlotte Latin graduates, weren’t convinced, and they went deep to find out if their hunch was right.
The two worked on the project in the school’s Fab Lab, where students work to solve real-world problems with the support of a network of other Fab Labs around the world. The Fab Lab network is an open creative community of artists, scientists, engineers, educators, and students at 1,750 labs in some 100 countries, who share ideas and resources.
Hollingsworth and Warner developed a device like the one allegedly used in the scandal and simulated their own match in which a viewer could send information to the device they developed. A Bluetooth telegraphing shoe insole sent code messages to the wearer about the moves to make on the chess board. “Our work shows it is definitely possible to create a device you could use to cheat, but the overall lack of evidence really still makes him innocent until proven guilty,” Warner says, noting that despite extensive inquiry and conjecture nothing has been proven about the allegations.
“Apart from creating a device that we find cool, people can recreate this and find how devices like this can actually harm the world of chess and remove some certainty about the board games,” Hollingsworth says. The students believe that the chess community benefits from open exploration of such potential cheating methods. But they are not convinced that Niemann cheated and tend to think he has been slandered without enough evidence.
Hollingsworth noted that the open-source design of their apparatus will make it possible for others to replicate it and expand its capabilities. A YouTube video about their project has been viewed more than 21,000 times.
“There is ample evidence of him cheating online, and I don’t really like the idea of defending a cheater,” Hollingsworth says. “But there is no solid evidence of him cheating in person. Some people believe he looked too relaxed, but maybe that is just confidence. It seems wrong to base a decision about his entire career based on how he looked.”
Top photo: Teddy Warner (left) and Jack Hollingsworth designed a shoe insert device as part of research and investigation into a chess cheating scandal.
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