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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For those of you who are amused by this sort of thing, consider the discussions on ExI over twenty years ago in which most of us agreed that eventually someone would figure out how to hide a computer in or on the body and communicate with it somehow in a way that was completely impossible to detect.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It first happened when a guy had a device in his shoe, but he was caught, so now the big money tournaments have what amounts to a near strip search along with metal detectors.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Recently Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a game that looks very suspiciously brilliant. Most chess players have had an occasional really good day where everything came together, but it never comes this far together. Most (well, nearly all) are convinced (as I am) that Niemann somehow communicated with a computer, without a second person involved. Prevailing opinion is that he somehow had it up his butt, however it is not at all clear what the I/O channel or methods might be.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Forbes had an interesting take on it:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#363636;background:white'>Lawyers representing Norwegian World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and online chess platform Chess.com asked a federal judge Friday to toss a <a href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/10/20/216233/chess-grandmaster-hans-niemann-sues-champion-magnus-carlsen-others-for-100-million-over-cheating-claim"><span style='color:#006666'>$100 million lawsuit</span></a> filed by chess grandmaster Hans Niemann in October, which marked a dramatic escalation of tensions over cheating allegations levied against the 19-year-old American. The motion to dismiss argued the teenager <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/12/02/chess-100-million-showdown-carlsen-moves-to-dismiss-niemann-lawsuit-over-cheating-allegations/?sh=757be2cc5130"><span style='color:#006666'>spent years "trying to curate a reputation as the bad boy of chess</span></a>" and "now wants to cash in by blaming others" after the allegations derailed his chess career.<br><br>Niemann acknowledged he cheated during a handful of matches as a young teen but an October report from Chess.com determined he "<a href="https://games.slashdot.org/story/22/10/04/2111257/chess-grandmaster-likely-cheated-in-more-than-100-matches-report-finds"><span style='color:#006666'>likely cheated</span></a>" more than 100 times in online chess matches, after Carlsen released a statement in September saying Niemann "has cheated more -- and more recently -- than he has publicly admitted." Niemann stated in his defamation lawsuit the claims are a conspiracy from the chess community's establishment to smear him after he defeated Carlsen -- the five-time defending world champion -- during a tournament in St. Louis on September 4. The teen claimed the alleged conspiracy was an attempt to save Carlsen, 32, from reputational damage after Chess.com agreed to purchase his "Play Magnus" app for $83 million in August.<br><br>Friday's motion stated all of Niemann's claims are without merit, arguing he has not disproved the cheating allegations or offered evidence to back up his conspiracy assertion. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Missouri, also named Chess.com executive Daniel Rensch and a website streaming partner, Hikaru Nakamura, as defendants. "Niemann now seeks to shift blame to reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and others, claiming a wholly implausible conspiracy to defame and boycott Niemann that somehow damaged his already dubious reputation to the tune of $100 million," the motion to dismiss states.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#363636;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>