Hans Niemann

 Chess is facing an existential crisis, and the poster boy of that crisis is a 20-year-old grandmaster by the name of Hans Niemann. I admit, I hadn't followed chess for a long time after high school, just dismissing it as a hobby I had in high school. Unlike organized sports leagues, it's harder to keep up with chess if you aren't really good, because by college people have moved onto other endeavors, and spending 2 hours on just one game of chess isn't exactly an ideal way to spend the best years of one's life. So I got out of it with some vague understanding of how the game was evolving and the name "Magnus Carlsen" being the best player in the world for a long time and possibly even the G.O.A.T of the game, (greatest of all time) over legends like Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. "The Queen's Gambit" came out during the pandemic and got me to watch for awhile, but it was more geared towards the backstory of Ana Taylor Joy's character and stood out because of the story of a succesful woman in chess, which I admit is a pretty big deal. Yes, like many folks in the chess world I got sucked back in because of the cheating scandal of late 2022, when Hans Niemann upset Magnus Carlsen, but then was accused of cheating; he counterattacked by suing Carlsen and others for $100 million. It was messy, and both sides had some image problems, but it definitely put Niemann on the map because of the "tactics" he used to cheat (and the body parts he allegedly used in doing so), even leading to him being the answer to a $1000 clue (the hardest question, thus the most obscure character, but still, recognition). 

A lot of drama, showing once again that no publicity is bad publicity. MJ and I watched the Grammy Awards tonight and saw plenty of celebrities on screen who understand that concept: Travis Scott, who gained fame as Kylie Jenner's partner but also a November 2021 incident at Astroworld where fans at his concert died; Billy Joel in the past has had bad publicity, Miley Cyrus has had bad publicity (didn't stop her from winning Best Record of the Year for Flowers); MJ and I learned, having nether watched the Grammys, that "The Big Award" is the Album of the Year award, the equivalent of Best Picture at the Oscars, and that a lot of surprise guests show up from the celebrity world; Trevor Noah has hosted it for the last several years, Meryl Streep's son-in-law is Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett passed away last year (as did Burt Bacharach and many other icons and frequent Jeopardy answers), the awards typically are at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), and both Kelly Clarkson and Oprah are thinner now (I wouldn't categorize them as "thin," but noticeably thinner than before). Seems like Ozempic (by Novo Nordisk, rival of Eli Lilly's Mounjaro) does work for a lot of people, so if there was a pharmaceutical industry awards Ozempic would have won Drug of the Year.... Oprah Winfrey presenting. "And the Pharmy Award goes to....." 

Especially for nobodys like Hans Nieman (or for 99% of the population), and especially in today's world where fame is currency, it's not bad to do something noteworthy even if it's not viewed in teh best light or you get labeled a villain: it makes a story out of it with storylines and plot points, which the general public consumes and hungers for all the time. The problem, though, with Hans Niemann's story for chess is: he's not the only one to cheat. Back when I was playing in like 2000, 2001, it was probably impossible to cheat, and even if you need I don't know if chess computer programs were powerful enough to come up with a move right away to suggest for you to win, and even beat the best grandmasters. Now there are tons of them to tell you the right move instantly, so playing online is the equivalent of the Wild Wild West: there are few rules beyond the basic rules of the game, you don't know who you're playing and if that person just has a bot working on another screen that tells them all the best moves to play. 

Fine, just play live chess, right? But that's the problem that Hans created, he actually cheated in a LIVE game. Especially now with Elon Musk and others working on Neuralink where you don't even need a smart device, chips are just going into your brain, who knows who can just program their brain to think like a computer. (Jeopardy might run into this existential crisis pretty soon, too- I better get on the show quick sometime in the next 8 years). And of course AI is getting exponentially smarter every day; chess has definitely already been "solved," it just might lose the resurgent appeal it has now because people give up. I, for one, love playing for fun without hope of ever being good enough to be a master much less grandmaster, but there's already a feeling of helplessness playing people much better than I am, but also playing a game that's been solved that I can never be THAT good at it. It's tough to inspire interest when you can only go so far. 

Thanks Hans. And yes, your name definitely helps you sound more like a villain (think Hans Gruber from Die hard), or "Neumann" from Seinfield.