US grandmaster Fabiano Caruana has backed world champion D Gukesh's view that cheating concerns in chess are often exaggerated. Speaking on his podcast, Caruana distinguished between online and over-the-board cheating, noting he has never witnessed the latter in his tournaments. Gukesh made similar remarks ahead of the Prague International festival.
US grandmaster Fabiano Caruana shared his perspective on cheating in chess during an episode of his C Squared Podcast, one day after world champion D Gukesh described the issue as overstated. Caruana emphasized that discussions about cheating focus more on online games because they are easier to manipulate, compared to over-the-board (OTB) events.
"Over-the-board cheating—it's not really talked about too often, right? Because usually the focus is on the potential for online cheating, which must be a bigger problem, in terms of volume, because it's just easier," Caruana said. He added, "So, I don’t know what the level of cheating is over the board versus online, but whatever it is, there must be more online because it's easier. Just logically, there has to be more."
Caruana noted that online cheating incidents are often resolved discreetly, with offenders banned without public disclosure to avoid damaging careers or potential legal issues. In contrast, OTB scandals, which involve higher stakes like official FIDE ratings, lead to public bans. "When there’s a big over-the-board cheating scandal, players get banned. They get kicked out of chess. We rarely see a GM get caught cheating over the board—maybe once every few years—and then that person is basically banned from chess, sometimes coming back or sometimes not at all," he explained.
He referenced cases like those of Sébastien Feller and Kirill Shevchenko, who were caught cheating in OTB events, but stressed he has never observed such behavior firsthand. "I’ve personally never seen it happen in my own tournaments... I’ve never felt that a player was cheating against me over the board," Caruana stated.
Gukesh, speaking at a press conference before the Prague International festival, echoed this sentiment, opposing unfair play but criticizing unproven claims, particularly those from former champion Vladimir Kramnik about online games. Gukesh aligns with figures like Magnus Carlsen, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich, Arjun Erigaisi, and Nihal Sarin in dismissing exaggerated allegations. Looking to the Candidates tournament, Gukesh expressed no belief in favorites and anticipated facing R Praggnanandhaa, starting against Hans Moke Niemann.
