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Perpetual Chess Podcast

EP 301- Computer Science Professor and IM, Dr. Kenneth Regan on the Carlsen/Niemann controversy and the Current State of Cheating in OTB Chess

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Leisure, Sports, Hobbies

4.8 • 706 Ratings

šŸ—“ļø 18 October 2022

ā±ļø 90 minutes

šŸ§¾ļø Download transcript

Summary

This week we are rejoined by Dr. Kenneth Regan. Dr. Regan is, as many of you will are already aware, is one of the world’s leading experts at engine cheat detection. He is an IM at chess, and is the rare individual with domain expertise in chess, statistics and computer science. Dr. ReganĀ has degrees in mathematics from Princeton and Oxford and is a Professor in Computational Complexity Theory at the University of Buffalo. As a chess player, Ken was the 1977 US Junior co-champion and once held the record of youngest USCF Master since Bobby Fischer. Dr. Regan joined the podcast to share some of his findings about the Carlsen/Niemann controversy and to discuss chess cheating more generally. More details can be found below. 0:00- This podcast may be best watched via YouTube. You can sub/Watch at the video of this podcast the Perpetual Chess YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/UsEIBzm5msU To subscribe to the Perpetual Chess Linkfest you can submit your email addressĀ Ā Ā Ā at the bottom of the most recent post here: https://benjohnson.substack.com/p/perpetual-chess-linkfest-9-october 02:00- Dr. Regan joins the show. What did Dr. Regan think of the Chess.com Report about GM Hans Niemann?Ā  Mentioned: James Altucher interview with Dr. Regan- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hf-V4WFq2k 2019 Perpetual Chess Interview (Episode 136): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNQ__09_fE 08:00- Dr. Regan shares some of his data regarding how the amount of time one has impacts chess strength.Ā  17:00- What data was Dr. Regan able to gather from the famous all night bullet match between GMs Alireza Firouzja and Daniel Naroditsky during the 2022 FIDE Candidates tournament.Ā  19:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here:Ā  https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 20:00- What does Dr. Regan think of Chessbase’s ā€œLet’s Checkā€ as a cheat detection measure?Ā  24:00- Dr. Regan discussing these blog posts: https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2022/09/21/cheating-at-chess-not-again/ https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2016/11/30/when-data-serves-turkey/ 32:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess’ algorithm reviews your games and gives you actionable advice on how to improve your game. Check it out for free, and if you choose to subscribe you can use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%. 32:30-Ā Dr. Regan shares and discusses some of his data on GM Hans NiemannĀ  41:00- Dr. Regan discusses his research and post called ā€˜Pandemic Lag’ as well as a few other informative articlesĀ  https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2021/07/30/pandemic-lag/ Chessbase article by Frederic Friedel regarding typical prodigy progressĀ  https://en.chessbase.com/post/tracking-a-player-s-progress FM Nate Solon’s look at GM Hans Niemann’s centipawn losses https://zwischenzug.substack.com/p/did-hans-niemann-cheat 55:00- Patreon mailbag question: What did Dr. Regan think of GM Fabiano Caruana’s comments regarding the efficacy of his model?Ā  Mentioned: C Squared PodcastĀ  1:03:00- Patreon mailbag question: How can Dr. Regan’s model catch cheaters if it is only looking at a sample size of one game?Ā  1:07:00- Patreon mailbag question: Why does Dr. Regan’s model exclude chess knowledge?Ā  1:10:00- Patreon mailbag question: Would it be harder to catch cheating if done only a few times per game?Ā  1:13:00- Patreon mailbag question: What precautions can clubs and organizers take to help prevent cheat?Ā  1:18:00- Dr. Regan discusses his post ā€œMeasuring Fidelity to a Computer Agentā€ https://cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/chess/fidelity/ 1:20:00- Does Dr. Regan’s data even hint at Hans Niemann cheating OTB? 1:26:00- How would Dr. Regan use his data for chess improvement?Ā  1:30:00- Thanks to Dr.Regan for joining us and sharing his research! You can keep up with his research via his blog (co-authored with Richard J. Lipton): https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:33.9

Hello everyone. I am Ben Johnson and this is the Perpetual Chess Podcast. Perpetual Chess is a weekly

0:39.5

interview show where top chess players, authors, content creators, and accomplished amateurs discuss their

0:45.3

careers and share stories and chess improvement tips. Perpetual Chess is a part of the Blue Wire

0:50.2

Podcast Network, and we'd like to give special thanks to our presenting chess education sponsor,

0:55.4

Chescible.com.

0:56.5

For more information about the show, you can go to perpetual chesspod.com, but without further

1:01.4

ado, let's get to the show.

1:06.0

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to perpetual chess.

1:08.8

Before I get you to my interview with Dr. Kenneth

1:11.4

Regan, I just wanted to mention that this interview is available via video on YouTube as well.

1:17.9

And we do mention that at the beginning of the interview, but Dr. Regan ended up sharing his

1:21.9

screen a bit more than we planned. So you may want to watch this on YouTube. We'll also be experimenting with

1:29.4

additional video formats over the next few interviews. So that's something to keep in mind.

1:34.9

But generally, even when it's available on YouTube, we will be trying to keep it conducive

1:39.7

to an audio-only format. But in this one, since it's Dr. Regan's work is so data-driven, there are a few

1:45.9

graphs and stuff that you can only get by watching the video version. The other thing, while I'm

1:52.1

reminding you all of people, please remember to subscribe to the perpetual chess linkfest, a free

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