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

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. Regan 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.

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02:00- Dr. Regan joins the show. What did Dr. Regan think of the Chess.com Report about GM Hans Niemann? 

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. 

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. 

19:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here: 

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20:00- What does Dr. Regan think of Chessbase’s “Let’s Check” as a cheat detection measure? 

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- Dr. Regan shares and discusses some of his data on GM Hans Niemann 

41:00- Dr. Regan discusses his research and post called ‘Pandemic Lag’ as well as a few other informative articles 

https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2021/07/30/pandemic-lag/

Chessbase article by Frederic Friedel regarding typical prodigy progress 

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? 

Mentioned: C Squared Podcast 

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? 

1:07:00- Patreon mailbag question: Why does Dr. Regan’s model exclude chess knowledge? 

1:10:00- Patreon mailbag question: Would it be harder to catch cheating if done only a few times per game? 

1:13:00- Patreon mailbag question: What precautions can clubs and organizers take to help prevent cheat? 

1:18:00- Dr. Regan discusses his post “Measuring Fidelity to a Computer Agent”

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? 

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/

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