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Grandmaster and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has returned to streaming with fervor, expressing strong criticism toward IM Danny Rensch, the current Chess.com COO. For context, over the past three months, Kramnik has been on a verbal rampage against the chess website, accusing it of insufficient efforts in combating cheaters.
In a recently uploaded video by Chess.com, Rensch addressed the ongoing controversy, suggesting that Kramnik's concerns are exaggerated, characterizing him as "frustrated and paranoid" regarding the issue. Kramnik wasn't particularly happy with the way he was addressed, remarking:
"Very disrespectful. Completely wrong way to talk to an opposite side especially since I'm not the only one as I mentioned already. It's simply not the way to speak if you are cultured and respectable company..."
(Timestamp: 12:42)
"Haven't seen any changes yet" - Vladimir Kramnik's appeal to Chess.com
The ongoing saga between Chess.com and Vladimir Kramnik seems to be receiving frequent updates, with developments surfacing almost daily. Yesterday (January 29, 2024), Kramnik responded to a video uploaded in October 2023, in which the Chess.com COO said:
"We are now investing even more than you would ever think we could. It starts legally, gives us power, titled player cheaters be warned, because the game is changing because you're not gonna have your things kept secret."
Vladimir Kramnik then highlighted the fact that it was nearly February 2024 and emphasized that Chess.com had made no apparent progress in demonstrating its commitment to removing cheaters from the platform. He said:
"Wait, wait, wait. So you're not going to keep it secret anymore. It's been October, and now it's almost February, haven't seen any changes yet. It's been enough time, no?"
Kramnik had previously spoken about statistics regarding certain players he found suspicious. In response, Danny stated in his video that Kramnik's interpretation of these statistics is incorrect, according to some independent statisticians. Kramnik responded:
"I'm sorry, can you be more precise about what exactly is wrong about the stats and not name some independent person, whom you don't even know the name."
In another section, Danny expressed his belief that no more than 5% of players on the website cheat. In response, Kramnik promptly cited a 2018 article from Forbes, which reported on a study of nearly 10,000 online players, revealing that 37% of them admitted to cheating (25:33).
Vladimir Kramnik has also faced sanctions from Chess.com. In December 2023, his blog on the website was "muted" due to accusatory remarks he made against Twitch streamer and Grandmaster Hikaru "GMHikaru" and other young players.
