I was a summer intern at a big defense company for one of my first summer jobs. They gave me some fairly simple work but not enough to fill my day. I ended up reading a lot of books for a large chunk of my day. =/
Hmmm from testing it on the replit site someone posted, you can actually move through the first point of contact. I set up a case where my queen was protected by a pawn and used a bishop to take both pieces.
One of the most interesting (but inconclusive) points they found was how Hans' evaluated strength dropped after they introduced the 15 minute broadcast delay.
Except, introducing the 15 minute broadcast delay just happens to coincide with Magnus scandalous withdrawal, Hans being especially carefully searched and being stared at by everyone (that is, if we trust how it was evaluated over a couple of games in the first place).
So, again, even though some statement from chess.com was expected, this one probably does more harm than good. Heavy implications, winking and chuckling, but nothing that would allow one to close the case (quite naturally). All of this historical progress evaluation was done by people a month ago already, and did achieve as much as this one. This one is "official" though, so pours another barrel of fuel into the fire.
That said, I wonder why 15 minute (or even more) delay isn't standard in events like that. Seems like the least you could do, given how questionable chess in 2022 is in the first place.
I do think all of the implications on Hans are well deserved, and the deep exploration of cheating within the chess world is well placed. And after looking through the evidence myself, I do believe that Hans is cheating in over-the-board games. I don't think any of the analysis presented on YouTube have yet met a sufficient standard of quality (statistical mistakes everywhere), but I do have faith that someone will come forward with an analysis that both doesn't make any mistakes and also firmly implicates Hans is a cheater. Time will tell.
I also agree that Hans material drop in performance after the broadcast delay could be reasonably attributed to:
1. he's 19
2. the best chess player in the world said he's a dirty cheater
Such circumstances would throw off many prodigal 19 year old's, I'm sure his emotions got in the way of his playing. (I also believe he was cheating here, but I don't think the drop in his performance meets any standard for acceptable evidence)
I didn't look at the chess.com thing since the historic progress is eclipsed by a streak of 5 important games where he simply scores 100%. Everything else is irrelevant. GM's usually have zero games at that level. Dropping to his usual level after that doesn't average it out to human level. lol
Someone should organize that running joke: naked chess tournament.
There's a video of Hikaru Nakamura looking at some of the games identified by this report, and he was admitting that it wasn't immediately obvious to him: the games looked like good games (although I didn't watch the whole video).
So such a test of the system almost feels necessary for the chess world to see if they really can tell the difference between high level classical OTB play and cheating. It would be interesting indeed if ever the consensus was that a fair player was the cheater and the actual cheater just looked like "good play"!
Another player decreased by 10 vs 15 for hans. Other players increased by a similar amount to hans. It could easily be noise. Hans under the most public scrutiny and criticism of his life, so you would expect his play to suffer.
I kind of suspect magnus misplayed because he knew that Hans cheated so much online.
"I'm told that I'm going to have no time any more and good sleep is a thing of the past."
This is accurate, but you won't really get it until you're in the midst of it and you realize there is no way out. Your life will be very different from now on.
The most important advice I have for you right now is make sure you and your partner know you are a team. You will both be going through a difficult transition. Forgive them for everything you can and hopefully they can forgive you for everything they can.