Chess Underground #20: Isaac Steincamp

The November installment of Chess Underground's second season, Tournament Life, checks in with Isaac Steincamp, director of strategy at chess.com.

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As the pandemic has forced tournament life primarily into an online environment, Isaac shares his insights about what that means for tournaments moving forward, online providers like chess.com, and the chess community in general. Also, a deep dive into the current US Championship Online Qualifier as well as the **HIGHLY UNOFFICIAL** rankings of the top-3 pop culture moments for chess in the last quarter century.

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https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/hiazzv/Chess_Underground_-_Episode_20_November_20207abeb.mp3

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Comments

Chess.com identified as a…

Chess.com identified as a cheater a player who won a tournament with a 7-0 score. Although Chess.com restored the rating points lost by those who lost to the cheater, Chess.com did not change our won/loss statistics, nor did Chess.com change the official tournament results, which still show the cheater as a 7-0 champion. I provided feedback to Chess.com about this situation and received this reply: "Unfortunately we haven't yet developed the necessary tools to modify the results of a tournament, or the results of the games themselves. At this time all we're able to do is restore the points lost to the cheating party." That is not a satisfactory response from a technological or customer service perspective; a company that charges a membership fee to run rated tournaments should have the ability and inclination to publish accurate won/loss percentages and tournament results.