On a Tuesday that should have been all about fast games and prize money, Grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann did not appear on the Titled Tuesday roster.
The reason, according to video clips and screenshots circulating online, was a failure of Chess.com’s new anti-cheat application (called Proctor) which either failed to start or was blocked from running on Niemann’s computer. The short version: a proctoring app meant to keep games clean ended up keeping a top player out of the event.
What actually happened. Video clips from Niemann’s stream show the Proctor application getting stuck at an authorization step. Other screenshots suggest a simpler root cause in at least one instance: the Windows firewall prompt that appears when new software tries to talk to the internet was declined, preventing Proctor from completing setup. That combination, a flaky app plus ordinary operating-system-level security prompts, is enough to stop someone from joining a timed online tournament.
Why Proctor exists. Chess.com rolled out Proctor as part of a larger push to make prize-backed online events more secure. After a series of high-profile cheating controversies over recent years, platforms that run money tournaments want a way to collect camera and telemetry data during games so suspicious patterns can be investigated more reliably. Proctor is Chess.com’s answer: a separate piece of software that captures webcam, screen, and other data needed for modern fair-play systems. The company has been gradually expanding Proctor’s usage in Titled Tuesday and other prize events.
Why people are upset. The reaction has been twofold. One group supports proctoring in principle: they accept that stricter checks are needed to protect players and preserve trust in online results. The opposing reaction is focused on execution. Players and observers report that Proctor is unstable, sometimes disconnects mid-game, and can cost participants significant clock time or even the chance to play. For fast time controls where every second counts, a proctor failure that costs tens of seconds is a real sporting problem. Those complaints are not limited to a single event; users and titled players have described trouble during the rollout.
The irony in Niemann’s case. Niemann is a polarizing figure in chess. The 2022 controversy involving Magnus Carlsen and subsequent investigations made him a household name beyond the chess world, and some of that history feeds how people interpret incidents today. Because Niemann’s past involved public disputes over alleged online cheating, his problems with Proctor generated extra attention and snark. That context doesn’t change the technical facts this week, but it does explain why the story drew an outsized reaction.
Two different failures, two different solutions. Technically, a proctoring system can fail in at least two ways: (1) software bugs and infrastructure problems on the provider’s side (bad rollout, unstable binaries, poor server handling), and (2) user-side issues (firewall blocks, outdated clients, OS incompatibilities).
In Niemann’s reported case, evidence points to both possibilities: the app appears to have hung in some clips, and a Windows firewall prompt seems to have been declined in others. Both are fixable, but they require different responses. Provider-side failures call for better QA and staged rollouts. User-side failures call for clearer instructions, better error handling, and friendlier permission flows.
Bigger-picture tradeoffs. The chess world is wrestling with a classic tradeoff: stricter anti-cheat measures raise confidence in results but can make participation more fragile, invasive, or technically challenging.
For many casual players, installing background monitoring software that requests broad permissions feels intrusive; for elite players, the risk of losing a tournament spot because of a buggy client is unacceptable. Platforms will need to balance reliability, transparency, and privacy. And they’ll need to do it fast, because tournament schedules and prize money depend on a system people trust.
What organizers should do next. Short term: make the proctoring setup smoother, detect common firewall prompts, provide an obvious “how to allow this” flow, and offer a robust fallback (for example, a quick verification call or a warmed-up backup client) so players aren’t locked out at kick-off.
Medium term: widen testing, stagger rollouts to smaller groups, and publish clear performance and uptime targets so the community knows what to expect.
Long term: consider less-invasive but more reliable anti-cheat approaches that combine behavioral analytics with lighter-weight privacy protections.
A last note on tone. It’s tempting to treat these moments as purely personal drama, but the core issue is structural. When platforms introduce mandatory security tools for paid competition, they take on a responsibility to make those tools stable, transparent, and respectful of users’ devices and time. Players, from weekend hobbyists to grandmasters, pay attention when that contract breaks.
The Niemann incident is worth watching because it exposes a fragile part of the ecosystem: the technology meant to protect fair play can itself block access to fair competition if it isn’t done well.
I’m a passionate board game enthusiast and a skilled player in chess, xiangqi and Go. Words for Attacking Chess since 2023. Ping me at Lichess for a game or chat.