The Recent Dewa Kipas Situation Explained

If you don't know already, the world is currently in lockdown because of COVID-19, and many chess enthusiasts (like me, and probably you) have been limited to online chess. Online chess has plenty of benefits but does have one major downfall: the cheaters and hackers. These are the chess players we all hate, and whenever a cheater gets exposed it's a cause for celebration.

On March the 2nd, International Master Levy Rozman, or GothamChess (a popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer) played a 10-minute Chess.com game against @Dewa_Kipas. At the time of the game, the stream had 12,000 viewers. When Dewa_Kipas beat GothamChess, viewers got suspicious and for good reason too.

Each move had been played in about 10 seconds with >90% accuracy. Not to mention that just his rating had been in the 1100s just a month earlier. His blitz rating at the time of the game was still 1151, and his Puzzle Rush was 13.

Viewers mass reported Dewa Kipas, and hours later he was permanently banned from Chess.com for cheating. It could've been a happy ending then, but Dewa Kipas's son Ali Akbar denied the claims in a Facebook post that went viral. Social media went crazy for a few days with everyone sharing their opinions and hot takes. GothamChess received lots of hate, mostly from Indonesians.

Then, in a surprise turn of events, he agreed to play WGM Irene Sukandar over-the-board. The game was streamed on Youtube as it was played, and was watched by 1 million people (at its peak). The result? He got thrashed, losing three games out of three, and Chess.com estimated his real rating to be around 1100.

Despite all that, he still hasn't admitted that he was cheating yet and still has many supporters. 

The case of Dewa Kipas proves one thing: that people are willing to cheat their way to success, and willingly ruin other chess fans' days for rating points. The conclusion: don't cheat. It ruins everyone else's fun and make no mistake about it: you will get caught eventually.