Seems like that he was an inspiration to many, and also gave up his time for strangers, a nice guy.
My opinion and facts about "Mikhail Tal" from Atomic Chess.
Well, I started talking to Noz in 2022 or 2023 (I really don't remember), he was a strong player on chess.com at the time, but he wasn't a top 30 player on Lichess. He almost always asked me for help on how to improve in Atomic Chess, and I gave him tips, but even back then his style was very different from mine. He improved a lot to the point where we were on par in terms of skill level, but I had a little more experience and always helped in some way.
After this introduction, I want to get to a delicate point and make it clear that I consider myself a friend of Noz, but I have to point out impressions I had.
Until 2024, Noz's progress was rapid, but in my view it was a true curve of evolution. In my opinion, Noz had a chance to win 2024, and I believe that until that time he was playing without any kind of help.
So, to anyone criticizing Noz, I just want to say that in 2024 he was already a player who could have been a world champion with a certain degree of favoritism.
Noz is a really good person and a fenomenal players (mainly in his style
But now I have to talk about the year 2025: Well, in that year Noz had the most absurd evolution among all the other years (which is not normal because the stronger you are, the harder it is to evolve). I don't say this just because of the rating, but because of the true strength of the game. I couldn't get the same wins anymore and I started having a lot of difficulty facing him. It could have been a real evolution, and for a while I believe it was, but we got close to the AWC, and I can say that there were some curious things about Noz.
1: At times, he really made me feel like I was playing with an engine, because I thought I was better in the position but there was a resource that ended up making me lose (this happened a few times), but this could just be his style.
2: The evolution of the nut in the last few months before the AWC can be compared to the evolution of @jasos12 in the 2023 AWC (I believe it was this year) It was a very fast and sudden evolution, which in itself can be a little suspicious.
3: Bad openings and very precise games: I know taisthuban doesn't know how to play sidelines haha, but playing a4 and RA3 is too much,The problem with that was that after the opening, NOZ became very precise. There was one game I saw where it only took Tais to make one mistake for the position to be lost. So that might also be a bit suspicious.
Surely Noz helped a lot of people (like Jake himself), I had many fun and interesting games with him, however it is clear that he most likely cheated, regardless of that he remains a player who had the most impressive style I've seen so far, I appreciate the games I played with him and hope he comes back. And one more thing, a player will never have their legitimate achievements annulled just because they cheated, so yes, for me Noz is still a phenomenal player. The same goes for: gannet, vannto, jasos, and vadim, all strong players who made mistakes, but I will not invalidate their achievements and especially the kind of people they were (especially when it comes to NOZ).
@chrisrapid said in #14:
> Surely Noz helped a lot of people (like Jake himself), I had many fun and interesting games with him, however it is clear that he most likely cheated, regardless of that he remains a player who had the most impressive style I've seen so far, I appreciate the games I played with him and hope he comes back. And one more thing, a player will never have their legitimate achievements annulled just because they cheated, so yes, for me Noz is still a phenomenal player. The same goes for: gannet, vannto, jasos, and vadim, all strong players who made mistakes, but I will not invalidate their achievements and especially the kind of people they were (especially when it comes to NOZ).
unfortunately, Noz admitted that he cheated in all his games including awc 2023, 2024, and 2025. when asked about his true strength he said it's hard to tell because he never played any games without the help of an engine. So in his case all his achievements can be attributed to cheating unfortuantely
Another player informed me about this, unfortunately.
In this case, I can't say anything more because it was all a lie.
wait so im pretty new to atomic chess and i have a few questions
so has noz admitted to cheating already?
if so how did noz conceal cheating for so long (13k atomic games is a lot to never get caught)?
is he going to keep the awc title?
what happened to bijiy who also got banned?
who is the next top 10 level cheater getting caught xD...
1.Yes, noz admitted to cheating.
2.He did selective cheating, or that’s what I heard from other pros.
3.If I remember correctly, howlin(TD) did say yes in the past, but I’m not sure if it’s gonna change in the future...
4.Bijiy said he thinks he got banned suspected for cheating, but none of us know yet, for sure, as he hasn’t appealed yet and plans to appeal in a few hours.
5.God knows, I honestly don’t want another shock. I’ve trusted both of these guys to be legends of the game and I don’t want someone else to also be banned for whom I had tremendous respect...
(Please correct me if I went wrong anywhere, I’m typing this out of the info I gathered in the last two days...)
@T-R-I-D-E-N-T
Chat we need to start Noz Was Right
Watch the Antichess Lore video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrFjbAS9h8