On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Slate’s Nitish Pahwa to discuss a major cheating scandal in the chess world this past fall between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, and how the story just keeps going. They talk about Niemann’s rise on Chess.com, ways people have tried to cheat in the past, and why anal beads entered the conversation. Plus, they talk about Mittens, the evil chess bot cat.

This podcast is produced by Daniel Schroeder, Rachelle Hampton, and Daisy Rosario.

Subscribe to Slate Plus at http://slate.com/icymiplus
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices