The chess world doesn’t quite know what to do with Hans Niemann. What do you do with someone who rises in the ranks as no one has before – a relatively late bloomer who then rockets upward at an unprecedented pace? What do you do with a 19-year-old who has been accused by Chess.com of cheating in more than 100 online matches? What do you do when the top ranked player in the world refuses to play him?

Today, computer chess engines can beat even grandmasters with startling ease. Everyone with a smartphone can carry an unbeatable chess player in their pocket.

On one hand, technology has unlocked a potential new Golden Age for chess. Online play has connected people worldwide, with the pandemic fueling a surge in interest. Meanwhile chess engines have opened new vistas of innovation and learning.

But they have also made cheating rampant. Chess.com, which has ridden the online wave to huge profits, has become a pioneer in detecting online cheating. It uses massive databases of how players play and notes discrepancies that align with computer-generated moves. But what about over-the-board chess? World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen has accused Mr. Niemann of cheating at an in-person tournament last month. Yet cheating in over-the-board chess is rarer – and much harder to detect.

The scandal underlines a curious truth for chess. The integrity of the sport, for all its logic and intellectualism, is in its humanity – in players making mistakes and overcoming their mental limits to find new frontiers of play. No one wants to watch humans play as proxies for chess engines. Which means the question is not really about what to do with Mr. Niemann. It’s about what to do with technology: how to embrace its promise while protecting the game’s soul.