By: Eric Wang
After shocking the world by resigning from a match after making just one move, chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has accused Hans Niemann of cheating.
Carlsen has made this accusation twice now. The first came after his defeat against Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen later withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup. The second accusation comes after his one-move resignation at the Julius Baer Generation Cup.
Carlsen states he believes Niemann “...has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted. Carlsen adds, “Throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.”
Niemann, 19, admitted to cheating when he was 12 and 16 in online matches; however, he claims that he has not cheated since.
Carlsen isn’t convinced, and to make it worse for Niemann, the popular online chess website, Chess.com, has launched an investigation that returned results that Niemann had “likely cheated” in over 100 online matches. This has led him to be banned from the platform.
Niemann was also uninvited from prestigious tournaments such as ____, and he is being harassed online by angry fans.
In retaliation, Niemann has filed a lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen for defamation, slander, and libel.
Chess.com states that the entire scandal “hurts the game of chess and its devoted players.”
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125316142/chess-magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann-cheating
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/06/sport/hans-niemann-cheating-allegations-us-chess-championship-spt-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/us/hans-niemann-chess-cheating-scandal-defamation-lawsuit-spt-intl/index.html