By: Efran Zhao
On September 26, the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen released a statement on Twitter accusing US grandmaster Hans Niemann of cheating.
This was following Magnus Carlsen withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup after losing a round to Niemann, and later resigning in just one move to Niemann in another tournament, which caused a huge sensation.
“I believe that Niemann has cheated more—and more recently—than he has publicly admitted,” Carlsen stated. He said that he found it suspicious that Niemann “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. This game contributed to changing my perspective.”
This statement received much attention from chess fans, and many criticized Carlsen’s accusations of causing much damage to Niemann’s reputation while not having any evidence and consisting of only speculations.
Additionally, Carlsen states that he is “not willing to play chess with Niemann.” This means that tournaments will have to choose between inviting Carlsen or Niemann to play, and that Niemann might just have played his last invitational tournament.
After drawing attention from all over the world, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced that it would form an investigatory panel for the controversy.
In an interview, Niemann admitted that he had previously cheated online before, But he claimed that the incidents happened when he was 12 and 16, and that he hadn’t cheated since. “I cheated on random games on Chess.com,” Niemann said. “I was confronted. I confessed. And this is the single biggest mistake of my life … I have never cheated in an over-the-board game. And other than when I was 12 years old I have never cheated in a tournament with prize money.”
However, an investigation by Chess.com’s Fair Play Team found that Niemann has likely cheated in more than 100 games on Chess.com, some of which were as late as 2020, and many that were for prize money.
Chess.com disagreed with Niemann’s statements about his cheating, stating that they had “evidence that he appears to have cheated in sets of rated games on Chess.com against highly-rated, well-known figures in the chess community, some of which he streamed online. These findings contradict Hans’ public statements.”
Furthermore, during a private call with Danny Rensch, CCO at Chess.com, Niemann allegedly confessed to the cheating offenses. In recent interviews, he seemed to have forgotten about it completely.
At the end of its report, Chess.com concludes that although his improvement in over-the-board chess (OTB) is “statistically extraordinary,” and that he “has had an uncharacteristically erratic growth period mired by consistent plateaus,” there is no concrete evidence that he cheated in OTB games.
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chess-cheating-hans-niemann-report-magnus-carlsen-11664911524
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125316142/chess-magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann-cheating
https://www.chess.com/blog/CHESScom/hans-niemann-report
https://www.chess.com/news/view/carlsen-niemann-fide-investigatory-panel
https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1574482694406565888