During the Sinquefield Cup in September 2022, a controversy arose involving chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen, the current world champion, and Hans Niemann. Carlsen, after surprisingly losing in their third-round matchup, dropped out of the tournament. Many interpreted his withdrawal as an insinuation tacitly accusing Niemann of having cheated. In their next tournament meetup (an online tournament), Carlsen abruptly resigned after one move, perplexing observers again. It became the most serious scandal about cheating allegations for international chess in years and garnered significant attention in the news media worldwide.
After the fifth round
of the Sinquefield tournament, Niemann gave a lengthy interview addressing the
controversy, in which he admitted to cheating in online chess in the
past, but denied cheating in the game with Carlsen or in any over-the-board
game. Three weeks later, Carlsen released a statement saying that Niemann's
behaviour during their Sinquefield Cup game, taken together with earlier
suspicions about Niemann, had convinced him to withdraw from the tournament. He
expressed the belief that Niemann had cheated more often and more recently than
he had admitted and stated he would not play chess with him in the future.
Chess.com removed
Niemann from their platform immediately after Carlsen's withdrawal from the
Sinquefield Cup. FIDE, the international chess governing body, rebuked
Carlsen for his actions but at the same time acknowledged Carlsen's concerns
about cheating in chess. FIDE later announced an investigation into Carlsen's
claims of alleged cheating and Niemann's responses. Chess.com later released an
interim report which extensively detailed Niemann's prolific online cheating on
their platform.
Many chess players and
journalists commented on the issue, some of them supporting Carlsen's
suspicions in one way or another, others criticizing him for his tournament
withdrawal and for making allegations without producing evidence. Some
expressed the belief that Niemann had not cheated in his game against Carlsen.
Commentators from both sides expressed their desire for strict and consistent
cheating controls in chess tournaments.
Background
Magnus Carlsen, the No.
1 rated player at the time and World Chess Champion, participated as a wildcard
in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup of the Grand Chess Tour 2022. This came two months after he officially
announced he would not defend his World Chess Championship title against Ian
Nepomniachtchi, while affirming his desire to participate in tournaments and
continue playing professional chess. Entering the
tournament, Carlsen had a 53-game unbeaten streak in classical over-the-board
tournaments.
Entering the
tournament, Hans Niemann stood in the top 10 of the world's juniors in chess
and top 50 overall. Over the previous three years, he had played a large number
of games, and his Elo rating had risen swiftly, with a 350-point gain
in four years and a jump from 2500 to 2600 in only three months. This rapid
rise had attracted attention from commentators.
In an interview during the tournament, Niemann admitted to having
previously had two accounts on Chess.com banned for cheating in
online games, in 2016 and in 2020.
Cheating allegations against Niemann
Grandmaster and streamer
Hikaru Nakamura said he believed Carlsen had likely suspected Niemann of
cheating, claiming that Niemann had previously been banned from Chess.com for
cheating in online chess games. Levon
Aronian, a grandmaster who was playing in the tournament, initially defended
Niemann, stating that most high-level players are "pretty much
paranoid" and that young players often draw accusations of cheating after
strong play. Later on, however, Aronian
stated that he "really didn't know much about a lot of things" and
now finds himself "somewhere in the middle". He added, "I do
believe Hans has not been the cleanest person when it comes to online
chess."
Niemann's denial
In an interview on
September 6, 2022, Niemann denied having cheated during the Sinquefield Cup and
accused Carlsen, Nakamura, and Chess.com of attempting to ruin his career. He
admitted that he had previously cheated in Chess.com; once when he was 12 years
old during an online tournament and then when he was 16 years old in unrated
online games. He maintained that he never cheated in an over-the-board game. His response to unsubstantiated speculation
alleging the involvement of a concealed device during the Sinquefield Cup, he
offered to play in a closed environment without electronic connections and said
"if they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it" to disprove any
allegations of cheating.
Carlsen's response
On September 26,
Carlsen posted his official statement regarding the controversy on Twitter. Carlsen confirmed that he had considered
withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup due to Niemann's last-minute inclusion.
Carlsen stated that he believed that Niemann cheated more often and recently
than he had publicly admitted, and that Niemann's behaviour during their
Sinquefield Cup game had convinced him to withdraw from the tournament. He stated
that he was limited in what he could say openly without "explicit
permission from Niemann", and that he would not play chess with Niemann in
the future.
Public responses
The controversy has
been described as the most serious cheating scandal for international chess
since the Toiletgate incident in the World Chess Championship
2006, and became a top story in the news media worldwide. It has garnered significant attention from
outside of the chess community, including on American late-night talk
shows The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsen%E2%80%93Niemann_controversy
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