Carlsen&ndash;Niemann controversy

Carlsen–Niemann controversy

In September 2022, a controversy between chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen, the world chess champion, and Hans Niemann arose, beginning in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen, after surprisingly losing in their first matchup, dropped out of the tournament. Many interpreted his withdrawal as an insinuation that Niemann cheated. In their next tournament meetup, Carlsen abruptly resigned on the second move, perplexing observers again.
Sinquefield Cup
In the 2022 edition of the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri, Carlsen, the No. 1 rated player at the time and World Chess Champion, lost to Niemann, a 19-year-old Grandmaster, in an over-the-board game on 4 September. Slate described the result as a "shocking upset" for Carlsen, ending his 53-game unbeaten streak to a player far lower rated in a game where he had the white pieces (and therefore the first-move advantage). Carlsen withdrew from the tournament the following day, tweeting a simple announcement of his withdrawal alongside a video of José Mourinho saying "I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble." Emil Sutovsky, the director-general of FIDE, noted that Carlsen had not previously quit a tournament due to a poor result and thus opined that Carlsen must have believed he had "a compelling reason" to do so.
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 games. Levon Aronian, a Grandmaster who was playing in the tournament, defended Niemann, stating that most high-level players are "pretty much paranoid" and that young players often draw accusations of cheating after strong play.
The controversy has also 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, with many observers focusing on rampant speculation, without evidence, that the mechanism by which Niemann could have received computer assistance was a vibrating device implanted in his anus.
Niemann's reaction
In an interview on 6 September, 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 online chess, once when he was 12 years old during an online tournament and then when he was 16 years old in unrated online games, but maintained that he had never cheated in an game. 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. during round 6 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, a section of the Champions Chess Tour 2022. The game began with the Indian Defence (1.d4 Nf6) and after Niemann played 2.c4, Carlsen resigned the game and switched off his webcam. The resignation of the game prompted confusion and surprise from commentators Tania Sachdev and Péter Lékó.

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