Chess player Magnus Carlsen started a scandal over his opponent’s watch

The strongest chess player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, has initiated a new high-profile scandal related to the problem of cheating. Having suffered a sensational defeat at a tournament in Qatar from a little-known player from Kazakhstan, Alisher Suleimenov, the Norwegian said that during the game he was prevented from concentrating on the watch on his opponent’s hand, and accused the competition organizers of taking the issue “not seriously”. Last year, after a similar loss to Carlsen, another young chess player, American Hans Niemann, came under suspicion.

The scandal, which caused a huge resonance in the chess community, broke out after the second round of the Qatar Masters tournament. These major competitions, held according to the Swiss system, have a mixed composition: along with the elite, little-known players participate. Magnus Carlsen, the number one ranked player in the International Chess Federation (FIDE), who held the world title for ten years before relinquishing it last year, had to play one of them with black. The Norwegian was up against Alisher Suleimenov. This 23-year-old chess player has no achievements, he became a grandmaster only this year, and his modest rating – 2512 – is more than three hundred points lower than Carlsen’s rating, which by chess standards is a whole abyss.

However, both the outcome of the game and, most importantly, the development of events in it turned out to be sensational. Suleimenov defeated Carlsen in 31 moves, carrying out a magnificent attack with a cascade of piece sacrifices. This was the first time in almost ten years that the Norwegian lost to an opponent whose rating did not even reach the 2600 mark. The previous time he made such a misfire was in 2015, losing to the Swiss Yannick Pelletier.

However, the most interesting things began after the game. On his X (formerly Twitter) account, Magnus Carlsen wrote a post in which, admitting that he was “completely crushed,” he attributed the failure to his psychological state. According to Carlsen, he “lost the ability to concentrate” when he saw the watch on Alisher Suleimenov’s hand. What the Norwegian meant is clear – a possible way to get hints during a game, what is called cheating.

At the same time, Carlsen emphasized that he “does not blame” the Kazakh grandmaster for anything, but in fact directly blamed the tournament organizers for his problems. He noted that it was “extremely unpleasant” to see their “frivolous” attitude towards anti-cheating. He also noted that no measures related to it are taken at the competitions, such as holding an Internet broadcast with a time delay, and “spectators walk around the gaming hall with smartphones.”

It is difficult to imagine that Magnus Carlsen’s statements would have any unpleasant practical consequences for Alisher Suleimenov. From the outside it seemed that he was wearing an ordinary analog watch. Meanwhile, FIDE regulations prohibit bringing only electronic gadgets into the gaming hall, including glasses and even pens.

But, I must say, the chess elite reacted quite positively to Carlsen’s statements. Many famous grandmasters agreed with him, for example, the American Hikaru Nakamura and the Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who noted in X that players “must unite to achieve the application of anti-cheating measures at every tournament.” According to Vachier-Lagrave, in the current situation, without these measures, “doubts” inevitably arise about any “magnificent performance.” And the authoritative website ChessBase called on the Qatari organizers to “pay attention” to the question raised by the Norwegian before the third round.

Magnus Carlsen actually began his campaign against cheaters last year. In September, before the fourth round of the prestigious Sinquefield Cup super tournament in St. Louis, America, he suddenly withdrew from the competition. This move followed Carlsen’s unexpected defeat to the lowly rated 20-year-old American Hans Niemann. The Norwegian made it clear that he suspected the young American, who had already been disqualified once by the gaming platform Chess.com for cheating, of using hints. The story continued at the competition, which was already held in an online format – the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Meeting Hans Niemann again, Magnus Carlsen shocked the audience by making just one move, and after the second move by his opponent, he announced that he was giving up, after which he directly said that he did not want to “play against people who have cheated in the past.”

The conflict resulted in a long lawsuit in which Hans Niemann tried and failed to sue Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com for $100 million in compensation for damage to his career and reputation. The process ended with a global renunciation of mutual claims last summer.

Alexey Dospehov