Chess players Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen settle dispute over alleged cheating

The main chess conflict of recent years has come to an end. The young American grandmaster Hans Niemann and the leader of the world ranking Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who accused him of cheating, and the Chess.com company abandoned their mutual claims, which took shape in a lawsuit by Niemann, who demanded compensation from his opponents for slander against him. This decision could help revive the American’s career. Before last year’s scandal, initiated by Carlsen, it looked extremely promising, but after it it went downhill.

Chess.com, the owner of the largest online chess gaming platform, has announced that it has reached an agreement with American grandmaster Hans Niemann. Its essence lies in the fact that “all disagreements” between them “remain in the past”, as well as in the refusal to continue the dispute in the courts.

Chess.com, acknowledging that a report it published last October lacked “conclusive evidence” of Niemann’s cheating at the board, said it would “gladly” accept the American’s return to its tournaments.

In addition, world chess leader Magnus Carlsen, who held the title of world champion for ten years and voluntarily parted with it in 2022, refused to claim against Hans Niemann. He also acknowledged that there was no “conclusive” evidence of Niemann cheating in last year’s game against the Norwegian in the Sinquefield Cup tournament. Carlsen added that he would play against Hans Niemann in future competitions.

Niemann himself said in a statement that he was pleased that his dispute with Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com had been resolved, and, thanking the Oved & Oved law firm for their assistance, he noted that he “looked forward” to the competition against Carlsen “at the chess blackboard, not in the courtroom.”

This news is similar to the end of the loudest conflict in chess in recent years. He was provoked by two consecutive demarches of Magnus Carlsen. In September 2022, the Norwegian suddenly withdrew from the competition before the fourth round of the prestigious Sinquefield Cup super tournament in St. Louis, USA. This step followed Carlsen’s unexpected loss to Hans Niemann, who turned 20 only in June, and was not highly rated against his background.

Magnus Carlsen did not officially explain the reasons for refusing to speak, but made it quite clear that he suspects the young American of cheating, that is, using tips.

The story soon continued at the next notable online competition, the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Meeting with Hans Niemann again, Magnus Carlsen shocked the audience for the second time. In the game, he made only one move, and after the second move by his opponent, he announced that he was giving up and disconnected from the broadcast. This time, however, the Norwegian did not limit himself to hints, but directly said that he did not want to “play against people who were engaged in cheating in the past.” He clarified that, in his opinion, Niemann resorted to him “much more often” than follows from his confession. Magnus Carlsen was referring to the interview with the American, in which he admitted that he did use hints in online games, but only twice and a long time ago, when he was 12 and 16 years old.

Chess experts, of course, became interested in the biography of Hans Niemann, who dramatically increased his rating at the turn of the previous and current decades. But there was no consensus on how justified the words of Magnus Carlsen, who did not provide any direct evidence of cheating, did not come.

True, the Chess.com study published some time after his repeated demarche clearly spoke in favor of those who supported Carlsen. His conclusions were based on an analysis of Hans Niemann’s games played in recent years. The platform’s summary seemed shocking and questioning Hans Niemann’s claims. Its experts stated that it was “very likely” that Niemann used “illegal help” in “more than a hundred online games”, including games in tournaments with prize money at stake.

The conflict continued with a lawsuit from Hans Niemann, filed in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In it, the American grandmaster demanded to recover a record $100 million for his sport from a group of defendants.

The list includes Magnus Carlsen, Carlsen-controlled Play Magnus Group, Chess.com, its chief executive Daniel Rensch, and famed American chess player Hikaru Nakamura. Niemann, of course, accused the defendants of slander. And their choice was not accidental. Hikaru Nakamura, the most popular chess streamer, Niemann pointed out, during his streams often and actively defended Magnus Carlsen’s version. Chess.com, which acquired the Play Magnus Group last year, has also used its site to try to prove Niemann was dishonest, even though it never came up with concrete facts.

In addition, the lawsuit included a clause in which Hans Niemann insisted that in the situation with him there had been a violation of the Sherman Act, that is, American antitrust laws. He believed that on the initiative of Magnus Carlsen, with his reputation as the “king of chess”, which provides authority and media coverage, friends and business partners of the Norwegian, an information campaign was organized in order to discredit the promising grandmaster and destroy his reputation. Its result was the “group boycott” of Niemann by the chess community, forbidden by the Sherman act, and the result of the boycott was the loss of future income.

In the lawsuit, Hans Niemann noted that amid the scandal, he was blacklisted by Chess.com and the Play Magnus Group, and therefore was deprived of the opportunity to play in their commercial tournaments. But the problems were by no means limited to this. His peer, the talented German chess player Vincent Kaimer, refused the match with Niemann, and the organizers of the super tournament in the Dutch Wijk aan Zee (it took place in January) withdrew the invitation for the American. Actually, the huge amount of compensation that he demanded from the defendants was based on the assessment of Hans Niemann’s potential financial losses.

However, the fact that he would not grow together with her recovery became clear back in June, when the court dismissed the claim Niemann, believing that his representatives failed to prove that the chess player suffered serious material damage precisely because of the violation of antitrust laws. More precisely, it followed from the court verdict that Niemann, in principle, could not refer to him, since this legislation covers actions aimed at restricting competition and damaging the market and its players. In the case of chess, this role is not filled by chess players, but by companies and individuals “running professional chess tournaments or recreational chess platforms.” The scandal did not affect them in any way.

The peaceful settlement of the conflict that happened after all at least promises Hans Niemann the resuscitation of a promising career, which, after the scandal, really went downhill.

In 2023, Niemann, a recently in-demand chess player who often played in elite and expensive competitions, played exclusively in second-class tournaments like the Kazakhstan Cup, the Baku Chess Festival, or the Romanian Timisoara Grand Prix. At the same time, he played unstable, sometimes allowing failures. The victories won in some of these tournaments still could not have a positive effect on his rating due to the weakness of the squad. It has already fallen by more than three hundred points compared to last year, to a modest 2660, and in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) classification, Niemann is currently at 77th line, while Magnus Carlsen, last week who won the Baku World Cup, is still confidently leading it.

Alexey Dospekhov