Magnus Carlsen was considered an unsuccessful exit

The Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) put an end to the biggest scandal in chess that erupted after the world’s strongest grandmaster Magnus Carlsen accused the young American Hans Niemann of cheating. FIDE, having found no evidence of Niemann’s foul play, nevertheless found Carlsen guilty of violating only one point of its regulations, considering that he unreasonably withdrew from last year’s super tournament in St. Louis, setting a “bad example” with his action. The punishment for this for the former world champion was a fine of €10 thousand.

The International Chess Federation has published solution ethical and disciplinary commission following an investigation into the biggest scandal in chess. According to this decision, the main star of the event, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, was punished: in 2022, he renounced the world champion title, which he had held for almost ten years, but still heads the FIDE rankings. True, the punishment is very minor – Carlsen was given a fine of €10 thousand with the opportunity to challenge the verdict.

The scandal in question 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, America. This step followed Carlsen’s unexpected defeat to the low-ranked American Hans Niemann, who turned 20 only in June of this year. Magnus Carlsen did not officially explain the reasons for refusing to speak, but made it quite clear that he suspected the young American of cheating, that is, of using tips.

The story continued at the Julius Baer Generation Cup, which was already held online. Meeting Hans Niemann again, Magnus Carlsen shocked the audience for the second time. He made only one move in the game, and after the second move by his opponent, he announced that he was giving up and disconnected from the broadcast. This time, the Norwegian directly said that he did not want to “play against people who cheated 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 an interview with an American in which he admitted that he did use tips in online games, but only twice and a long time ago, when he was 12 and 16 years old.

These cases caused a huge resonance. Chess experts, of course, became interested in the biography of Hans Niemann, who sharply increased his rating at the turn of the previous and current decades. But they never came to a consensus on how valid the words of Magnus Carlsen, who did not provide any direct evidence of cheating, are.

The conflict continued with a lawsuit filed by Hans Niemann 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 included Magnus Carlsen, Carlsen’s company Play Magnus Group, the largest chess gaming platform Chess.com, its chief executive Daniel Rensch and the famous American chess player Hikaru Nakamura, who defended the Norwegian’s version. Niemann accused the defendants of libel. But the American was unable to recover compensation from the defendants, and in August the parties refused from claims against each other.

Meanwhile, FIDE did not stop its own investigation into the emergency. At its final stage, the EDC considered potential violations by Magnus Carlsen of several points of the regulations, including those prohibiting unfounded accusations against opponents, as well as actions aimed at undermining the reputation of players and the federation itself. Her post says that in an attempt to determine whether Magnus Carlsen had valid reasons for accusing Hans Niemann of cheating, she brought “two super-grandmasters” into the process. Their opinions were divided. One called Niemann’s games “normal for a player of the rank of grandmaster.” Another found them “somewhat suspicious.” At the same time, Magnus Carlsen insisted that he never directly accused his opponent of cheating, but only shared his “personal impressions,” and related exclusively to online competitions.

Having failed to find reliable evidence of violations of the principles of “fair play” on the part of Hans Niemann, EDC at the same time was unable to prove that Magnus Carlsen’s statements against him were incorrect from the point of view of the regulations. However, he was still punished on one count.

This is a clause that prohibits withdrawal from tournaments without a good reason. Moreover, here too the Norwegian got off with not just an insignificant fine by his standards, but a symbolic fine. The amount, FIDE explained, was increased by Carlsen’s status as a chess player with “significant influence” whose refusal to compete sets a “bad example for other players.”

The completion of the FIDE investigation coincided with a new surge of interest in the person of Hans Niemann in the chess world. It was ensured by the strange play of the American. At the end of November, Niemann shocked by managing to score eight out of a possible nine points at a tournament in Zagreb, in which he was up against quite experienced grandmasters. And in some games, the accuracy of his moves, that is, their coincidence with the strongest according to the computer, came close to 100%. But after the Zagreb tournament, Hans Niemann played very averagely, like a completely ordinary chess player, at the tournament in London.

Alexey Dospehov