The world champion was not defeated – Newspaper Kommersant No. 164 (7365) of 09/07/2022

Perhaps the main scandal of recent years in chess occurred at the Sinquefield Cup supertournament in St. Louis. Before the fourth round, world champion Magnus Carlsen refused to continue his participation in the prestigious competition, having previously been defeated by the American Hans Niemann, who had the lowest rating among ten participants. The Norwegian made it clear that he was withdrawing due to suspicions of cheating, that is, receiving tips from the opponent. Nieman himself categorically denies the fact of unfair play, and some experts believe that Carlsen just “freaked out” and we are already talking about a trend that fits into his recent refusal to play in the championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The incident in St. Louis can claim the status of one of the loudest in chess, at least in the current century. It happened before the fourth round of the competition, which is one of the most prestigious this season. The Sinquefield Cup, which continues in St. Louis, is the final, fifth stage of the Grand Chess Tour series, and its line-up almost entirely consists of the stars of modern chess, including the brightest star, the world champion title holder and the undisputed leader of the kind, Magnus Carlsen.

The Norwegian was supposed to face the famous Azerbaijani grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the fourth round, however, having shocked the public and the organizers, he never appeared at the board. A little later, he published a post on his Twitter account, saying that he was withdrawing from the tournament.

As an explanation for his decision, Carlsen posted a video clip with the famous football coach José Mourinho.

In it, Mourinho says that he would like to answer in detail the question put to him, but if he spoke, he would “face big troubles.” The reference is quite clear. Thus, Mourinho at one time made it clear that he was outraged by the biased, in his opinion, refereeing in the next match of the English Premier League, but could not express his outrage directly because of the harsh sanctions provided for criticizing the work of referees.

Magnus Carlsen did not clarify what he meant by posting the messages, but various chess media resources, including such authoritative ones as Chessbase or Chess24interpreted the situation unambiguously.

Carlsen got off to a good start in the Sinquefield Cup. In the first round, he confidently defeated the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, his opponent in last year’s championship match in Dubai, in the second round he fought a strong Armenian chess player, now representing the United States, Levon Aronian. But in the third round, the Norwegian made a sensational misfire. In it, he was opposed by the American Hans Niemann, who was somewhat out of the background from the company that had gathered in St. Louis. With a rating below the 1700 mark, that is, extremely modest by the standards of the elite, he looked like a clear outsider of the tournament. Meanwhile, Nieman, who had already managed to defeat Mamedyarov, dealt with the world champion with black, catching him with an unpleasant variation that ensured an advantage in the endgame. This misfire ended Carlsen’s 53-game unbeaten streak with classic time control.

Although Magnus Carlsen did not specify what caused his extremely harsh reaction, the authors of chess websites and Internet users confidently assumed that, taking into account the hints of the Norwegian, he considered the underdog’s victory obtained through dishonest methods, the so-called cheating, which consists in obtaining tips.

Recently, the scandals associated with him have been not uncommon in chess. But they all refer mainly to “second-tier” players and online tournaments that prevailed at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, such as last year’s Universiade in rapid chess: after it, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) disqualified the winner of the competition, Yulia Osmak, believing that the Ukrainian used when playing with computer programs.

The previous high-profile “offline” scandal dates back to 2007. At that time, Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov, who claimed the championship title, was accused of receiving tips, but no reliable evidence of his guilt was found during the investigation.

The version about cheating was supported by other nuances. So, the organizers of the super tournament after the message of Magnus Carlsen announced that instead of live broadcasts of the tours from now on they will be broadcasting them with a 15-minute delay. Obviously, only the desire to make it difficult for “remote” assistance to the players could force them to do this. In addition, American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, a hugely popular chess streamer, said he was aware of “suspicious examples” regarding Hans Niemann, whose rating has skyrocketed by about 200 points in the past year and a half, and his performances in online competitions. .

Meanwhile, no more compelling arguments in favor of the assumption of cheating by Niemann have yet appeared.

And the American himself, who, after his success in the game against Carlsen, drew with the fourth number in the FIDE classification, the Frenchman Alireza Firouzja, reacted to the incident calmly and outwardly more with humor than with anxiety. “I think he was just demoralized, realizing that he was losing to such an idiot as me,” Hans Niemann said, joking that Magnus Carlsen probably wanted to deprive his opponent of the chance to win the tournament by his act. The fact is that, according to the rules, all the results of the games with the participation of the Norwegian are canceled, and consequently, Niemann lost his points.

As it turned out, many grandmasters also agree with him. For example, Uzbek chess player Rustem Kasymdzhanov, who won the FIDE World Championship in 2005 in a knockout system, called Chess24 possible accusations against Niman “frivolous” if they are based on “one game”. And grandmaster Sergei Smagin described his game against Carlsen to Kommersant as “absolutely normal”, seeing “not the slightest reason” to suspect the American of cheating. On the other hand, the expert drew attention to the fact that Magnus Carlsen began to freak out quite often, including after offensive failures, and at 31 he no longer looks like Iron Magnus, which he was in his youth. According to Sergei Smagin, from the same series as the incident in St. Louis, his July demarche. Then Carlsen refused from participating in the next championship match, in which he was again supposed to meet with Ian Nepomniachtchi, agreeing to part with the title of enormous value, and referred to a “lack of motivation.”

Alexey Dospekhov