After allegations of fraud by world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, young US player Hans Niemann has sued the Norwegian.
Niemann demands in the lawsuit filed Thursday (10/20/2022) in a court in Missouri, United States 100 million dollars (102 million euros) in damages from Carlsen as well as from Carlsen’s company Play Magnus and the two US chess players Danny Rensch and Hikaru Nakamura.
Niemann accuses them of defamation and slander as well as collusion to destroy his reputation and existence.
Affair begins in September
The controversy surrounding Carlsen and Niemann has been causing a stir in the chess world for weeks. Carlsen withdrew from a chess tournament in the United States in early September after Niemann beat him there. Two weeks later, Carlsen abandoned a game against Niemann at an online chess tournament after just one move.
Online tournament cheating admitted
At the end of September, the 31-year-old then made concrete allegations of fraud against 19-year-old Niemann for the first time. Carlsen said Niemann cheated more than he admitted, even recently.
Niemann had admitted to cheating twice in online chess tournaments in the past – once at the age of 12 and once at the age of 16. However, Niemann assured that he had never cheated in a face-to-face tournament. He even offered to play naked so trickery could be ruled out.
An investigation report by the Chess.com portal, which had already blocked Niemann’s account at the beginning of September, suggested at the beginning of October that Niemann “probably in more than 100 online chess games” Cheated, including in cash prize tournaments.
“Devastating Damage”
The lawsuit now filed states that Carlsen and Nakamura had Niemann’s reputation and career “devastating damage” added. After Niemann’s win at the Sinquefield Cup in Missouri, Carlsen decided “malicious” returned the favor “by falsely accusing Niemann, without any evidence, of somehow cheating during their face-to-face play”according to the lawsuit.
Chess.com has banned Niemann from its website and all future events, “to add credibility to Carlsen’s unsubstantiated and defamatory fraud allegations”. Chess streamer Nakamura got Carlsens “false fraud allegations” in hours of live video “reinforced”.
Niemann also suggests in his lawsuit that his ban from chess.com came under pressure from Carlsen, whose company Play Magnus is being acquired by chess.com for $83 million. Carlsen go as “King of Chess” assuming “that he can do whatever he wants in chess and get away with it”criticizes Niemann.