It is a predictive note on the Dutch school report from 2012 by Hans Niemann, the young American grandmaster who, since his victory over world champion Magnus Carlsen, has found himself at the center of a riot in the chess world that just won’t calm down.
His teacher wrote this: ‘Since January you have been very fanatical. Keep in mind that it’s about playing better chess and thinking more deeply. Then you can go very far.’ Niemann was 9 years old at the time and a student at De Spits primary school in Utrecht. There he received chess lessons from PieterJan Mellegers; Mind sports was a compulsory subject in the special classes for the gifted.
And whether he has come far. With his win during the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, the now 19-year-old talent ended on September 4, playing with black, a run of 53 unbeaten matches against Carlsen. His rating is approaching 2700, reserved only for the very biggest on the board.
cheating
But the joy was short-lived. The victory had an unexpected charge. The Norwegian suddenly withdrew from the tournament after the loss, suggesting that cheating had been involved. He posted a video of football coach José Mourinho on Twitter. The Portuguese declares in it that ‘if I speak, I will get into big trouble’. What exactly Carlsen meant by it has since been fodder for speculation. Despite widespread calls for an explanation, he has so far been silent.
Did Niemann cheat? And how? Was he connected to a computer? Has Carlsen’s team been leaked? His opening, a variant of the Nimzo-Indian, the world champion rarely plays, but his opponent seemed well prepared for it. Niemann vehemently denied, but some mistrust seemed to have been sown: prior to his next match he was searched meticulously, the registration of the matches was now delayed by 15 minutes on the actual moves.
His Dutch supervisors had almost lost sight of him in the intervening years. Now they are following the issue with extra attention. ‘Hans was not the best chess player at the time,’ recalls Albertus ten Hertog, the youth coordinator of the Utrecht chess club Moira-Domtoren, where Niemann played for a year and a half. ‘But at that age you can hardly judge which way things are going. He was very driven.’
Whatever he remembered: Niemann couldn’t stand his loss. ‘Then he was very angry. Crying and all that, you know it.’ Chess teacher Mellegers also assists the burning ambition. He still remembers his first reflex when he learned that Niemann had knocked Carlsen. ‘I thought: well, he’s still just as fanatical.’
Parents
Niemann, of mixed Danish-Hawaiian descent, starts playing chess at De Spits in Utrecht. His parents are expats, IT specialists. His mother works at Capgemini, his father is employed by Oracle. They settle in Houten with their family of four children. Mellegers will receive the little curly-haired ball in the classroom in September 2011, for one hour of lessons a week. Funny thing was that he already thought he could do it. He went all over the board with the king, only shifting the queen diagonally and castling with horses.’
Chess is not his only hobby, he also likes to get on his racing bike to compete, although his claim that he is one of the best in his age group in the Netherlands is difficult to verify. There are no results on the internet that indicate this.
He turns out to be a quick and above all eager learner at the blackboard. He devours books in which young chess players make step-by-step progress. When Mellegers takes him to his chess school Schaakmeester-P in Nieuwegein, where groups selected by strength alternate on Wednesday afternoons, the budding grandmaster prefers to stay a little longer, so that he can also test his skills at higher levels. In addition to chess, he quickly masters Dutch. This also includes chess terms. Mellegers: ‘He wanted to know what this meant: cashing in the passed pawn.’
Niemann starts to win some tournaments. That does not immediately make him a great talent, emphasizes Albertus ten Hertog van Moira-Domtoren. ‘I am honestly very surprised that Hans now has such a high rating. He must have made tremendous progress.’ He is one of the three youth members who have made it to grandmasters in the past ten years. In addition to the American, these are Hugo ten Hertog, the son of the youth coordinator, and Casper Schoppen.
Ambitious
He was not very popular among his peers, says Ten Hertog. “But you see that more often in very ambitious children.” According to Mellegers, it also took a while at his school, but in the end he turns out to be a young mentor, who explains with a friend to the others what Het Vierkant and De Doorbraak are, patterns with kings and pawns.
He agrees that Niemann was a bad loser. ‘Gifted children are very sensitive and cannot tolerate injustice. At such moments you are an illusion and a dream poorer. Hans was quite grumpy, but he certainly didn’t throw plates and pieces.’
But maybe cheating, even then? Mellegers cannot dig up anything, Ten Hertog provides only vague information about ‘minor incidents during tournaments’, the exact nature of which he has forgotten. Later in life, when Niemann is 12, the online chess platform Chess.com temporarily removes him as a user after suspicions that he is being assisted by a computer. That repeats itself four years later. Mellegers believes that Niemann cannot be copied. “We’re not going to talk about that when someone is that young.” Niemann himself calls it ‘the single biggest mistake of my life’ in an interview after the game against Carlsen.
Out of sight
After December 2012, the young American suddenly disappears from his chess clubs. Mellegers: ‘Yes, that’s how it goes. Expats come and go.’ Ten Hertog accidentally sees his name pop up among participants in the youth World Cup in 2014. Mellegers once received an email from his father thanking him: he was the one who motivated his son to continue playing chess. Niemann himself sends another message when he reaches International Master status.
How do they assess the controversy in which their former pupil is at the center of the surf? Youth coordinator Ten Hertog hesitates. “The probability that he didn’t cheat is 51 percent. As long as nothing is proven, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The evidence is missing. But on the other hand, Carlsen didn’t act impulsively.’
Chess teacher Mellegers: ‘I can’t imagine that Hans cheated. There are cameras everywhere. He has reached this level through hard work. You don’t just put that at risk. I think Carlsen underestimated Hans, he just played below his level.’
In the meantime, they are looking forward to the Julius Baer Generation Cup, an online chess tournament. In the sixth round, Monday, a spicy clash by the youngest standards is on the program: Carlsen vs Niemann.