Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022 and then posted a video on Twitter with a José Mourinho quote in which the famous soccer coach says: “If I talk, I’m going to have a big problem, a big problem, and I don’t want to have any problems.” Undeniably, Carlsen thus seemed convinced that Niemann had won the game by cheating.
After losing the game to Niemann, Carlsen, accompanied by his father Henrik Carlsen and GMs Peter Heine-Nielsen (his coach), Ian Nepomniachtchi and Peter Svidler, went to head referee Chris Bird and announced that he was withdrawing from the tournament because he felt cheated. Ian Nepomniachtchi had also conveyed his disapproval when he learned of Hans Niemann’s participation – a last-minute replacement for Richard Rapport, banned from entering the country due to covid. Chris Bird indicated the possibility of lodging a complaint with the FIDE Fair Play Commission. However, the players made no use of this possibility.
The tournament continued without the world No. 1, and Niemann, admitting the proven fact that he had been convicted of cheating in online tournaments, swore up and down that he had never indulged in cheating in face-to-face competitions.
Three weeks after the tournament, Carlsen issued a statement commenting on his withdrawal. Hans Niemann’s behavior during the game and previous suspicions against him prompted the Norwegian to withdraw. Carlsen declared, “I think Niemann has cheated more – and more recently – than he has admitted publicly.”
At the “Julius Baer Generation Cup” online tournament (September 18-25, 2022), Carlsen withdrew from his game against Niemann after the first move. On September 26, Carlsen published another message in which he emphasized, among other things, Niemann’s rapid development in chess and his lack of tension during games.
Chess.com published a report listing tournaments and online games in which Niemann had allegedly cheated using computers in the past. Niemann reportedly admitted to cheating in a conversation with Chess.com representative Daniel Rensch after being excluded.
On September 29, 2022, FIDE announced the opening of an investigation following Carlsen’s withdrawal, and the accusation of cheating caused an uproar in the chess world and beyond.
In October 2022, Hans Niemann took legal action against Magnus Carlsen, his company Play Magnus Group, the online chess platform Chess.com, Chess.com’s director of chess, Daniel Rensch, as well as Hikaru Nakamura, who had supported Carlsen’s suspicions in a video stream, for defamation and damage to reputation, and demanded $100 million in damages to each of the defendants. The case was partially dismissed in June 2023. The defendants have since reached an out-of-court settlement.
FIDE investigated the playing conditions and anti-cheating measures at the Sinquefield Cup and spoke to the organizers. Several anti-cheating measures were applied during the tournament. The organizers state that they did not find anything suspicious in Hans Niemann’s behavior on site. The investigating committee did not agree with the suspicions raised by the chess.com analyses, and concurred with the conclusions of Professor Regan, who carried out a statistical analysis of the American’s games over the last three years and found no anomalies. His work was deemed particularly important by FIDE. Although Niemann’s rise in Elo is judged to be considerable, it does not appear to be unusual.
However, the FIDE Ethics Commission agrees with Carlsen’s argument that, at GM level, statistical methods are unlikely to detect cheating that could have been committed in a single move.
FIDE also submitted Niemann’s games to two super-GMs, who deemed them “normal for a GM-level player”. However, one of the two super-GMs found the games “somewhat suspicious”.
The investigating committee asked Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen for their comments. Hans Niemann responded through his lawyers and referred to the legal proceedings then underway against Carlsen.
Magnus Carlsen replied that he had never directly accused Niemann of cheating, but had only shared his personal impressions. His direct accusations only concerned the online games, as established by the Chess.com report.
According to the inquiry commission’s decision, Carlsen’s accusations against Niemann are unfounded, as no evidence was presented. Nor did the FIDE investigation find any evidence of computer cheating by Hans Niemann in any major face-to-face tournament over the past three years.
During the course of the investigation, the Commission was in contact with Magnus Carlsen, who complained about various aspects of the nature of the investigation. The Norwegian gave the Commission indications as to why he and other players had come to the conclusion that Niemann’s successes were due to the help of computers. According to him, the investigation is incomplete because Niemann has refused to provide any information, citing ongoing litigation. In the meantime, the case has been closed. Carlsen also made other criticisms, which are listed in the report of the ethics commission.
The FIDE Ethics Commission has reached the following verdict: Magnus Carlsen is found guilty of violating article 11.9(b) (Unjustified withdrawal from a tournament) of the FIDE Disciplinary Code and is fined €10,000.
Links
- Niemann case, continued
- Intervention by the protagonistsin reverse chronological order:
- Reactions in the chess world and more widely:
- History of chess cheatingand how to fight it:
