Hans Niemann will not win his case. Publicly accused of repeated cheating on the chessboard by Magnus Carlsen and several other chess personalities, the young American grandmaster (aged 20) who had taken his accusers to court was dismissed this Tuesday by a federal judge. He was seeking $100 million in damages for “defamation” from the five-time Norwegian world champion, as well as from Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Rensch, one of the directors of chess.com, and PlayMagnus Group.
” We are pleased that the court has ruled against Hans Niemann’s attempt to recover undeserved money. “reacted Craig Reiser, a lawyer for Magnus Carlsen, quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Hans Niemann’s lawyers intend to pursue their case in state court. They believe that their client’s career has been seriously jeopardized by the accusations made against him.
On September 5, 2022, at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis (Missouri), Carlsen, after being beaten by Niemann, stormed out of the tournament and half-heartedly accused his opponent of cheating, without providing any formal proof. A few days later, the Chess.com platform published a 72-page report showing that Niemann had cheated in over 100 games played online on its site. The American had only admitted to cheating twice, at the ages of 12 and 16, but never in physical games.
