World chess champion Magnus Carlsen issued a statement on Monday, clarifying that he believed his opponent Hans Niemann cheated while playing the tournament. It did not provide concrete evidence to support its claims. This is Carlsen’s first formal statement regarding his ongoing Chess scandal, and the first to contain clear accusations. Anger over the scandal has dominated online conversations for weeks.
“I believe Neiman has committed more wrongdoing than he has publicly admitted, and more recently,” the statement read. Carlsen explains why: I think only a handful of players can do it as well as black in some ways. This game helped me change my perspective. ”
This chess drama started earlier this month and has been snowballing the last few days. It started when a much lower-ranked competitor, Niemann, defeated Carlsen in a match for the 2022 Sinkfield His Cup in St. Louis. Then on September 19, Carlsen lost the game with just his one move, this time against Niemann in the sixth round of the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Conversations erupted on social media platforms afterward, with chess fans and even people outside of the game’s regular audience discussing the significance of these events.
“I believe that cheating in chess is a big deal and an existential threat to the game,” Carlsen said in a statement. I believe that everyone who cares about sanctity should seriously consider increasing security measures and methods of cheat detection for on-board chess.” (Cheating in high-level chess games Detecting is notoriously difficult: AI software is powerful enough to guide even inexperienced players to advantageous moves, while experienced players are only able to detect a handful of Sometimes you just need to rely on such tools at inflection points..)
Carlsen has not provided evidence of Niemann’s wrongdoing, nor has he said whether he has done so. (Niemann has never been found to have cheated in a match.) Chess.com Banish Niemann from the platform, I shared the reason on Twitter.) Carlsen concludes his statement by saying, “Unless I am expressly authorized by Niemann to speak openly, I am limited in what I can say.”
Polygon reached out to Hans Niemann for comment.
