World chess champion Magnus Carlsen made a press release on Monday explicitly stating that he believes his opponent, Hans Niemann, cheated throughout match play. He didn’t present any concrete proof to assist his claims. That is Carlsen’s first formal assertion on the continued chess scandal, and the primary to incorporate an specific accusation. The furor over the scandal has dominated the web dialog for weeks.
“I imagine that Niemann has cheated extra — and extra just lately — than he has publicly admitted,” the assertion reads. Carlsen goes on to clarify his reasoning: “His over the board progress has been uncommon, and all through our sport within the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense and even absolutely concentrating on the sport in crucial positions, whereas outplaying me as black in a approach I feel solely a handful of gamers can do. This sport contributed to altering my perspective.”
This chess drama started earlier this month, and has solely continued to snowball in latest days. It started when Niemann, a a lot lower-ranked competitor, beat Carlsen in a match in the course of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. Then, on Sept. 19, Carlsen forfeited a sport after only one transfer in a match towards Niemann, this time throughout spherical 6 of the Julius Baer Technology Cup. Social media platforms subsequently lit up with dialog, as chess followers — and even these exterior the sport’s regular viewers — debated the importance of those occasions.
“I imagine that dishonest in chess is an enormous deal and an existential menace to the sport,” Carlsen’s assertion reads. “I additionally imagine that chess organizers and all those that care in regards to the sanctity of the sport we love ought to significantly think about rising safety measures and strategies of cheat detection for over the board chess.” (It’s notoriously tough to detect dishonest in high-level chess video games. AI software program is highly effective sufficient to information even inexperienced gamers towards advantageous strikes, whereas seasoned gamers may solely have to resort to such instruments throughout a small handful of inflection factors in a sport.)
Carlsen doesn’t provide proof of Niemann’s dishonest, nor state whether or not he has any. (Niemann was not beforehand caught dishonest in an over-the-board match. However, on Sept. 8 Chess.com banned Niemann from the platform, and shared its reasoning on Twitter.) Carlsen closes the assertion by noting that he’s “restricted in what I can say with out specific permission from Niemann to talk brazenly.”
Polygon has reached out to Hans Niemann for remark.
