Carlsen–Niemann controversy

Magnus Carlsen

Hans Niemann

The two players involved in the controversy

In September 2022, a controversy between chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen, the world chess champion, and Hans Niemann arose, beginning in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen, after surprisingly losing in their first matchup, dropped out of the tournament. Many interpreted his withdrawal as an insinuation that Niemann cheated. In their next tournament meetup, Carlsen abruptly resigned on the second move, perplexing observers again.

Sinquefield Cup

Magnus Carlsen @MagnusCarlsen

I've withdrawn from the tournament. I've always enjoyed playing in the @STLChessClub, and hope to be back in the future

5 September 2022

In the 2022 edition of the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri, Carlsen, the No. 1 rated player at the time and World Chess Champion, lost to Niemann, a 19-year-old Grandmaster, in an over-the-board game on 4 September. Slate described the result as a "shocking upset" for Carlsen, ending his 53-game unbeaten streak to a player far lower rated in a game where he had the white pieces (and therefore the first-move advantage). Carlsen withdrew from the tournament the following day, tweeting a simple announcement of his withdrawal alongside a video of José Mourinho saying "I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble." Carlsen's withdrawal did not formally allege that Niemann had cheated, but the broader community saw his tweet as a heavy insinuation of an accusation. Emil Sutovsky, the director-general of FIDE, noted that Carlsen had not previously quit a tournament due to a poor result and thus opined that Carlsen must have believed he had "a compelling reason" to do so.

Grandmaster and streamer Hikaru Nakamura said he believed Carlsen had likely suspected Niemann of cheating, claiming that Niemann had previously been banned from Chess.com for cheating in online games. Levon Aronian, a Grandmaster who was playing in the tournament, defended Niemann, stating that most high-level players are "pretty much paranoid" and that young players often draw accusations of cheating after strong play. Chris Bird, the chief arbiter for the Cup, stated on 10 September that nothing indicated unfair play on the part of any player; even so, the organizers had increased metal detection on the players and introduced a 15-minute broadcast delay for the following rounds of the tournament. Former world champion Garry Kasparov noted that Carlsen's withdrawal from the tournament had "no precedent in the past 50 years", and called on Carlsen, who has thus far refrained from comment on the controversy, to explain his decision.

The controversy has also garnered significant attention from outside of the chess community, including on American late-night talk shows The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with many observers focusing on rampant speculation, without evidence, that the mechanism by which Niemann could have received computer assistance was a vibrating device implanted in his anus.

Niemann's reaction

In an interview on 6 September, Niemann denied having cheated during the Sinquefield Cup and accused Carlsen, Nakamura, and Chess.com of attempting to ruin his career. He admitted that he had previously cheated in online chess, once when he was 12 years old during an online tournament and then when he was 16 years old in unrated online games, but maintained that he had never cheated in an over-the-board game. He offered to play in a closed environment without electronic connections and said "if they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it" to disprove any allegations of cheating.

Julius Baer Generation Cup

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

The position at the conclusion of the 19 September game

On 19 September, Carlsen resigned an online game against Niemann after having only played one move. The game took place on the chess24 platform, with the candidates appearing on camera over Microsoft Teams, during round 6 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, a section of the Champions Chess Tour 2022. The game began with the Indian Defence (1.d4 Nf6) and after Niemann played 2.c4, Carlsen resigned the game and switched off his webcam. The resignation of the game prompted confusion and surprise from commentators Tania Sachdev and Péter Lékó. Grandmaster Maurice Ashley tweeted: "This is shocking and disturbing. No one can be happy that this is happening in the chess world. Unbelievable!"

On 21 September, after the end of the preliminary rounds of the tournament, Carlsen responded to a question of why he forfeited: "Unfortunately, I cannot particularly speak on that, but people can draw their own conclusions, and they certainly have. I have to say I'm very impressed by Niemann's play and I think his mentor Maxim Dlugy must be doing a great job."