Magnus Carlsen watching Hans Niemann at the 2022 edition of the Sinquefield Cup. (Photo: chessphotoshop.com)Former world Chess champion Garry Kasparov has reacted to Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal from Sinquefield Cup after losing a game to the 19-year-old American chess player Hans Niemann. A move that triggered allegations of cheating against the latter.
Sharing his thoughts on Twitter, Kasparov wrote, “I will not delve into the ugly insinuations of the matter now, but must remark on what we do know: World chess champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the world’s premier tournament in St. Louis, an act with no precedent in the past 50 years, and his explanation is required.”
Carlsen’s withdrawal was a blow to chess fans, his colleagues at the tournament, the organizers, and, as the rumors and negative publicity swirl in a vacuum, to the game. The world title has its responsibilities, and a public statement is the least of them here.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) September 8, 2022
“Carlsen’s withdrawal was a blow to chess fans, his colleagues at the tournament, the organizers, and, as the rumors and negative publicity swirl in a vacuum, to the game. The world title has its responsibilities, and a public statement is the least of them here,” he further added.
Carlsen had left the Sinquefield Cup midway after Round three, a first for the Norwegian who has never voluntarily walked away from a tournament of this magnitude. This, after losing to Niemann for the second time this month and the first time while playing classical chess.
Announcing his withdrawal with a tweet of a video of Portuguese football manager Jose Mourinho saying, “If I speak, I am in big trouble. Big, big trouble”, Carlsen refused to give any further explanation. But the chess world started speculating.
Carlsen writing in his tweet that he would enjoy playing at the club and that he would look forward to coming back in the future was believed to be a clear indicator that it wasn’t the tournament or its organisers that caused an issue for him to withdraw. And while his statement or actions didn’t point to any particular reason, there was a growing cluster of voices insinuating that Niemann had resorted to cheating against the world champion, and that was the reason for his withdrawal. Chief among these voices was Twitch streamer and GM Hikaru Nakamura.
“Magnus would never do this in a million years… if he really didn’t strongly believe it. I think he thinks that Hans is cheating. Straight out I’ll just say that he has done some things that are not allowed in tournaments. Let’s leave it at that.” There are unsubstantiated reports in the past that Niemann has been caught cheating, which was what Nakamura was alluding to.
Prior to the allegations, Niemann had said that on the very morning of his match against Carlsen, he had gone back to ‘miraculously’ rewatch an instance where Carlsen used a similar opening against Wesley So at the London Chess Classic in 2018. On his live stream on Twitch, Nakamura went on Chess.com to check whether Carlsen had ever attempted such a move and it turned out that he never had. On that stream, So wrote on Nakamura’s live chat that he never even took part in the London event in 2018.
GM Nigel Short shared a tweet post Nakamura’s stream and wrote that Niemann could possibly have been talking about the match that was played between Carlsen and So in 2019 in Kolkata. That match also saw Carlsen use a G3 Nimzo-Indian, the same opening formation used by Niemann on Monday.
Responding to the allegations made against him in an interview on Tuesday, Niemann said he was prepared to play “naked” in order to prove his innocence.
GM @HansMokeNiemann responds to all allegations in an absolute must-watch interview 🔥 #SinquefieldCup #GrandChessTour
First, on the accent (1/10): pic.twitter.com/0JltM4yWxF
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) September 7, 2022
“I can completely strip, you want to do any fair play check to me you want I don’t care because I know that I’m clean. If they want me to strip fully naked, I’ll do it, I don’t care, because I know that I’m clean and I’m willing to subject myself”
He further added, “You want me to play in a closed box with zero electronic transmission, I don’t care, name whatever you guys want. I’m here to win, and that’s going to be my goal regardless.”