The 19-year-old Twitch streamer and chess grandmaster Hans Niemann has filed a lawsuit: He is suing world champion Magnus Carlsen, whose chess app Play Magnus, the website chess.com, their chess chief Daniel Rensch, and Twitch streamer Hikaru Nakamura. He is demanding at least $100 million from each of the defendants in a court in Missouri. Niemann sees world champion Carlsen as a poor loser who cannot cope with being replaced by a younger prodigy. The other parties are part of a media empire that is being used against him.
This is the situation:
- The 19-year-old Hans Niemann played on September 4 with black against world champion Magnus Carlsen and defeated him.
- After the defeat, Carlsen left the tournament and implied with a video clip that he couldn’t say what he thinks, because then he would get in trouble. This was interpreted publicly as an accusation that Niemann is a cheater.
- This sparked an excited discussion in the chess world about how Niemann could have cheated, what is going on, and why Carlsen reacted so drastically.
Niemann says: His reputation is destroyed, he has practically a professional ban
This is how the conflict escalated: This led to numerous, sometimes absurd entanglements and speculations: For example, the theory circulated that Niemann had received secret information via hidden anal beads.
In a further encounter with Niemann, Carlsen simply resigned and announced that he would later elaborate on what bothers him so much about Niemann.
Niemann, on the other hand, said that he cheated in meaningless online chess games as a child and teenager, but that was years ago. At the board itself, he has never cheated.
However, the chess platform chess.com later banned him. It was stated that Niemann’s offenses occurred more frequently and recently than he represented.
In October, a devastating report about Niemann appeared from chess.com – he was practically ruined in the chess scene thereafter. Niemann himself speaks of a “blacklist” on which he has been since then. This is tantamount to a professional ban.
Brought chess into the mainstream:
Niemann sees Carlsen as a poor loser – Himself as a prodigy
This is what Niemann says now in the lawsuit about himself: The complaint begins by stating that Niemann calls himself a “19-year-old self-taught chess prodigy”.
The damage to him, his career, and his reputation is now “devastating” and has resulted in an unjustified exclusion from the profession he has dedicated his life to.
This is what Niemann says about Carlsen: Magnus Carlsen, in turn, is portrayed as a megalomaniac but aging chess god and shrewd businessman and showman. It is said that he has secured a position as the “king of chess” and now believes that “he can do whatever he wants and get away with it.”
Niemann presents it as if he has defeated Carlsen more often, but now for the first time in an official tournament. He has thus ruined Carlsen’s tour and broken records.
It is said (via chessbase):
Carlsen, notorious for his inability to deal with defeats, went berserk. Angry that the 12 years younger Niemann dared to insult the “chess king” and out of fear that the young prodigy would further mar his multi-million-dollar brand with another defeat, Carlsen vindictively and insidiously took revenge on Niemann by absurdly and without any evidence accusing him of cheating during their personal game […]”
According to Niemann, “independent and impartial sources” have proved that he did not cheat.
Here you can view the complaint in full (via storage.courtlistener).
What about the others he is suing? Niemann sees the others as a media empire that Carlsen has “unleashed” against him to cover up the actual evidence of his innocence and exclude Niemann from high-level chess tournaments:
- chess.com banned Niemann and thereby gave more credibility to Carlsen’s accusations
- Rensch is the “Chief Chess Officer” at chess.com – he made defamatory press statements and leaked defamatory reports, falsely claiming that Niemann would lie
- The Twitch streamer Nakamura is the “most influential streaming partner of chess.com”. He has published “hours” of video content and amplified Carlsen’s false accusations
- Play Magnus is Magnus Carlsen’s app – chess.com just bought it for $80 million. This company is also said to have collaborated with Carlsen and chess.com
He is suing each of the 5 parties named for “no less than $100,000,000 plus interest” – the exact amount is to be determined in court.
