The 19-year-old Twitch streamer and grandmaster Hans Niemann is shaking up the chess world. World champion Magnus Carlsen had to play against Niemann again on Monday, September 19, made one move, and then resigned the game. There are allegations that 19-year-old Niemann is cheating. However, there is no evidence for this.
What happened?
- Magnus Carlsen faced Hans Niemann in a tournament on September 19: In the 6th round of the “Julius Bear Generation Cup”, the two were paired against each other. The match was played online and broadcast live.
- But instead of completing the match, Carlsen moved a knight, then resigned and turned off the camera.
- A commentator said: “This has never happened before. I can’t believe it. Magnus refuses to play against Hans. He will participate in the tournament, but he says: I’m not playing against him.”
Casters are completely shocked by the action
This is the scene: You can see the whole action in the video. After 2 moves from Niemann, Carlsen’s camera just turns off. The casters are flabbergasted.
One said when Carlsen appeared for the match, people thought: Good, now we can concentrate on chess again. But the opposite was the case:
Why is this important? Magnus Carlsen is the five-time world champion and is considered by many to be the best chess player who has ever lived. He rarely loses. Before the match against Niemann two weeks ago, Carlsen had not lost 53 games in a row.
Carlsen is on the hunt for an incredible rating in ELO and thus should not actually lose any games.
Carlsen implies that Niemann could be cheating – but never says it directly
What problem does he have with Niemann? Carlsen surprisingly lost to the underdog Niemann with White in a chess duel two weeks ago. After that, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament.
There were implied allegations that the Twitch streamer Hans Niemann must have cheated somehow. Some speculated that he could have circumvented the strict security measures with a sex toy that was in his butt and sent vibrations. However, it seems that an absurd joke has gotten out of hand.
Niemann had been banned twice as a child and teenager for cheating from the chess.com platform, but he insists that everything is above board now and he has never cheated at the “board”.
Does Carlsen say that the Twitch streamer is cheating? Not directly. In a statement, Carlsen says:
Unfortunately, I can’t speak about it in detail, but people will draw their own conclusions, and they surely have. I must say: I am very impressed with Niemann’s play, and I think his mentor, Maxim Dlugy, must be doing a great job.
Carlsen also said: Whether it is currently a massive problem or not, it is quite easy to cheat in chess – so generally speaking. He believes that cheaters should not be taken lightly in the future, neither online nor over the board.
Twitch is always good for a surprise:
Integrity of the chess game in discussion
What is the problem? To cheat live, a player actually only needs access to a chess computer that has an absurdly high playing strength, like Stockfish. A top player only needs to consult such an engine once or twice in a match to gain significant advantages.
The question is how Niemann could have gained access to such information live at the board. However, it seems that Carlsen suspects that Niemann is cheating, and his rise in rating from 2484 (January 2021) to 2688 (September 2022) can only be explained that way.
How Niemann could have cheated during the live tournament at the board remains a mystery.
In any case, the behavior of the world champion suggests that the chess sport may have an integrity problem if the allegation constantly looms: He won, so he must have cheated.
Since the success of “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix, chess has been experiencing a surge on Twitch. Individual chess players have become influencers and use the streaming platform Twitch to reach a new audience:
