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Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen continue to spar without a chessboard in sight.

Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating during their match in early September. He didn’t outright say it at first, dropping hints on social media and letting the whispers grow into a cacophony, before releasing an official statement this week explicitly levelling cheating allegations at Niemann.

Since then, every aspect of Niemann’s play has been forensically picked apart and his track record on Chess.com, the sport’s biggest online platform, doesn’t reflect well on his character.

The site’s full report found that Niemann “likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games”.

Niemann (below) refuses to back down or admit to any cheating beyond two online matches when he was aged 12 and 16. In response to Carlsen’s claims, he has now launched a $100 million lawsuit against the Norwegian, Chess.com, and chess grandmaster and streamer Hikaru Nakamura.

Over to VICE:

Niemann’s lawsuit claims that Carlsen, the top-ranked chess player in the world, is “notorious for his inability to cope with defeat,” and that he “viciously and maliciously retaliated against Niemann by falsely accusing Niemann, without any evidence, of somehow cheating” during the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament…

[The lawsuit] calls Carlsen “corrupt and cowardly,” and “gutless.” It alleges “collusion” between Chess.com, Carlsen, Carlsen’s Play Magnus chess company (which was acquired by Chess.com), and Nakamura, and says that Niemann has been disinvited from various tournaments and that he “cannot obtain employment as a chess teacher at a reputable school.”

The American also accuses Chess.com of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act due to its total dominance of the online competitive chess space.

Niemann reckons there’s not much to be said outside of what the lawsuit states:

My lawsuit speaks for itself https://t.co/rOfUxiNYCH

— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) October 20, 2022

Carlsen’s lawyer, Craig Reiser, had no time for niceties:

 “Hans Niemann has an admitted history of cheating and his lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to deflect blame onto others. His legal claims are without merit and we will vigorously defend against them.”

The lawsuit, unless settled out of court, will likely involve all sorts of forensic analysis of Niemann’s play from hundreds of matches.

In his favour is the fact that Professor Ken Regan, who has a reputation as the world’s greatest expert on cheating detection, found no reason to suspect Hans Niemann of cheating during his recent over-the-board (OTB) matches.

However, those who believe he did cheat say Regan’s tools are outdated and also well-known in the chess world. Because of this, a skilled cheat could avoid detection.

ChessBase has published an in-depth article discussing various tools used for cheat detection and how Niemann fares:

In the end we have found that “statistics at first sight”, all of them, look like strong evidence of Hans Niemann cheating, and cheating a lot. But at second sight, all the statistics show instead a picture typical of a young player rising fast, with no evidence of cheating whatsoever…

Does this mean that Hans Niemann never cheated on the board? It’s still difficult to say… But it’s extremely unlikely that statistics alone will ever provide evidence on the matter, and unless some clever Philo Vance will ever be able to deduce his method and trap him “on the spot”, the mystery will never be solved.

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez says a scandal of this nature was “a ticking time bomb” given how easily and rapidly smartphones and websites can tell players which is the optimal move to make in any given situation.

The site notes that ultimately, chess is suffering greatly and is “on the verge of completely losing its charisma”.

I wouldn’t have called chess the most charismatic of sports but it is sad to see a long overdue day of reckoning tarnish its image.

[sources:vice&chessbase]