Carlsen, Chess.com make opening strikes in Niemann dishonest claims lawsuit By Reuters

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) – Norwegian chess world champion Magnus Carlsen and on-line platform Chess.com on Friday urged a U.S. federal courtroom to toss a $100 million libel go well with introduced in opposition to them by U.S. teenage grandmaster Hans Niemann, whom Carlsen has accused of dishonest.

Chess.com government Daniel Rensch and Carlsen mentioned of their filings that Niemann is an “admitted” cheater who did not establish any defamatory statements by them in his lawsuit in U.S. District Court docket in Missouri.

“After years of making an attempt to curate a status because the unhealthy boy of chess, plaintiff Hans Niemann needs to money in by blaming others for the fallout from his personal admitted misconduct,” Carlsen’s submitting mentioned.

Niemann’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Niemann, 19, mentioned in his lawsuit that the defendants are “colluding to blacklist” him from skilled chess and that he has been shunned by match organizers since five-time world champion Carlsen, 32, accused him of dishonest on the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Missouri in September.

Carlsen’s shock defeat and weird resolution to right away withdraw from the match set off a flurry of hypothesis within the chess world that Carlsen believed Niemann had cheated.

Rumor erupted into scandal later that month when Carlsen resigned after one transfer in a match in opposition to Niemann throughout a web-based match. Carlsen then launched an announcement saying he believed Niemann had cheated “extra – and extra just lately – than he has publicly admitted.”

Chess.com, an web chess server, banned Niemann after the primary match in opposition to Carlsen and later revealed a report saying he had seemingly cheated greater than 100 instances in on-line video games.

Niemann has admitted to dishonest in on-line chess matches when he was 12 and 16 years previous however has denied ever doing so in throughout tournaments involving prize cash. Event organizers say they haven’t discovered any proof that Niemann cheated.