Hans Niemann sues over chess dishonest claims

Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old chess grandmaster accused of dishonest in a scandal that has shaken the sport’s elite echelons, filed a lawsuit in US federal courtroom looking for not less than $100mn in damages from defendants together with reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen.

The go well with, filed Thursday in federal courtroom in Missouri, brings claims together with slander, libel and civil conspiracy towards Carlsen, Chess.com, the favored on-line taking part in venue, and Hikaru Nakamura, the American grandmaster and widespread livestreamer.

“[Niemann] brings this motion to recuperate from the devastating damages that defendants have inflicted upon his fame, profession, and life by egregiously defaming him and unlawfully colluding to blacklist him from the occupation to which he has devoted his life,” the criticism stated.

Chess.com’s attorneys stated there was “no advantage” to Niemann’s allegations. “We consider his lawsuit hurts the sport of chess and its devoted gamers and followers around the globe.”

Representatives for Carlsen and Nakamura didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The lawsuit comes amid accusations and hypothesis towards Niemann from all corners of the chess world. He beat Carlsen, 31, in a sport at an elite match in St Louis in early September, an unlikely end result for a younger participant thought-about to be an underdog.

After the sport, Carlsen withdrew from the match, a profession first, and posted a cryptic tweet with video of soccer supervisor José Mourinho saying, “If I converse, I’m in massive bother, and I don’t need to be in massive bother.”

The chess world broadly interpreted his tweet as an accusation of dishonest towards Niemann. Carlsen resigned after one transfer in a subsequent sport towards Niemann, in an obvious act of protest, and later stated he believed that “Niemann has cheated extra — and extra just lately — than he has publicly admitted”.

“This bought spicy actually quick,” stated Nakamura on his stream after the preliminary sport, including: “Am I suggesting that one thing occurred? I’m saying Magnus is suspicious.”

Niemann admitted to dishonest in sure on-line video games, and early this month Chess.com launched a 72-page assertion that discovered Niemann “probably cheated” greater than 100 instances on the location.

Chess.com acquired Carlsen’s firm, Play Magnus, in an $82mn deal this summer time. Play Magnus can be named as a defendant within the go well with.

Niemann has denied dishonest in St Louis and different in-person occasions. For the reason that allegations have surfaced, safety at high occasions has been elevated, with gamers, together with Niemann, topic to rigorous scans for digital units. The sport’s worldwide governing physique, Fide, vowed to cease dishonest from turn into a “plague”.

The lawsuit strikes a defiant tone, and claims Carlsen’s accusations had been the behaviour of a sore loser with a bruised ego: “Infamous for his incapacity to deal with defeat, Carlsen snapped.”

“Defendants have destroyed Niemann’s life just because he had the expertise, dedication and audacity to defeat the so-called ‘King of Chess,’” Niemann’s legal professionals, Oved & Oved, stated in a press release. “We are going to maintain defendants totally accountable and expose the reality.”