American chess grandmaster Hans Niemann filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday in opposition to world champion Magnus Carlsen and others looking for $100 million in damages over dishonest allegations which have rocked the chess world in latest weeks.
“My lawsuit speaks for itself,” Niemann, 19, tweeted Thursday, sharing a duplicate of the lawsuit.
Within the go well with, which was filed within the Japanese Missouri District Court docket, Niemann, alleged that Carlsen, Chess.com and its chief chess officer, and chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura have been “egregiously defaming him and unlawfully colluding to blacklist him from the career to which he has devoted his life.”
The chess participant is suing for slander and libel, accusing the defendants in his lawsuit of inflicting “devastating damages.”
Niemann, Carlsen, Nakamura and Chess.com didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from NBC Information.
The lawsuit comes weeks after Carlsen, 31, first accused Niemann of dishonest after the 2 chess gamers competed on the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis on Sept. 4.
Carlsen had bowed out of the occasion after describing his opponent’s progress as “uncommon” and suggesting that he wasn’t “absolutely concentrating on the sport” when Niemann defeated him.
In a 72-page report launched earlier this month, Chess.com mentioned that whereas there have been “many outstanding indicators and weird patterns” in Niemann’s play, there was no proof he cheated within the match in opposition to Carlsen and no “direct proof” proving he cheated in different over-the-board, or in-person, video games prior to now.
Nonetheless, the report concluded that Niemann had probably cheated in additional than 100 on-line video games, saying that whereas his efficiency in some matches “might appear to be inside the realm of some statistical chance, the likelihood of any single participant performing this effectively throughout this many video games is extremely low.” In his lawsuit, Niemann branded the report defamatory.
He has repeatedly defended himself because the incident. After defeating Christopher Yoo within the first spherical of the 2022 U.S. Championship in St. Louis earlier this month, he was requested to handle the “elephant within the room” throughout a post-game interview with the Saint Louis Chess Club.
“This sport is a message to everybody,” he mentioned in his first public feedback since Chess.com launched its report. “This whole factor began with me saying, ‘Chess speaks for itself,’ and I feel this sport spoke for itself and confirmed the chess participant that I’m.”
Niemann mentioned it “additionally confirmed I’m not going to again down and I’m going to play my finest chess right here whatever the stress that I’m underneath and that’s all I’ve to say about this sport. And you already know, ‘Chess speaks for itself.’ That’s all I can say.”
Tim Stelloh contributed.
