CHENNAI: HANS Niemann rocked up to a tournament in Croatia and served up one of the best weeks of chess by a professional player in 2023. At the end of the week, though, the organiser raised a few doubts about Niemann’s credibility.
“We tried our best to spot anything unusual and even increased the delay of online broadcasting but it didn’t change anything,” Kresimir Podravec, an official at the Zagreb Chess Federation, had told Forbes betting. “Personally, I don’t like the type of focus it turned to the tournament and I will stop commenting on that. I think it brings far more harm than good. We will see what the future brings. Maybe he really is a chess genius and future world champion.”
Niemann responded to these allegations via a statement made by his lawyer. “Despite the overwhelming proof of Hans’ extraordinary talents, there will always be haters,” it said. “Our advice to them is simple: Get used to it. Hans is just getting started.”
Niemann dominated the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb by such a wide margin that he had won it with a whole round to spare. In the end, the US GM won it with three points to spare, having a rating performance of 2946. Incidentally, the best-ever by a GM in 2023 across all professional chess events.
After the victory, the 20-year-old drew parallels with what Bobby Fischer did at the same event in 1970. “Two lone Americans up against the world, facing immeasurable odds,” he posted on X. “Victorious 53 years apart at the legendary Tournament of Peace. 8/9: 2946 performance rating. I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and ther impossible.”
The history Of course, this isn’t the first time that Niemann has been alleged to have external help. After a game in September 2022, then world champion, Magnus Carlsen, had sensationally accused Niemann of cheating. While the Norwegian hasn’t walked away from those comments, he later said he had no ‘determinative evidence’.
To follow up on those initial Carlsen comments, chess.com came up with an explosive document where they said: “... Niemann has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including in several prize money events and games that he was streaming.” They also claimed that Niemann’s OTB play ‘are statistically extraordinary’ (a US court threw out Niemann’s defamation suit against Carlsen and chess.com this summer).
