American Hans Niemann stunned Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen at the popular Sinquefield Cup in September 2022. It was a big win for the 20 year old who beat the number one ranked player in the world for nearly a decade.
His win lost a lot of its shine after Carlsen withdrew from the tournament claiming that Niemann had cheated. Chess.com backed those claims by stating that it was likely that Niemann had cheated over 100 times in online chess games on their platform. Those claims spread like wildfire in the chess community given that Niemann had earlier admitted he did cheat when he was 12 and 16 years old respectively.
However, Niemann refuted all cheating allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Chess.com, Magnus Carlsen for $100 million in Oct 2022. That lawsuit was dismissed by a judge in June 2023.
Out Of Court Settlement
Earlier this week, Chess.com announced that all parties settled their differences outside court and confirmed that they did not find any clear evidence to suggest that Niemann had cheated in in-person games while Carlsen released a statement acknowledging that there was no evidence from Chess.com’s investigation that Niemann had cheated Carlsen when he won against him at the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen confirmed that he will be willing to play Niemann in future tournaments.