Thread by @MrChessMx

The Whole Hans Niemann–Magnus Carlsen Withdrawal Saga So Far.
#ChessDrama #Chess #SinquefieldCup
(Open thread)

Credits: Reedit

Post is for those out of the loop; includes links to clips and posts; everything is chronological; will be constantly updated until this fizzles out—most recent event added on 09/06, 9:53 a.m. ET. (#19, #20)

1. The broadcast for fourth round of the Sinquefield Cup is delayed by 15 minutes for an enhanced security check, in particular of Hans:

2. Magnus begins the storm by tweeting of his withdrawal; note the Jose Mourinho clip

https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1566848734616555523?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

3. Hikaru is streaming and immediately starts speculating, he starts with a mild take where he implies that Magnus quit due to Hans potentially cheating: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

4. Fifteen minutes later and here Hikaru has given up keeping his mouth shut and lets it loose, now plainly stating that (he believes) Magnus withdrew because Hans cheated, sending the chess world into hysterics: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

5. Emil Sutovsky (Director-general of FIDE) sends out a wild tweet with huge implications:

https://twitter.com/EmilSutovsky/status/1566854973559869442?t=csFv42yriyo2xcFEhs_kcA&s=19

6. It emerges that Hans has been banned before on Chess.com for cheating, here Hikaru mentions it without 'technically' doing so: twitch.tv/gmhikaru/clip/…

7. It further emerges there is even a clip of Nepo on his own stream from like a year ago talking about Hans using a bot: twitch.tv/lachesisq/clip…

8. Nepo gives an interview after drawing his game against Wesley and gives quite a reaction:
Link 1:

https://twitter.com/GrandChessTour/status/1566867536809021441?cxt=HHwWgsC-2aPu0L4rAAAA

Link 2: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

9.1 Going back to the interview Hans gave after beating Magnus in Round 3, he mentioned how he “miraculously” looked at an obscure line that happened in the game and that he had only looked at it because of Magnus had played it against Wesley So in the 2018 London Chess Classic.

9.2 Drama frog investigators (and Hikaru) now realize no such game exists. reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

9.3 A similar game entering a different line between Carlsen v. So in Kolkata 2019 has been widely pointed to as the possible game of reference; however, there has been considerable debate as to whether this game could be the one.

9.4 Former WC challenger GM Nigel Short has tweeted that it could have, as well as GM Denes Boros in his recent video:
Nigel's tweet:

https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/status/1567020771528130561?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Denes talking about transpositions from this game:

9.5 While others like Hikaru, Wesley, have argued the contrary:
Hikaru saying that the Kolkata game has a "completely different structure"-
Wesley's comments on the line while in Hikaru's chat--logs.ivr.fi/?channel=gmhik….

10. During this whole saga, Wesley So (among many others, including Levy, Jorden Van Foreest, Shant Sargsyan and more) has been in Hikaru's chat commenting various things, among those stating that "I wasn't even in London in 2018", confirming the previous point (#9)

11. Levon gives his take where he backs Hans, says "all of my colleagues are pretty much paranoid" with regard to cheaters: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

12. Somewhere around here, Tony Rich, Executive Director of the Stl Chess Club, comes onto the official broadcast to talk about Magnus' withdrawal, explain the additional security measures which caused the delay at the start of the round.

13. Alireza and Hans draw their game, and then Hans gives his interview on the official broadcast, but the engine evaluation is turned off (as opposed to previous days when it was on for him) and Hans gives an “incoherent” analysis per Eric Hansen.

13.1 The official interview:
Eric’s reaction to his interview:
Link 1-clips.twitch.tv/PlainElatedCro…
Link 2-clips.twitch.tv/SpotlessTameIn…
Hikaru's reaction to Hans interview:

14. Alireza then gives his side in an interview where he mentioned being totally perplexed by various decisions Hans made during the game, suggesting he “completely missed” multiple lines that Hans saw. He even mentions Hans' Qg3 as "shocking": reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

15. Fabiano gives his postgame interview with Stl Chess Club and also alludes to others knowing the reason why Magnus withdrew (implying others have the same cheating allegation):

https://twitter.com/GrandChessTour/status/1566939239471894528?s=20&t=qhxJ_DSfYRqLkPoQT08moA

16. GM Andrew Tang comments on Hans and why he stopped talking to Hans: clips.twitch.tv/OutstandingTam…

17. GM Rafael Leitao chimes in, saying his own analysis (done with "powerful engines") shows Hans played with no engine aid:

https://twitter.com/Rafpig/status/1566941524486651911

(tweet needs to be translated)

18. Fabiano sends out an enigmatic tweet after his game (presumably) having caught up on the drama: "Can't wait to hear more about the Hans effect on The Magnus Effect"

https://twitter.com/FabianoCaruana/status/1566959985736679424?cxt=HHwWgICw8cHz-r4rAAAA

19. GM Denes Boros publishes an analysis going over the games, which goes into depth about whether Hans' moves look human or not, and whether his postgame interview analysis gaffes are suspicious, among other details.

20.1 GM Jacob Aagaard, a well-known trainer and Chess author who previously worked with Hans, publishes a long blog post defending Hans and talking about his personal experiences training Hans, saying that:

20.2 "I have seen nothing out of the ordinary in the last two days," Hikaru's coverage of the drama has been "bizarre" and "ridiculous", and "[Hans'] moves were nothing special", among many other things. forum.killerchesstraining.com/t/paranoia-and…

That’s the full saga so far as far as I have seen, more to come, likely when round 5 begins.

Pls like and rt at the first post, so that more people have the full context. Wait for new updates.

UPDATE 06/09/2022:

21. MVL gives a take on the situation from an undisclosed Twitch chat: "From my side of things, I'm waiting for additional elements because again, as of now, my feeling is that there was no cheating" (translation from linked post): reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

22. Hikaru on his stream concerning the emerging theory that Magnus' prep got leaked and that's why he withdrew: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

23. Well-known Chess24 commentator Jan Gustafsson: I can't draw any conclusions in favour of cheating, I don't even see a particularly higher lever of play by Niemann in this tournament (translation from linked post): reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

24. GM Daniel King on the entire situation: "If you wish to, you can find evidence that supports a view that he was cheating, but you could find evidence that supports a view that his play is completely clean; it's just confirmation bias, it seems to me." reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

25. [Fairly major missed update from yesterday]: the official St. Louis Chess Club retweets a Hikaru tweet where Hikaru is promoting his new video. Except the new video is about why Magnus quit/Hans potentially cheating. As seen here:

https://twitter.com/GMHikaru/status/1566962692706934786

26. Maurice Ashley, does all but confirm that Hans has been banned for cheating in the past: "we know there are some issues with Hans in the past--some issues that are pretty well documented about him possibly cheating and him taking punishment for that." youtube.com/clip/Ugkx5W0HO…

Sorry guys, busy day. But here the UPDATES:

9:00 PM CDMX TIMEZONE 06/09/2022

27.1 Nepo, having drawn his Rnd.5 game with MVL, is asked about Magnus/Hans in his postgame interview: "frankly speaking, it's a very big threat for chess and hopefully everything will be alright and Hans will prove himself innocent."

27.2 He further compares a Vishy game to the current situation and has a lot to say about fixing and cheating:

28.1 MVL, having drawn his Rnd.5 game with Nepo, is asked about Magnus/Hans in his postgame interview: "it has basically become a witchhunt and the effect it can have on Hans is actually quite devastating" and "honestly I don't know [if Hans has cheated]" but ...

28.2 ... "based on the information I have now I would say he is not cheating." Again, very direct reply and an interesting interview:

29. Wesley says about the drama: "I'm sure everyone is distracted, it was very hard for me to sleep last night because of the drama" and "we have all this drama just makes it a bit difficult to concentrate" and "also I play Hans Niemann round 6...":

30.1 Nikita Vitiugov, reigning Russian champion and Nepo's second, posts a very long statement on Twitter (in Russian) concerning the matter. A relevant comment of his (among many, many more), translated via DeepL: ...

30.2 "There are no serious anti-cheating measures, giving players a sense of complete safety, in chess. Along with the frames, metal detectors, delayed broadcasts, there is the certainty of their "circumvention"." t.me/colchonero_64/…

31.1 HANS' POSTGAME INTERVIEW: HE ADDRESSES EVERYTHING -- THE CHEATING ALLEGATIONS, HIS PAST CHEATING ON CHESS.COM...

31.2 HIS ACCENT, HIS QG3 MOVE AGAINST ALIREZA, HIS POOR RND4 POSTGAME ANALYSIS, HIS DETRACTORS--NAMING HIKARU AND MAGNUS IN PARTICULAR, AND THE "NONEXISTENT" NIMZO GAME

32. Hans tweets at Hikaru: "Hikaru has thoroughly enjoyed watching all of my interviews and enjoyed criticizing every single detail and making frivolous implications. I'd like to see him watch my entire interview today and see what he has to say."

https://twitter.com/HansMokeNiemann/status/1567301263267696640

NEW UPDATE GUYS! 10:00 PM CDMX TIME ZONE 07/09/2022

33.1 GM Daniel Naroditsky on his stream comments on the possibility of cheating OTB, in particular at the STL Chess Club: "in my opinion, it is not particularly hard [to cheat]--the way anti-cheating measures are set up right now [in STLCC]....

33.2 ...if you put your mind to it, it is possible to set up a cheating mechanism even in very high profile tournaments." Purportedly he also ended stream saying that Magnus needs to "shit or get off the pot" (unverified). clips.twitch.tv/SolidModernFun…

34.1 Hikaru booted up stream this morning and has been relentlessly harried by chat (despite it being in sub-only mode) to watch the interview and furthermore respond. Mostly, he has just reiterated that he only "said it was a fact that [Hans] cheated online" ...

34.2 ... and otherwise not said much. Also when asked to apologized, he said, "apologize for what?": twitch.tv/gmhikaru/clip/…

35.1 Laurent Fressinet, Magnus' second, comments on the Hans situation on The Chicken Chess Club podcast: "I met [Hans] in Paris at a chess bar where we played some blitz with Jules Moussard, and he kicked our ass. He was very overconfident and thought he would become the next WC

35.2 So I'm not surprised. But Naka is trying to sell some stories and saying some bullshit, Hans is clearly 2700 level." Via u/rederer07; link:

36. [Updated - considerable development] A provocative article (#37) and accompanying meme (#38) concerning the cheating allegations are shared on Twitter and the PlayMagnus website respectively (both are quickly deleted):

37. PlayMagnus article: ibb.co/Z22byY9 via u/KrlusMagnusTweet:

https://twitter.com/SusanPolgar/status/1567519741446692864/photo/1

38. Reddit thread on the tweet/article**:** reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

39. Ben F. uploads a video. 1:40 in the video say: "Hans didn't cheat, and Magnus is a huge dick now. Now Magnus needs to apologize now, unless, unless, he withdrew for the proper reasons, that is, he is very sick, or someone in his family is very sick."

40. Hans appears in an Instagram Story with other Sinquefield Cup participants, playing tennis during the rest day. As the linked post's title states, "Hans looking in good spirits with his fellow players during the rest day!": reddit.com/r/chess/commen… via u/rederer07.

41. [BIG DEVELOPMENT] With Hikaru neither responding to Hans' comments in the Rd.5 postgame interview nor watching Hans' interview on stream, Hans sends out two passionate tweets directed at Hikaru:

42. "The silence of my critics clearly speaks for itself. If there was any real evidence, why not show it? Hikaru has continued to completely ignore my interview and is trying to sweep everything under the rug. Is anyone going to take accountability for the damage they've done?"

43.1 "Hikaru plays the victim but seems to forget dedicating hours of his stream to criticize all of my interviews. with frivolous insinuations. Perhaps he deserves some blame and should take accountability for what he said. At least he has 42% more subs now"

43.2 [Hans also links THIS CLIP TO THE TWEET] Tweet:

https://twitter.com/HansMokeNiemann/status/1567665353727135746

NEW UPDATES GUYS 08/09/22

44.1 Former World Champion GM Anatoly Karpov chimes in on the situation with his take: "I watched the game last night [vs Niemann] and I have to say that Carlsen just played extremely badly.

44.2 I heard comments that he couldn't get out of the opening and had no chance, but that's not true. I reject all versions of an unfair win.

44.3Of course we can't say with certainty that Niemann didn't cheat,but Carlsen surprisingly played the opening so badly with white that he automatically got into a worse position.But then he showed a strange inability to cope with the difficult situation that arose on the board"

44.4 Source on TASS: Карпов оценил предположение о нечестной победе Ниманна над Карлсеном, via u/wwqt at reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

45.1 Former World Champion Garry Kasparov shares his thoughts on the saga via two posts on Twitter:Tweet 1 [Cont'd from #45]:

45.2 "I will not delve into the ugly insinuations of the matter now, but must remark on what we do know: World chess champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the world's premier tournament in St. Louis, an act with no precedent in the past 50 years, and his explanation is required."

45.3 weet 2: "Carlsen's withdrawal was a blow to chess fans, his colleagues at the tournament, the organizers, and, as the rumors and negative publicity swirl in a vacuum, to the game. The world title has its responsibilities, and a public statement is the least of them here".

46. 1 [**MAJOR UPDATE**] Hikaru goes on stream and responds to various items brought up by Hans in his Rnd.5 postgame interview (he did not watch on stream due to copyright):

46.2 Here is a brief breakdown of this main points, with the gist of each:
On the Magnus game opening and Hans' explanation that he prepped it via transpositions from similar lines: "It is definitely plausible"

46.3 On Hans "directly accusing [him] of cheating": "There are many instances where I said he did not cheat OTB, the one thing I did say was that he cheated online"

46.4 On Hans being banned from the Chess.com Global Championship for the game against Magnus: "I of course had no idea, I'm actually quite shocked myself to hear this, it's very surprising; I think https://t.co/hQKfqlgc5a has to answer in some way, make a statement.

46.5 On Hans' rapid rise in rating the past few years: "he's probably had the most meteoric rise in the history of chess"; "it's unprecedented in the history of Chess." (3:50 into the video)

46.7 On Hans' admission of cheating in the past on Chess.com: "it is very good that Hans admitted cheating and I am really hopeful that https://t.co/hQKfqlgc5a or Magnus there's gonna be some sort of statement in the future. (5:00 into the video)

46.8 On Hans' new accent: "I do think it's part of a persona, when you're streaming you do try and put on a persona" and "he's definitely a showman." (5:40 into the video).

47.1 In an article published on the Wall Street Journal, leading cheat-detection expert Kenneth Regan has found in evidence of cheating, as the article details:"Tournament organizers, meanwhile, instituted additional fair play protocols. But their security checks, including game.

47.2 screening of Niemann’s play by one of the world’s leading chess detectives, the University at Buffalo’s Kenneth Regan, haven’t found anything untoward." - WSJ wsj.com/articles/magnu…

48. Having gone silent since his withdrawal, Magnus Carlsen surfaces on Aryan Tari’s Instagram, smiling: reddit.com/r/chess/commen…

49. Chess.com in Twitter: "We have shared detailed evidence with [Hans] concerning our decision, including information that contradicts his statements regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on https://t.co/hQKfqlgc5a"

https://twitter.com/chesscom/status/1568010971616100352/