Hans Niemann, the teenage American grandmaster at the center of an alleged cheating scandal, sued world champion Magnus Carlsen, online platform Chess.com and others on Thursday for slander and defamation and is seeking at least $100 million. dollars in damages.
The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. district court in Missouri, also lists Carlsen Play’s online chess platform Magnus, Chess.com executive Danny Rensch and U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura as defendants.
Niemann, 19, claimed the defendants were ‘colluding to blacklist him’ from the professional chess world and that he has been shunned by tournament organizers since five-time world champion Carlsen publicly accused of cheating.
Carlsen’s surprise loss to Niemann and his subsequent Sinquefield Cup withdrawal in St Louis, Missouri in September sparked a flurry of comments and allegations, including from Nakamura, that the American had cheated.
Weeks after the Sinquefield Cup, the Norwegian quit after a single knock against Niemann in an online tournament and said later in September he thought the American had “cheated more – and more recently – than he did. publicly admitted it”.
In a statement released Thursday, attorneys for Chess.com said Niemann’s allegations were unfounded and the company was saddened by his decision to pursue legal action.
“Hans has publicly admitted to cheating online following the Sinquefield Cup, and the resulting fallout is his fault,” the statement read.
“Chess.com looks forward to setting the record straight on behalf of its team and all honest chess players.”
Representatives for Carlsen and Nakamura did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chess.com banned Niemann after the first game against Carlsen and released a report earlier this month that he likely cheated more than 100 times in online games.
Niemann had previously been banned from Chess.com for cheating online, after admitting he hadn’t played fairly in non-competitive games on the website as a youth, but denied any wrongdoing while competing over-the-board games.
His lawsuit said that Chess.com “banned Niemann from its website and all future events, to give credence to Carlsen’s baseless and defamatory accusations of cheating.”
“Carlsen, having cemented his position as ‘Chess King’, believes that when it comes to chess he can do whatever he wants and get away with it,” the complaint added.
The lawsuit further accused Nakamura, a Chess.com streaming partner, of posting “hours of video content amplifying and attempting to bolster Carlsen’s false allegations of cheating.”
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced last month that it would open an investigation into allegations of cheating.
Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris