Hans Niemann files 100 Million Dollar Suit Against Magnus

On October 20th, at 2:33 PM EST, Hans Niemann announced on Twitter that he would be filing a 100 million dollar defamation suit against Magnus Carlsen. Click here to read about their case.

And the drama continues…

Very big news. Was I expecting Hans to seek legal action? Well, half of me thought it was possible. When the chess player many consider the GOAT calls Hans a cheater, it hurt his career, and Hans believes that Magnus slandered him. 
This lawsuit announcement I believe will change many minds when it comes to whether Hans cheated or not. Magnus should have never jumped the gun like he did, he spoke too soon. He might have rock hard evidence Hans cheated, he might not. Magnus should have lost gracefully until he had found out otherwise. Now, Magnus is in a very sticky situation. 
Here is what part of the statement says:

Notably, this was not the first time that Niemann beat Carlsen at chess, just the first time he did so at a FIDE-sanctioned event. Niemann’s upset victory effectively dashed Carlsen’s two remaining statistical ambitions, namely: achieving a 2900 FIDE performance rating for the first time in history; and breaking his own world-record unbeaten streak in FIDE-sanctioned events. These accomplishments, if achieved, would have solidified Carlsen as arguably the greatest chess player of all time and made his burgeoning chess empire even more valuable. Making matters worse for Carlsen, Niemann embarrassed Carlsen by playfully taunting him during his post-match interview.
 Notorious for his inability to cope with defeat, Carlsen snapped. Enraged that the young Niemann, fully 12 years his junior, dared to disrespect the “King of Chess,” and fearful that the young prodigy would further blemish his multi-million dollar brand by beating him again, Carlsen viciously and maliciously retaliated against Niemann by falsely accusing Niemann, without any evidence, of somehow cheating during their in-person game and demanding that the organizers of the Sinquefield Cup immediately disqualify Niemann from the tournament.
When tournament officials refused to comply with Carlsen’s corrupt and cowardly demand to baselessly eliminate Niemann from competition, Carlsen lashed out again, this time by boycotting the remainder of the Sinquefield Cup in protest—an unprecedented act for a top chess professional, let alone the reigning World Champion. Carlsen then confirmed his defamatory accusations against Niemann with a provocative post on Twitter, which had the intended effect of disseminating Carlsen’s false accusations that Niemann had cheated against him across the globe.
 Days later, Carlsen was scheduled to play Niemann again in the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Rather than seek to redeem himself from his unexpected loss to Niemann, Carlsen, the “King of Chess,” gutlessly forfeited the game after making one move, and then issued a press release repeating his false accusations that Niemann had cheated against him at the Sinquefield Cup.
Carlsen’s unprecedented actions, coupled with his unfounded accusations, sent shock waves through the chess world and instantly thrust Niemann into the center of what is now widely reported as the single biggest chess scandal in history.
Due to his unparalleled stature and influence in the chess community, Carlsen knew that the public would believe his accusations of cheating against Niemann, even though Carlsen had no legitimate basis to believe Niemann actually cheated against him; he could ensure that no reputable chess tournament would invite Niemann to compete in the future; and his false accusations would cause other top chess players to boycott Niemann as well.
Following Carlsen’s defamatory accusations, a flurry of independent and unbiased sources, including the tournament organizers and arbiters of the Sinquefield Cup, FIDE, and the world’s foremost experts in cheat detection, have uniformly confirmed that there is no evidence that Niemann cheated in any of his games against Carlsen, including at the Sinquefield Cup, particularly given the more than ample anti-cheating security measures used at the event. Unbiased top chess analysts have dissected Niemann and Carlsen’s Sinquefield Cup game in excruciating detail and concluded that Niemann’s victory resulted more from Carlsen’s particularly poor play than Niemann’s particularly exceptional play.

The statement went on to include chess.com!

 Chess.com, in collusion with Carlsen and Play Magnus, immediately banned Niemann from its website and all of its future events, to lend credence to Carlsen’s unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations of cheating;
 Defendant Hikaru Nakamura (“Nakamura”)—Chess.com’s most influential streaming partner—acting in collusion with Carlsen and Chess.com, published hours of video content amplifying and attempting to bolster Carlsen’s false cheating allegations against Niemann with numerous additional defamatory statements; and
Chess.com executive Danny Rensch (“Rensch”) issued defamatory press releases, and leaked defamatory “reports” to prominent press outlets, falsely accusing Niemann of lying in his post-match Sinquefield Cup interview regarding his use of a “chess engine” in a handful of recreational online games when he was a child, to bolster Carlsen’s unsubstantiated defamatory accusations that Niemann cheated against him at the Sinquefield Cup. *End of excerpt*
So now Danny Rensch, chess.com, and even Hikaru are being tossed into the boiling pot with Magnus and Hans.

We ought to brace ourselves for more of this drama, because I cannot see it ending anytime soon. 

Do I still think Hans cheated?

Increasingly, no. Every day I am shifting more to Hans side than Magnus’. Magnus has made a real life blunder, and now could be in serious trouble. 

Thanks for reading this! Probably won’t be the last blog on these two

Thanks again,

- @FA-18_SuperHornet2007