Stabroek News Sunday

Controvers­y over suspected cheating rocks chess world

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The Sinquefiel­d Cup is an annual invitation-only chess event held to honour Rex Sinquefiel­d and his wife Jeannie, the founders of the St Louis Chess Club. It is one of the most lucrative chess tournament­s worldwide, and has been held since 2013 at the St Louis Chess Club, Missouri, USA. World champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway won the tournament twice, as did Levon Aronian from Armenia.

This year, the 9th edition, Iranian-French teenager Alireza Firouzja took the honours. But Carlsen withdrew from the tournament following a loss to 19-year-old American grandmaste­r Hans Niemann. Niemann broke Carlsen’s winning streak of 53 games and one news outlet, Slate, described the loss as a “shocking upset” for Carlsen; to be beaten by a lower-rated player than himself in a game where he had the white pieces and the advantage of the first move.

A senior FIDE official noted that Carlsen had not previously withdrawn from a tournament owing to a poor result, and must have believed he had a compelling reason to do so. According to the Guardian, Japanese-American chess grandmaste­r and online streamer Hikaru Nakamura said Carlsen had pulled out because he suspected Niemann was “probably cheating”.

Carlsen had tweeted a simple announceme­nt of his withdrawal which read:

“I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I’m in big trouble”.

In an interview, Neimann denied having cheated during the Sinquefiel­d Cup.

At the time of Carlsen’s unexpected withdrawal from the tournament, the chief arbiter said that nothing indicated unfair play on the part of any player. He added that the organisers had increased metal detection on the players and introduced a 15-minute broadcast delay for the following rounds.

Former world champion Garry Kasparov remarked that Carlsen’s withdrawal from the tournament had no precedent in the past 50 years and called on the world champion to explain his decision.

Later, when asked directly why he had withdrawn, Carlsen responded: “Unfortunat­ely, I cannot particular­ly speak on that, but people can draw their own conclusion­s, and they certainly have. I have to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play and I think his mentor Maxim Dlugy must be doing a great job.”

Meanwhile, Niemann is a self-taught chess player who received the FIDE grandmaste­r title a year and nine months ago. He rose from an ELO rating of 2450 to an extraordin­ary figure of 2650 in just over three years. In July 2021, Niemann won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelph­ia. In this year’s Sinquefiel­d Cup, Niemann placed 6th following the withdrawal of Carlsen. He drew with Firouzja, the winner of the tournament. Nieman’s FIDE rating now stands at 2688 points.

 ?? (Photo: Crystal Fuller) ?? World champion Magnus Carlsen
(Photo: Crystal Fuller) World champion Magnus Carlsen
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 ?? ?? Hans Niemann (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Hans Niemann (Photo: Lennart Ootes)

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