Hans Niemann, the 19-year old chess grandmaster, sued world champion Magnus Carlsen, popular online chess platform Chess.com, among others, for $100 million in damages.
The chess cheating scandal brewing since September just reignited. Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old chess grandmaster, sued world champion Magnus Carlsen, and others, for $100 million in damages.
The defamation lawsuit claims that Chess.com, a popular online platform where players compete in tournaments, colluded with Carlsen and Play Magnus to ban Niemann from the website and future events to “lend credence to Carlsen’s unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations of cheating.” (In August, Play Magnus, Carlsen’s popular chess app, accepted an acquisition offer by Chess.com for $83 million. The suit says this will merge will “monopolize the chess world.”) It also claims that Hikaru Nakamura, Chess.com’s popular streaming partner, colluded with Carlsen and Chess.com through “video content” that bolstered cheating allegations. The suit also alleges that Danny Rensch, chief chess officer of Chess.com, issued “defamatory press releases.”
These actions “destroyed Niemann’s remarkable career in its prime and ruined his life,” the federal suit says. “Chess is Niemann’s life.”
“My lawsuit speaks for itself,” Niemann tweeted on Thursday.
My lawsuit speaks for itself https://t.co/rOfUxiNYCH
Polygon reached out via email to Magnus Carlsen’s manager, as well as the chief executive officer of Play Magnus Group of Companies, and Hikaru Nakamura’s WME agents, but has not yet received a response.
Chess.com’s lawyers Nima Mohebbi and Jamie Wine of Latham & Watkins, LLP provided an email statement to Polygon:
We are saddened by Hans Niemann’s decision to take legal action against Chess.
