Magnus Carlsen has broken his silence following the shocking moment he resigned from a highly anticipated chess match against American grandmaster Hans Niemann after just one move.
On Monday, Norwegian player Carlsen, 31, was playing a preliminary virtual match against Niemann, 19, who had unexpectedly — and somewhat controversially — beat him earlier this month. That win spurred cheating allegations and bizarre theories on how Niemann bested Carlsen.
“Unfortunately I cannot particularly speak on that but people can draw their own conclusion and they certainly have,” Carlsen said, via Chess24.com. “I have to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play and I think his mentor GM Maxim Dlugy must be doing a great job.”
Dlugy has been banned from Chess.com after allegedly cheating back in 2017.
Carlsen — who has not directly accused Niemann of cheating — and Niemann were playing in the Julius Baer Generation Cup using Chess24 platform and Microsoft Teams, when Carlsen unceremoniously switched off his webcam and quit the game.
The world No. 1 withdrew for the first time in his career during the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis a few weeks ago after losing to Niemann — who was the lowest ranked in the competition — in a third round defeat.
Announcers Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev were taken by surprise at the withdrawal, with Sachdev saying it was an “unprecedented” move and that Carlsen was “making a very big statement.”
Carlson’s withdrawal shocked chess fans worldwide, and there was speculation that Neimann cheated.
Elon Musk popularized the theory about how Neimann could have cheated, retweeting a post that read: “Currently obsessed with the notion that Hans Niemann has been cheating at the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament using wireless anal beads that vibrate him the correct moves.”
Niemann later admitted in an interview to cheating in online chess in the past, but adamantly denied ever cheating in over-the-board chess, which is a match played in person.