The US GM is being wanded (body checking with an electronic device) by a security officer as he analyses his draw with Maxime Vachier Lagrave after their game in the Sinquefield Cup. It's a telling visual. The 19-year-old is at the heart of the swirling drama in chess right now. Much of it has to do with some of the sport's most powerful stakeholders implying that Niemann used unfair means to achieve his results.
It unravelled after Niemann upset Magnus Carlsen in the third round. A rare recent classical loss for the Norwegian world champion with White against a player rated below 2700. Niemann had beaten Carlsen for the second time in a month. Soon after, Carlsen quit the tournament with a cryptic yet provocative tweet. GM Hikaru Nakamura cranked up the insinuations before his subscriber legions and chess.com removed Niemann's account from their platform and uninvited him from their Global Chess Championship.
Over the weekend, Grand Chess Tour's chief arbiter Chris Bird put out a statement that they have "no indication that any player has been playing unfairly". This after they had put in place additional anti-cheating measures following Round 3, including the scanning of players and a 15-minute delayed broadcast of games.
FIDE director general Emil Sutovsky says the world body isn't wading into the issue just yet.
This story is from the September 14, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.
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This story is from the September 14, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.
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