Magnus Carlsen issues statement on chess cheating saga

The gaming and Twitch drama seemed to have died down for a bit, but the dial is starting to turn in the other direction again with the revival of the chess cheating scandal.

For those who aren’t aware, it all started when streamer and chess GM Hans Niemann beat the best in the world, Magnus Carlsen, in a match. Later, Carlsen made some cryptic statements that suggested that Niemann may have been cheating.

A whole lot of speculation followed, which was fueled by Magnus Carlsen’s resignation from another match with Niemann after only one moves.

In an interview with Chess24 on Twitch, Magnus announced that he’d be making a statement on cheating in chess, and he did just that with a new statement on Twitter.

Unfortunately, Magnus Carlsen’s Twitter statement didn’t tell us much that we didn’t already know.

Carlsen admitted that he got the impression that Niemann was cheating after beating him in the Sinquefield Cup. “I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do,” Carlsen wrote on Twitter.

He went on to confirm that he has suspicions that Niemann has cheated “more and more recently” than he has admitted.

The thing is, this statement does nothing to clear up the allegations. As Carlsen said in his statement, he spoke with his actions. Carlsen’s idea that Niemann is cheating has been clear, but we still have no evidence apart from one player’s gut feeling.

Strangely, Magnus Carlsen said that he needed “explicit permission from Niemann to speak openly.” It’s hard to tell why that might be. Does Carlsen have the smoking anal beads that memes say Niemann was using? If he does, then why doesn’t he reveal them to the world.

This won’t be the last that we hear of the chess cheating drama – as this statement does little to clarify things. Magnus thinks Hans is cheating. We already knew that.

I guess we can only wait to see what happens next.