The Carlsen – Niemann conflict is more recent than everyone thinks?
After Hans Niemann defeated the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, Carlsen decided to withdraw from the tournament without detailed explanations. Rumors that Magnus Carlsen suspected Niemann was cheating started spreading over social media and the controversy over the Niemann – Carlsen case is not stopping. While Niemann spoke on the case on several occasions and confessed he cheated in online games, the World Chess Champion did not have any public announcement since then. Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann met again yesterday at the Julius Baer Generation Cup, when Carlsen kind of confirmed he is suspicious about Niemann’s fair play – he resigned the game in the second move and went offline.
However, it looks that Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen had a good relationship just 5 weeks ago. Anish Giri tweeted their photo from Miami where Niemann and Carlsen casually play chess on the beach. The photo was taken during the FTX Crypto Cup 2022 where Magnus convincingly clinched first place, while Niemann finished on the bottom of the table with 0 points from the matches (See the final rankings here). What has happened between August 12th when the photo was taken and September 5th when Carlsen decided to withdraw from the Sinquefield Cup 2022 and tweeted that he would be in a problem if he speaks? Is the Carlsen-Niemann conflict more recent than everyone thinks?
See the timetable of happenings related to the Carlsen – Niemann conflict below the tweets.
The timetable of happenings related to the Carlsen – Niemann conflict: