A toy that shakes the chess world. International chess grandmaster Hans Niemann has refuted having used a sex toy in order to cheat during an official match in the United States in September 2022, reports the BBC.
Questioned Monday evening by British journalist Piers Morgan, he again denied having used any object to cheat. “I can tell you no. Categorically, of course not,” he replied, suspected of having used an anal sex toy during several games.
The 20-year-old man was accused by his Norwegian rival Magnus Carlsen on the sidelines of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Missouri, after winning on September 4, 2022. A disciplinary investigation was opened by the international federation of chess.
Numerous accusations against Hans Niemann
This first speech against the American player triggered a wave of reactions within the world of chess. The online platform Chess.com also took the man to court, after establishing that he had cheated in “more than 100 online games”. A 72-page report detailed the cases identified, spanning between July 2015 and August 2020, according to The Guardian.
Hans Niemann admitted to cheating twice, when he was 12 and 16 years old, but flatly denied ever cheating in an in-person match. The American responded by taking legal action against Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com and Hikaru Nakamura, another international chess grandmaster, asking them for 100 million dollars, or a little more than 93 million euros.
Their allegations had “nipped his remarkable career in the bud and ruined his life,” his lawyers wrote in the complaint. Hans Niemann had been excluded from numerous competitions and could “no longer get a job as a chess teacher in serious schools”, they assured. He was dismissed in June by the American courts.
At the end of August, all parties involved in the proceedings announced that they had made the decision to move forward mutually and Hans Niemann was allowed to compete again on the online platform.
