In the round 5 post-game interview of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, Hans Niemann passionately responded to the speculations made about him following Carlsen’s withdrawal from the tournament. He added that he will not let chesscom, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura slander his reputation.
Niemann’s emotional confession: I cheated in random games on chess.com and this was the biggest mistake in my life / See reactions to Niemann’s interview here
Hikaru Nakamura spoke about Carlsen’s withdrawal in his live stream and confirmed that Niemann has done “unallowed things” at the tournaments: “Magnus would never do this in a million years….if he really didn’t strongly believe it. I think he thinks that Hans is cheating. Straight out. (…) I’ll just say that he (Hans Niemann) has done some things that are not allowed in tournaments. Let’s leave it at that“. After confessing cheating in random chesscom games, Niemann was looking for Nakamura’s reaction: “I’d like to see what Nakamura has to say now“.
Yesterday was a resting day at the Sinquefield Cup 2022, which players used for a game of tennis. However, Hans in the evening broke the silence: “The silence of my critics clearly speaks for itself. If there was any real evidence, why not show it? Nakamura has continued to completely ignore my interview and is trying to sweep everything under the rug. Is anyone going to take accountability for the damage they’ve done?“, tweeted Niemann. He then added: “Hikaru plays the victim but seems to forget dedicating hours of his stream to criticize all of my interviews. with frivolous insinuations. Perhaps he deserves some blame and should take accountability for what he said. At least he has 42% more subs now“.
The story so far: Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup 2022 without detailed explanations. Possible reasons of Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal can be found here. Sinquefield Cup’s players and organizers reacted to Carlsen’s decision with Fabiano Caruana tweeting that he can’t wait to see the Hans effect on The Magnus Effect. Hans Niemann was shocked by Carlsen’s withdrawal and explained that he couldn’t even focus on his fourth round game against Firouzja. In the R4 post-game interview, Hans added: At least I got to beat Magnus Carlsen before he left. Sinquefield Cup improved anti-cheating measures and Carlsen’s results got annulled. Niemann decided to tell his truth after the 5th round. He confessed cheating in random chesscom games.
